Cottages by the Sea, The Handmade Homes of Carmel, America's First Artist Community

Book Description

Carmel, California, has always been a community of artists, writers, and freethinkers. During the early part of its rich history, the area was home to Robinson Jeffers, Mary Austin, Ansel Adams, Charles Greene, Jack London, George Sterling, Upton Sinclair, and Henry Miller, among other great artists of the twentieth century. During the late 1980s, actor Clint Eastwood, a longtime resident, served as mayor.

While much about Carmel has changed since the days when Robinson Jeffers could be seen strolling the beach, the area remains one of America's most beautiful. It is also home to many of America's most charming but rarely seen cottages. In Carmel's residential district-- a very private, heavily wooded area surrounding the shops and tourist attractions of the town's often busy main street-- there are no sidewalks or streetlights. The U.S. Postal Service does not offer mail delivery. Homes have no addresses; they are simply known by name. Here, it is not uncommon for tourists, so intrigued by the uniqueness of the local architecture, to climb the fences of private homes in order to get a closer look or snapshot of the house on the other side. Now, for the first time, 34 of these homes can be seen more advantageously, in more than 270 specially commissioned and archival exterior and interior photographs.

Customer Reviews:

A Bouquet.......2003-06-01

I keep this book nearby, like a bouquet, to look at from time to time for the simple pleasure of it. The pages convey not only the
architecture of a period and place, but the personality of an era.
This is a companion book; to be cherished forever.

Memories of my hometown.......2002-05-26

I'm not sure how attractive this book would be to the general public. For me, it reveals the stories behind many of the houses I grew up with. As a Carmel native, I enjoyed learning the stories and histories of many of our local homes. The photographs are nicely done, and the text tells the information in an interesting presentation. I do wish that a local map had been included, to help pinpoint the location of some of these homes.

Best Book Available on Carmel Cottages.......2001-08-21

I am an architect. I live near Carmel and have a special fascination for these houses. Applause to the author. There are lots of beautiful photographs and the history is facinating. I would always like to see more diagrams, interesting details and floor plans, especially for the house called "Hansel". However, this is an excellent book, the best one available on the subject.

Utterly lovey!.......2001-06-08

I opened this book as one would a box of expensive hand-crafted Belgian chocolates and savored each page. The photos are luscious, the text tart and logical. Interior and exterior views of cottages and Jeffer's stone tower remind one of European villages.

Sarah Susanka's "Not So Big House" and "Creating the Not So Big House" are both good, yes, but nothing in them sets off the same resonate sensation as seeing "Cottages by the Sea." This is what real homes can be: shelters for the mind, body and spirit, places of rest, security and inspiration.

I'd write more, but excuse me---I'm booking a trip to Carmel.

Cottages by the Sea.......2001-06-01

The book was purchased for my wife, Emalie, for Mother's Day, so she is writing the reveiw.

The book, at first glance, was exciting for the photos of the homes in the Carmel area. Since our daughter and son-in-law live on Carmel Heights with a view of Point Lobos, we have become familiar with the Carmel setting. Reading the histories of homes we had seen on our jaunts through Carmel was educational and entertaining. Some of the homes have been redone, but the building and remodeling codes in Carmel are very strict, so we were interested in seeing what could be done and how remodeling changed the setting. I will value the book for the sentiment with which it was given, the content, and our connection with the area.

Book Description

What is a pyxis? Who was the Amasis Painter? How did Greek vases get their distinctive black and orange colors? This richly illustrated book--the latest in the popular Looking At series--offers definitions and descriptions of these and many other Greek vase shapes, painters, and techniques
encountered in museum exhibitions and publications on ancient Greek ceramics. Included is an essay on how to look at Greek vases and another on the conservation of ancient ceramics. These essays provide succinct explanations of the terms most frequently encountered by museum-goers. The concise
definitions are divided into two sections, one on potters and painters and another on vase shapes and technical terms relating to the construction and decoration of the vases. Featuring numerous color illustrations of Greek vases, many from the Getty Museum's collection, Understanding Greek Vases is
an indispensable guide for anyone wishing to obtain a greater understanding and enjoyment of Greek ceramics.

