p kay (4 Ergebnisse)

Zustand: New. In.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - Young children love repetition - and laughter.

Hardcover. Zustand: Near Fine. 1st Edition. 8vo., [iv (half-title & title)], xx, 258pp., [2 (advertisement and errata)]; light contemporary stain to top outer corners of last few leaves of index, bound in near contemporary half calf, gilt decorated spine in compartments with contrasting morocco title label. A generally VG+ clean tightly bound copy of this important, early work on bee-keeping. British Bee Books 151; Cox III, p. 535; ESTC T131963. Bonner was the son of James Bonner the elder, an enthusiastic and successful bee-keeper, who, his son recalled, 'frequently boasted, that, in good seasons, he made as much money by his bees, as nearly purchased oat-meal sufficient to serve his numerous family for the whole year. James Bonner the younger was Bee-Master at Auchencrow, near Berwick-on-Tweed, and is described by British Bee Books as 'the most able and the best known of Scottish bee-men'. A New Plan was founded upon Bonner's earlier work The Bee-Master's Companion, and Assistant (Berwick: 1789). Straightforward and easy to follow, it is an expansion of his earlier publication The Bee-master s Companion and Assistant (Berwick, 1789) and is notable for being the very first book to address the specific problem of keeping bees in Scotland. His observations on the unpredictability of Scotland s climate are as valid today as they were 226 years ago. Bonner s intended readership was the landed gentry, and his goal was to show how increases in beekeeping, and therefore honey production, could be a source of national prosperity. Some of his observations on bee behaviour reflect understandings of the bee life cycle at the time. For example, he accepts that the drones are males but is perplexed as to their purpose in the hive as he observes the queen laying eggs with no apparent interaction with them. The book is also of interest in the context of climate change and our understanding of how bees contribute to a working ecosystem. Bonner concludes by advocating the benefits of beekeeping to one s emotional wellbeing: "I am quite certain, and some others have often told me that the melodious humming of bees, when busy at work, or sporting in the air for their own amusement will have such an effect that, however chagrined or ruffled the temper of a person might be, before he takes a walk among his bees, he generally does not withdraw till the mind enjoys a perfect calm and inward tranquillity.".

Zustand: Very good plus. First editions of two volumes of the Edinburgh detective's tales of Victorian crime and punishment. Collected tales of crime by Edinburgh's legendary first police detective, famous for his high rate of captures and convictions over an illustrious 30-year career before turning his hand to these memoir-adventures. Vigorous, brisk, allegedly true, full of colorful dialogue and moralizing asides, McLevy's literary work was extraordinarily popular, and the author's personal celebrity persists to the present day, continuing to inspire heroizing adaptations of his life and work (most recently, the long-running BBC radio series "McLevy"). The direct inspiration for contemporary imitators like William Crawford Honeyman, who took McLevy as model for his fictional Detective McGovan in the 1870s, McLevy is also cited as a likely influence on Arthur Conan Doyle, born in Edinburgh shortly before the publication of these volumes. As author-protagonist, McLevy shares with Sherlock Holmes a certain relentlessness and confidence, though the essential differences between the two point to the powerful tensions still animating the detective novel. As an agent of the law, with all the authority of the police force behind him, McLevy is both groundbreaking pioneer and conservative force: the first to hold his office in Edinburgh, inventing his profession as he goes, while simultaneously acting as the eye and the arm of the Establishment. Against this righteous folk hero, the figure of Holmes would later appear as an ambiguous counterpoint: a private genius free to choose his own clients and his own loyalties. This Edinburgh imprint went through at least four editions in 1861. All are scarce, but the first especially so. A beautiful and rare set of these collections: influential, authoritative, and still compelling. 2 volumes, 6.25'' x 4'' each. Two volumes, bound in 19th c. half calf over pebbled red cloth. Gilt-lettered spines. Pale green endpapers. 312; 304 pages. Moderate scuffing and wear to boards, some rubbing to spines. Light to moderate foxing to leaves of both volumes, primarily to endpapers. Light pencil lining to a few pages of SLIDING SCALE, with brief pencil notes to rear endpaper.