Bloom Left Hand

HOOLA VAN NOOTEN, After Berthe (fl. 1863-1885): Citrus Sarcodactylis [Fingered Citron or Buddha's Hand]

Brussels: C. Muquardt, [circa 1863-1885]. Chromolithograph, by P.Depannemaeker. Very good condition apart from some overall light soiling. 21 3/4 x 15 5/8 inches. A fine example of the spectacular botanical work by Berthe Van Nooten, from 'Fleurs, Fruits et Feuillages Choisis de l'Ile de Java'. Particularly cherished by the Chinese, the Fingered Citron originated in East India and can commonly be found in tropical countries. Its exotic, uniquely shaped fruit, which resembles an extended hand with tapering figures when in bloom, is inedible and primarily valued for its aromatic properties. Hoola Van Nooten had accompanied her husband to Jakarta (Batavia), capital of Java, where he died. She was left with debts to pay and a family to support. With great ingenuity, she managed to get a selection of her paintings chromolithographed and published under the title Fleurs, Fruits et Feuillages Choisis de l'Ile de Java Peints D'Apres Nature, the first edition of which appeared in 1863-4. "Van Nooten was clearly more than competent, for the splendid tropical plants have been depicted with great skill. She managed to accentuate the splendour of each species by adopting a style that combined great precision and clarity with a touch of neo-Baroque exuberance, revelling in the rich forms and colours of the tropics." (L. Tongiorgi Tomasi An Oak Spring Flora p.330) Cf. Nissen BBI 931; cf. Stafleu & Cowan TL2 3025; cf. L. Tongiorgi Tomasi An Oak Spring Flora 87.

[SW: Botanical 12559.jpg]

Details

Bloom, Amy. COME TO ME. Stories. [New York, NY]: HarperCollinsPublishers (Aaron Asher Books), 1993
8vo - over 7¾" - 9" tall 0-06-018236-9 Signed by Author Fourth printing. 8vo (5 3/4" x 8 1/2"). 177 pages. Two-tone boards. Brown paper-covered spine, gilt spine lettering, beige paper-covered boards, Harper torch logo blindstamped at lower right-hand corner of front board (hardcover binding). CONDITION: 3" closed tear at lower left-hand corner of rear panel of dust jacket (along flap fold), else Near Fine book in Near Fine dust jacket. Signed by the author on the half-title page (simple signature). "Nominated for a National Book Award, this fresh and stunning collection of stories takes the reader deep into the heart of the most alarming and joyful human relationships.".

Hard Cover with Dust Jacket,

[SW: FICTION SHORT STORIES SINGLE AUTHOR,]

Details

Galeano, Eduardo [translated by Mark Fried; with Engravings By Jose Guadalupe Posada]: Upside Down - A Primer for the Looking-Glass World, NY Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt and Company, LLC 2000
ISBN: 0-8050-6375-7 Fine in Fine Dust Jacket Dust Jacket Design By Raquel Jaramillo; Dust Jacket Illustration By Jose Guadalupe Posada; Book Design By Kelly S. Too; Interior Engravings By Jose Guadalupe Posada