Customer Reviews:

compact and informative.......2004-12-16

The book begins with a quick general overview on Greek ceramics - its history, techniques, trajectory in themes, artists, mythological characters, Greek culture/society that finds itself within the art, etc - that provides the reader with a pretty good base for the number of pages it takes up. There is then a short section on the 'conservation and care of ancient Greek ceramic objects' that explains some more technical things.

After that comes the large section on Greek potters and vase painters, listed in alphabetical order and accompanied by colorful and informative images of the relevant vases. The artist's period, name, style and whatnot are explained in detail. Definitions for unfamiliar terms used in this section can be found in the next part of the book, which explains vase shapes and technical terms in normal English (also with nice images). Thus through the cross-referencing, most of the book's content can be understood without much trouble. At the end is a chart of vase shapes, which is useful because you can compare them without having to flip a single page.

This book is excellent for purposes of quick reference. I would say that most people would not read it like they would a novel, but if you have any interest in Greek vase paintings, this is an excellent book to have.

Understanding Greek Vases.......2004-08-02

Understanding Greek Vases, published by the Getty Museum, is a compact reference guide that provides the essential background (painters, styles, terminology) needed to study and appreciate ancient Greek vases.

The major part of the book consists of short (half-page), encyclopedia-style, entries for Athenian potters, vase-painters, ceramic styles, and other essential terminology. Coverage, although limited to Athenian pottery, is broad and expert, ranging from "bilingual vases" to "Six's technique." Entries are generously illustrated, mostly in color, by important examples (including many "name vases") from museum collections in the U.S. and abroad.

What really sets this book apart is that the individual entries are so extensively cross-referenced, that they look and feel more like a hypertext-linked web site than a conventional book. For example, if you look up the entry for the "Brygos Painter," you'll get cross-references in the text to three other Cup-painters, to Cup-painting itself, to the Pioneers, to Workshops, to Attribution, to Kylix, and to seven illustrations.

This is an amazingly effective reference, one that I will use often at home, and take with me whenever I go to look at Greek vases in a museum. Tip: don't plan to read it cover-to-cover like an ordinary book. Begin with some topic that interests you, and follow the cross-references as you would with a Web page.

Amazon.com

Quinta Scott and Susan Croce Kelly pay homage to Route 66, the "great diagonal highway," in images and words that sharply evoke the past and flesh out the legend the highway has become. The two-lane blacktop--traveled in John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, Bobby Troup's ever-popular postwar jazz tune, and a filmed-on-location television series of the '60s--is recalled in duotones of motels, cafes, gas stations, and trading posts, along with many of their owners. Interviews with the proprietors and the travelers they served, along with people like sign painter Jack Fuss and cave promoter Lyman Riley, provide much of the color.

Customer Reviews:

The Best Book on Route 66 in Print.......2004-07-29

All too many Route 66 books focus on the Kitsch and the primary colors one could see on the Road, and are written in a jokey, 'weren't people in the old days a hoot' style that wears thin in a few pages.

This book by contrast, takes a more serious look at the Mother Road. The photos are by turns otherworldy and 'down home' and the writing is crisp, factual and engaging. I found out more than I ever expected about the Road, its rise and fall, and the people on the road and in the towns along its path.

It's reminiscent in many ways of some of Studs Turkel's oral histories, as the people 'of and on' the road tell their stories in first person, but here you also have the advantage of the journalistic and historical perspective the writer offers, and the undeniable impact of the photos, which tell stories that mere words cannot.

---------

Some quotes from press reviews of the book include:

Wall Street Journal
'...while the new interstates are faster and safer, it is impossible not to miss old Route 66. Fortunately, the words and pictures of this delightful book preserve the memories of a road that ran through everyone's life.'

Library Journal
'Route 66-the late, lamented American Main Street that ran from Chicago to the Pacific-is here given life once again. Those who served its travelers for nearly 50 years (selling Indian artifacts, 'hamburgs,' and chunks of petrified wood, or renting rooms, patching tires, and digging the wounded out of head-on collisions) offer memories both enthusiastic and touching. . .
An enjoyable and rewarding book on a uniquely important road that turned the heat up on the American melting pot.'

Arizona Highways
'Susan Croce Kelly and Quinta Scott spent seven years traveling the route from end to end, interviewing and photographing the people and structures that gave old 66 its flavor. The text is carefully researched and well written, and the 93 photographs (appropriately, black and white) provide convincing images of ordinary people and places lacking the glamour of those at either end of the 2,200-mile-long line.'

