Bücher von JOHN WILLIAMS

AN ANTHOLOGY FROM THE AUTHOR OF STONERPoetry in English as we know it was largely invented in England between the early 1500s and 1630, and yet for many years the poetry of the era was considered little more than a run-up to Shakespeare. The twentieth century brought a reevaluation, and the English Renaissance has since come to be recognized as the period of extraordinary poetic experimentation that it was. Never since have the possibilities of poetic form and, especially, poetic voice—from the sublime to the scandalous and slangy—been so various and inviting. This is poetry that speaks directly across the centuries to the renaissance of poetic exploration in our own time.John Williams’s celebrated anthology includes not only some of the most famous poems by some of the most famous poets of the English language (Sir Thomas Wyatt, John Donne, and of course Shakespeare) but also-—-and this is what makes Williams’s book such a rare and rich resource—the strikingly original work of little-known masters like George Gascoigne and Fulke Greville.

Long before their western counterparts, Chinese astronomers developed remarkably accurate methods for making their measurements, recording detailed observations since ancient times. Of particular interest to John Williams (1797-1874), assistant secretary to the Royal Astronomical Society, were Chinese observations of comets. Noting that previous translations of these records had been incomplete, Williams sought to produce a fuller catalogue. The present work, published in 1871, presents Chinese comet observations between 611 BCE and 1640 CE, using the encyclopaedia of Ma Duanlin and the great historical Shiji as major references. Williams provides useful context in his introductory remarks, mentioning the tests by which the accuracy of the Chinese records can be verified. He also includes chronological tables and a Chinese celestial atlas, enabling comparison between the Chinese and Western systems for dates and stars respectively.

Through developing an original analytical framework that, for the first time, systematically relates productive, market and financial variables, the authors are able to rewrite the history of the car business since Henry Ford.

Based on John Williams' meticulous documentation of his travels, this 1837 volume offers an insight into the perilous life of a missionary in the early nineteenth century. The author, an ironmonger by trade, set sail for the South Sea Islands in 1817 with the intention of spreading the gospel and introducing modern technology to the region. As well as recounting the frequent threats to his safety from angry natives, war, natural disaster and disease, Williams provides detailed surveys of the peoples, languages and natural environment he encountered and describes with great exuberance and humour 'the impression made upon barbarous people by their first intercourse with civilised man'. Made more poignant by the author's death at the hands of cannibals just two years after the book's publication, this is an extraordinary account of the perseverance and ingenuity of a man who became a hero and martyr for the Protestant missionary movement.