Central Kansas Library System

Karl Kirchwey is professor of the arts and director of the Creative Writing Program at Bryn Mawr College, and, from 2010-2013, the Andrew Heiskell Arts Director at the American Academy in Rome. For many years he was director of the 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center in New York City. His six books of poetry include The Happiness of This World and Mount Lebanon. The first complete English edition of Verlaine's important first book of poems Poems...

With an Introduction by Ellen Rees, Centre for Ibsen Studies, University of Oslo. The plays of Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) are critically acclaimed throughout the world. The father of modern drama, Ibsen broke with theatrical conventions and created a more realistic form of drama that used the stage as a forum for debating social problems, notably the rights of the individual, and the damaging effects of orthodoxy. This collection...

What makes an artist? What forces and inklings drive a young man or woman to make their own journey, and where does it begin? In imaginary childhood games? In chance encounters? At the sensitive core of the human heart?To answer these and other questions, award-winning author Rory MacLean met more than one hundred working German artists. He traced how childhood obsessions or a spark of inspiration developed in the imagination. He walked beside a platinum...

Paul Klee's philosophy of art is perhaps best summed up by his own statement: "A drawing is simply a line going for a walk." As one of the great avant garde artists of the 20th century, Swiss-born Klee was swept along with the changing moods and philosophies of the time. Klee did not readily fit into a particular artistic category. He used many styles and techniques, always exploring the different variations that each media opened up to him. An important...

A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year 2020. With The Barbarians Arrive Today, Evan Jones has produced the classic English Cavafy for our age. Expertly translated from Modern Greek, this edition presents Cavafy's finest poems, short creative prose and autobiographical writings, offering unique insights into his life's work. Born in Alexandria, Egypt, Constantine Petrou Cavafy (1863-1933) was a minor civil servant who self-published and distributed...

This is a dramatic reconstruction about the politics of survival in the French revolution. It was a conflict that threatened to devour its own children. The clash came about against the background of implementing the Rights of Man and the Citizen when the struggle to formulate the destiny of the French people, Europe and the rest of the world became a matter of intellectual debate and urgent action. This could only be achieved through a battle of...

Albrecht Dürer, who lived from 1471 to 1528, worked during the time of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. Typical of his era, religion was the subject of most of his creative work. We know more about Dürer than many artists of his day, thanks to his proclivity with the pen as well as with his paintbrush. He was also widely known across Europe during his lifetime because much of his work was disseminated by printing. Dürer left a considerable...

Very early in life, at the age of 14, the author entered the seminary to study for the priesthood. Thus an adventure began that profoundly transformed his life. However, it was only after many years that a full awareness of this experience was realized, and its impact led to the writing of this poetry. The author describes a revealing, passionate spiritual development as he learned about divine things, accepted them and strived to advance in stages...

Charles Desnoyer (1806-1858) and Léon Beauvallet (1828-1885) were French playwrights of the mid-nineteenth century. THE KING OF ROME focuses on the Emperor Napoleon's only son, the Duke of Reichstadt, who was held a captive by his maternal grandfather, the Emperor of Austria. Fearing that he would emulate his father or be used by a Napoleonic conspiracy to capture the French throne, the Duke was kept in ignorance of his father's identity, as well...

Every academic will recognise the plight of Bob Morgan, a young lecturer at a UK polytechnic in the early 1980s. The work is rewarding, but there are stresses in his job, the hours are long and his Head of Department is incompetent and possibly dishonest. Christine, his closest friend, contributes to his difficulties, and he also longs to be ignored by an elderly neighbour, his mother, a former girl-friend, one of his students, and a police sergeant...