Booklist
'The evocative photographs and interviews pay tribute to thousands of small businesses and the people who fueled, sheltered, and entertained millions of travelers. This is a fascinating study of individual entrepreneurs and the growth of advertising, as well as a paean to a vanished way of life.'

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I recommend this book to anyone interested in histories of the 20th century, the impact of the automobile in American life, and to anyone who appreciates fine photography.

About the people on 66.......2000-04-23

I really enjoyed this book as it was one of my fisrt to purchase about Route 66. This book didn't cover only the road but also took you from town to town and introduced you to the People. Great photography added to the experience. This is one book I read over and over.

Photograpic view of the social life along old 66.......2000-03-31

This books contains all that is needed to make the reader -or viewer- want to travel the road, even just by looking at the pictures. It isn't called a photographic essay for nothing. The text is more social oriented and is probably one way to look at the 20th century and its cultural heritage along Historic Route 66. Those readers going travel old 66 might be a little bit disappointed that it does not give many clues to find the locations easily. This is a book about an icon on its own terms.

A must in your library if you're interested in Route 66.

Average customer rating:
Route 66: the Highway and Its People

Manufacturer: University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000I9NOOW

Book Description

Pretending to be a professor of Vampirism, Harlan Draka investigates the mysterious and brutal deaths of several female college students. Certain that the killer is a Master of the Night, Harlan must figure out exactly who he is before the monster finds the Spell Book from the Darkness, an ancient book of magic that grants power beyond imagination. But when the bloody bodies start piling up, Harlan realizes he may be too late.

Book Description

For almost half a century H.G. Wells was an international literary phenomenon; the only writer of his time who could command an audience with both Roosevelt and Stalin.

Unlike any other biographer of Wells, Coren paints a composite portrait of an extremely varied life set against the social and political background of the time. The Invisible Man delves deeply into the paradox that was H.G. Wells: the utopian visionary and staunch advocate of women's suffrage versus the misogynistic womanizer and vicious anti-Semite. This book exposes for the first time his disturbing views on "the Jewish problem," views that he defended vehemently even through the 1930s.

Customer Reviews:

absurd.......2004-05-01

The biography here is merely a bait-and-switch scaffolding. Really our putative biographer wants to attack Wells for his supposed "anti-semitism". The evidence presented, such as it is, is culled very selectively, mischaracterized, and hyperbolically flailed at. Wells was not anti-semitic; he was anti-nationalist. Read instead Anthony West's "H. G. Wells: Aspects of a Life" or, better yet, H. G. Wells's "Experiment in Autobiography".

Short and very readable character study.......2003-03-06

First let me say that I am neither a science fiction fan nor a literary expert. Like many children, I read The Time Machine, The Island of Dr. Moreau and the War of the Worlds. Those books became a part of my dreams-and nightmares-for many years. In the intervening decades, I had really almost forgotten about Wells. However,I recently came across a collection of his complete short stories, and this sparked my interest in learning more about him.

This is the first biography of H.G. Wells that I have read, and I must admit I chose it mainly because it was short and compact! I would actually class this book as as more of an essay on Wells the man and his character, than a history of his life. Not that the author ignores biographical data. I knew absolutely nothing about Wells when I opened the book, and now feel that I have learned quite a lot about his life and times.

However, the historical information is mainly presented as a background for the author's argument that Wells has been whitewashed by previous biographers. He begins with the premise that standard biographies of H.G. Wells ignored or downplayed certain negative aspects of his character and thought. According to Coren, Wells was wrongly admired as a working class hero, a scientific visionary, and a utopian dreamer. He states at the beginning that his purpose in writing this book was to set the record straight. His intent is to prove that Wells' works had a "pernicious" influence on society. He also contends that Wells was a man of bad moral character, which was concealed by a public image of genial tolerance.

The author attacks Wells and his previous biographers with two lines of argument. In one, he presents evidence for his assertions of Wells' pernicious influence on British society. Coren contends that Wells was an exponent of xenophobia, religious intolerance, and racism. As he quotes from Wells' own writings, these criticsms seem to be founded in fact. He quotes from works in which Wells predicts a future in which the world has been made safe through a combination of technological progress, and radical eugenics. (Although the author does not make this explicit connection, Wells seemed to be advocating a future totalitarian world society very much like Plato's Republic-except with flying machines and wireless communication.) If true, this certainly seems grounds for criticism.