x, 358pp. Black faux quarter-cloth, dark red paper boards, gilt spine lettering, blindstamped front cover design, cream endpapers. Dust jacket price 24.00. SIGNED BY AUTHOR to half-title page. 'Eduardo Hughes Galeano (born September 3, 1940) is an Uruguayan journalist whose books have been translated into many languages. His works transcend orthodox genres, combining documentary, fiction, journalism, political analysis, and history. The author himself has denied that he is a historian: "I'm a writer obsessed with remembering, with remembering the past of America above all and above all that of Latin America, intimate land condemned to amnesia." Galeano was born in Montevideo. He started his career as a journalist in the early 1960s as editor of Marcha, an influential weekly journal which had such contributors as Mario Vargas Llosa, Mario Benedetti, Manuel Maldonado Denis and Roberto Fernandez Retamar. For two years he edited the daily Epoca and worked as editor-in-chief of the University Press. In 1973, a military coup took power in Uruguay; Galeano was imprisoned and later was forced to flee. He settled in Argentina where he founded the cultural magazine, Crisis. In 1976, when the Videla regime took power in Argentina in a bloody military coup, his name was added to the lists of those condemned by the death squads, and he fled again; this time to Spain, where he wrote his famous trilogy: 'Memoria del fuego' (Memory of Fire ). At the beginning of 1985 Galeano returned to Montevideo, where he continues to live. 'Las venas abiertas de America Latina'(The Open Veins of Latin America) is arguably Galeano's best-known work, a powerful indictment of the exploitation of Latin America by foreign powers from the 15th century onwards. It was the first of his many books to be translated by Cedric Belfrage into English that matches the brilliance of the original. It is a classic among students of Latin America. 'Memoria del fuego' (Memory of Fire) is a three-volume narrative of the history of America, North and South. The characters are historical figures; generals, artists, revolutionaries, workers, conquerors and the conquered, who are portrayed in brief episodes which reflect the colonial history of the continent. It starts with pre-Columbian creation myths and ends in the 1980s. It highlights not only the colonial oppression that the continent underwent but particularly the long history of resistance, from individual acts of heroism to mass revolutionary movements. 'Memoria del fuego' was widely praised by reviewers. Galeano was compared to John Dos Passos and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Ronald Wright wrote in the Times Literary Supplement: "Great writers... dissolve old genres and found new ones. This trilogy by one of South America's most daring and accomplished authors is impossible to classify." In New York Times Book Review Jay Parini praised as perhaps his most daring work 'The Book of Embraces', a collection of short, often lyrical stories presenting Galeano's views on emotion, art, politics, and values, as well as offering a scathing critique of modern capitalistic society and views on an ideal society and mindset. ('The Book of Embraces' was the last book Cedric Belfrage translated before he died in 1991.) Galeano is also an avid football fan; 'Soccer in Sun and Shadow'(1995) is a review of the history of the game. Galeano compares it with a theater performance and with war; he criticizes its unholy alliance with global corporations but attacks leftist intellectuals who reject the game and its attraction to the broad masses for ideological reasons.' - wikipedia. " One of Latin America's most honored historians and authors, Galeano returns with more barbed and bewitching accounts of the contradictions of the First World, as filtered through the enlightened sensibilities of a Third World scholar-writer from Uruguay. He chastises the moneyed First World, which he terms the "upside down world," as a culture gone amok that "scorns honesty, punishes work, and prizes the lack of scruples." In a series of wickedly on-target parables, lessons and homilies that force the reader to question the state of the world as we know it, Galeano slams industrialized nations for turning their backs on critical issues of our time, including poverty, child abuse, patriarchal arrogance and political deception. In "Practicum: How to Make Friends and Succeed in Life," he examines the nature of power, be it cultural, political and religious, revealing how in each area power is maintained through secrecy, money and terror. Humor, sarcasm and careful research inform his short tales of greed and tyranny in full bloom in "Master Class on Impunity," which displays the author at his witty, sardonic best. Concluding his primer with the most potent of his lessons, "The End of the Millennium as Promise and Betrayal," he delivers his hardest blows with stream-of-consciousness truths that match the best work of Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce and Thomas Merton: "What has the world left us? A desolate, de-souled world, that practices the superstitious worship of machines and the idolatry of arms, an upside-down world with its left on its right, its belly button on its backside, and its head where its feet used to be." This is arguably Galeano's most spirited and eloquent examination of our topsy-turvy modern world - a ticking literary hand grenade waiting to detonate in the mind of the reader." - Publishers Weekly. Book and dust jacket appear in as new, unread condition. No remainder markings. Signed by Author First Edition Fine Hard Cover 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall

[SW: DEVELOPING COUNTRIES SOCIAL CONDITIONS ECONOMIC]

Details

Harrison, Richmond E. A Handbook of Bulbs and Perennials for the Southern Hemisphere, Palmerston North, New Zealand R. E. Harrison & Company Ltd 1971
Good Photographic

900 g; 284 pages, last two pages blank. Colour illustrated dust jacket has a 1.0 inch tear at the bottom left-hand corner of the rear panel, and a 4.0 inch tear at the top right of the same panel, some fading of the spine section of the jacket. The book shows no damage. Black-and-white frontispiece, text is profusely illustrated with black-and-white photographs, 18 pages of colour plates; the occasional line drawing. This book is unique in its detail provision of: a descriptive, fully comprehensive list of all species, important varieties and hybrids of bulbs and perennials grown in the southern hemisphere. Full notes, for each plant, on cultivation and propagation, with ultimate heights and dimensions. Preferred situations, including sun or shade, moist or dry conditions, the soil type and drainage, for every plant as required. Generous coverage, including many natural colour plates, or illustrations for identification and garden guidance. Practical advice to the commercial grower of the more important bulbs and cut flowers. A guide to the months of the year when flowers named will begin to bloom. -- front fold over blurb Third Edition Revised and Reprinted Good Hardcover Quarto -- up to 12 " Tall Gardening

[SW: gardening, bulbs, perennials,]

Details