The second line of attack is on Wells' faults as a friend and husband. The author gives considerable space to the feuds that Wells carried on with other literary figures such as Shaw and Chesterton, and to his spats with members of the Fabian Society. I found this the least interesting part of the book, but that may be because I know so little about the people involved.

Mr. Coren also takes Wells to task for his marital infidelity and irresponsible sexual behavior. Here the argument seems a bit shakey, as Wells and his circle were exponents of free love and sexual revolution. It is hard to see what else could have been expected from someone who held such views.

As I have not yet read the other biographies to which this book refers, I can't comment on the accuracy of his claims, or say whether Mr. Coren proves his point. However, reading this book was worthwhile. Before reading it, I had no idea that Wells had been such an influential man, or that his writings included such a broad range of subjects. I certainly found this book a fast and enjoyable read, and I am now interested in in tackling some of the longer biographies and crititical studies of H.G. Wells.

Average customer rating:
The Invisible Man The Life and Liberties of H.G. Wells
Michael Coren
Manufacturer: Atheneum
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IW5Y7E

Average customer rating:

Damning Evidence: a Darker Side of HG Wells

absurd

THE INVISIBLE MAN, The Life and Liberties of H.G. Wells

Manufacturer: Random House of Canada
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
20th Century | British | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0747511586

Customer Reviews:

Damning Evidence: a Darker Side of HG Wells.......2005-11-12

Absurd is an appropriate title for the previous commentators review, not the book he purports to have read.

While not denying Wells genius as a writer, nor even the fact that he did many worthy things, Coren brings to light damning evidence of a darker side to HG Wells, which casts a pall over everything else he wrote and did. While the noble aspects of Wells character have been well documented, the portions of his writings that Coren brings to light have been deliberately ignored by self-described progressives for too long because Wells said the right things about religion, socialism and other topics dear to their hearts.

Wells was undoubtably an anti-Semite. This is not Coren twisting the facts; there simply is no other way to interpret what Wells said and wrote. For example, in his 1901 political manifesto "Anticipations" Wells stated the Jew has an "incurable tendency to social parasitism." Not a lot of wiggle room there.

Nor did Wells views mellow in response to age, or the holocaust that unfolded at the end of his life. In response to hearing a first-hand account of Nazi concentration camps in 1942, Wells remarked that there is "room for serious research into the question why anti-Semitism emerges in every country the Jews reside in." Wells also described Nazism as "inverted Judaism", and often argued that the Jews were to blame for the persecution they endured. As Wells himself aptly summarized in his autobiography: "I have always refused to be enlightened and sympathetic about the Jewish question."

Nor was Wells misanthropy limited to Jews. It expanded to all persons who did not fit into the totalitarian political model that was his Utopia: probably the larger part of humankind. Wells vision was most closely met, in his lifetime, by Soviet Russia as led by Joseph Stalin, a man Wells deeply admired and defended at length. In response to Stalin's critics who - rightly - accused the Dictator of ruling through terror and of ruthlessly butchering millions of people, Wells claimed that he had "never met a man more candid, fair and honest [than Stalin]... to these qualities it is, and to nothing occult and sinister, that he owes this tremendous undisputed ascendance in Russia."

This at a time when millions of Ukrainians and Russians were perishing and/or cannibalizing their children in a desperate attempt to survive the famine that Stalin had deliberately caused to eliminate them, for their resistance to collectivation. Not that this troubled Wells, because he thought such a strategy entirely appropriate to retrograde groups that impeded the progress of mankind. As he commented in "Anticipations": "And for the rest - those swarms of black and brown and yellow people who do not come into the needs of efficiency? Well, the world is not a charitable institution, and I take it they wil have to go." Of course, in fairness to Wells it should be noted that he vacilated on whether or not such useless people should be immediately killed, or merely sterilized or interred in concentration camps.

Noting that Wells son wrote a more favorable biography is a pretty weak argument agaist statements like these. If "A Reader" knows of a context wherein remarks such as these can be seen as benign, he should explain himself rather than dismissing Coren's work out of hand. Otherwise he should admit - as most objective reviewers have - that Coren has a point, and that a pernicious and at times brutal streak ran through Wells thought: his influence on the 20th Century was not lily white.

absurd.......2004-05-09

The Invisible Man: The Life and Liberties of H.G. Wells

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The Invisible Man: The Life and Liberties of H.G. Wells
Michael Coren
Manufacturer: Atheneum
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0394222520

Book Description

Average customer rating:

Not a Complete Anything

A Land Without Evil: Stopping the Genocide of Burma's Karen People
Benedict Rogers
Manufacturer: Kregel Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Religious | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Missions & Missionary Work | Evangelism | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
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Similar Items:

Suffering in Silence: The Human Rights Nightmare of the Karen People of Burma

From the Land of Green Ghosts: A Burmese Odyssey

Freedom from Fear and Other Writings: Revised Edition

The Iron Road: A Stand for Truth and Democracy in Burma

Letters from Burma

ASIN: 082546059X

Book Description

"[This] searing account of the atrocities in Burma lifts the lid off our ignorance and leaves us without excuse. How we respond will be the measure of our faith and our humanity." --Os Guinness, Senior Fellow, The Trinity Forum

Customer Reviews:

Not a Complete Anything.......2006-05-01

This is not a complete story, not a complete documentary, not a complete analysis, not a complete history, not a complete anything. The author doesn't seem to have a purpose except to write a book about the Karen people. It includes brief excerpts from some of their history; it includes brief descriptions about some of their culture; it includes brief descriptions about some Karen people and some people who work with and for them.

It's not even a summary of history or culture or their situation. It's merely brief snapshots of parts, and like the blindman who merely feels the elephant's trunk, one cannot get a complete grasp on what is the Karen people.

Nevertheless, these snapshots are awesome and tremendously interesting. The author paints the Karen people as a very interesting minority culture in Burma. It leaves the reader with an admiration if not love of these people and a desire to know more but also a desire to visit this land.

So many history books are written by the powerful and tell the story of the powerful. We know about Napolean, Washington, kings and queens. This book tells the story of regular old folks who live, love and unfortunately suffer in a beautiful land.

Average customer rating:

Inspiring story, even if you don't know about Bowles
A must-read for insight into Bowles' other writing.

Without Stopping: An Autobiography
Paul Bowles
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Travel | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0880016752

Customer Reviews:

Inspiring story, even if you don't know about Bowles.......2002-08-17

Reading books like this makes me wonder why I have a day job. Bowles weaves an intricate yet breakneck-speed bio of his life, starting with childhood and racing to his life in Tangiers in the early 70's. The biggest shock to me was the amount of work this guy got done. He was writing ballets, scores, soundtracks, books, poetry, newspapers, pamphlets, and orchestra pieces almost nonstop. Even as a kid, he'd write pages and pages a day, and later, he'd type for hours without stopping, hence the title of the book. His travels are also amazing; in an age with little air travel he zips to France, Morocco, India, Panama, Cuba, the Bahamas, all over the US, and dozens of other places too numerous to count. Plus he's met and had long friendships with scores of famous people: Salvador Dali, Bela Bartok, Aaron Copeland, Gertrude Stein, Arthur C. Clarke, Bill Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Tennessee Williams, and many others. The book is thick and takes time to crawl through, but every time I set it down, I wanted to either start writing a book or a play or take off for a distant region. My only complaint is that sometimes Bowles like to insert a random line of French or Spanish, which annoys me because I know either. And he tends to drop names rapidly, making you wish you had a score card or a flowchart or something. But Bowles is definitely an interesting guy, and his life story is worth reading.

A must-read for insight into Bowles' other writing........1999-01-18

Well worth reading if you're a fan of Bowles. Slow and mysteriously vaporous, like much of his fiction. Full of subtle insights (both intended and unintended) into his mind and his writing.

Without Stopping: An Autobiography (Ecco)

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Without Stopping: An Autobiography (Ecco)
Paul Bowles
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Travel | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0061137413
Release Date: 2006-10-31

Book Description

Paul Bowles, the acclalmed author of The Shelterlng Sky, offers movlng, powerful, subtle, and fasclnatlng lnslghts lnto hls llfe, hls wrltlng, and hls world.

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Without Stopping: An Autobiography
Paul Bowles
Manufacturer: Ecco Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Average customer rating:

Without Stopping: An Autobiography
Paul Bowles
Manufacturer: G.P. Putnam's Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NPR6SG

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