Bücher veröffentlicht von Cosimo Classics

Sometimes.we would fall in with a troop of the white-faced cebus monkey, rapidly running away, throwing themselves from tree to tree. This monkey feeds also partly on fruit, but is incessantly on the look-out for insects, examining the crevices in trees and withered leaves, seizing the largest beetles and munching them up with great relish. -from Chapter VIII This masterpiece of scientific reportage and travel storytelling, first published in 1874, is a captivating narrative of the journeys of mining engineer Thomas Belt through the tropical rivers, valleys, forests, and lakes of Nicaragua. Replete with vivid descriptions of the animals and plants he encountered and full of ruminations on the geology of the region that were dismissed as fanciful at the time but have since been vindicated as true, this is "the best of all natural history journals which have ever been published," according to no less an authority than Charles Darwin.English engineer THOMAS BELT (1832-1878) traveled the world working mines from Australia to Colorado and producing numerous papers on topics ranging from geology to paleontology. The Naturalist in Nicaragua is considered his greatest work.

A magic square consists of a series of numbers so arranged in a square that the sum of each row and column and of both the corner diagonals shall be the same amount which may be termed the summation. In "Magic Squares and Cubes" W.S. Andrews writes "The study of magic squares probably dates back to prehistoric times. Examples have been found in Chinese literature written about AD 1125 which were evidently copied from still older documents. It is recorded that as early as the ninth century magic squares were used by Arabian astrologers in their calculations of horoscopes, etc. Hence, the probable origin of the term magic, which has survived to the present day." Topics such as magic squares, magic cubes, the Franklin squares, magics and Pythagorean numbers, the theory of reversions, magic circles, spheres, and stars, and magic octahedroids, among other things.

Francis Parkman was a historian of the 18th century. Among other things, and despite health problems that plagued him, including nervous ailments, lameness, and increasing blindness, he traveled west over the Oregon Trail, and then wrote about his experiences (The Oregon Trail, 1847). He went on to turn out eight volumes of history, a book on rose culture, and a novel. He chose a theme of the closest interest to his countrymen -- the colonization of the American continent and the wars for its possession -- and he lived through fifty years of toil to complete the great historical series that he designed when he was but a youth at college. The main attraction of the subject lies in his picturesque, manly character, his inspiring example of fortitude and perseverance, and his training and achievements as a historian. In addition, he was a professor of horticulture at Harvard and a founder of the Archaeological Institute of America.

Dr. J. H. Kellogg, who, along with his brother, invented the corn flake, here offers a "popular account of the travels of a breakfast through the food tube and of the ten gates and several stations through which it passes, also the obstacles which it sometimes meets." At the time he wrote this book, Dr. J. H. Kellogg was the medical director of the Battle Creek Sanitarium. Kellogg was a committed Adventist who was very interested in proper diet and health, which led to his medical vocation, but also to a keen interest to find natural remedies for disease. Among other things, he promoted vegetarianism, which led to the development of the corn flake and other breakfast cereals. He was the author of more than fifty books.

Lafcadio Hearn's books have charmed and captivated readers, just as the exotic subjects about which he has written have captivated him. "Gleanings in the Buddha-Fields" presents more Hearn magic as he enters into the spirit of Buddhism as though he were born into it. This collection of stories, subtitled "Studies of Hand and Soul in the Far East," takes the reader on a journey into the soul of Hearn's adopted land as no other writer--especially a non-Japanese native--could. Lafacdio Hearn was born in Greece to an Irish father and a Greek mother. After working as a journalist in New Orleans, he later moved to Japan, where he took on the name Koizumi Yagumo.

Desiderus Erasmus was one of the greatest scholars of all time. He lived at the time of the Renaissance, in the late 15th to early 16th centuries, a period of profound change, and a time when every European nation managed to go to war with another European nation. "The Complaint of Peace" grew from his reaction to his warlike times. His desire for peace permeates his work. Now, 500 years later, Peace's words still retain their relevance.

Sir Richard Burton was an explorer, linguist, scholar, soldier, anthropologist, and writer. Burton used his own resources to fund expeditions to map new trade routes, identify and catalogue natural resources, and analyze political, religious, and economic systems in foreign countries. He is probably best known for his expeditions with John Hanning Speke to find the source of the Nile, which he accomplished in 1858. He is also known for the first English translations of the "Kama Sutra" and the "Arabian Nights". This biography was written by Burton's niece in an effort to "tell the truth concerning one who can no longer defend himself" and to "supply.the story of a great traveler's life in popular form." It is, simply, quite a journey to follow of one of the 19th century's most intriguing characters.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose original profession and calling was as a Unitarian minister, left the ministry to pursue a career in writing and public speaking. Emerson went on to become one of America's best-known and best-loved 19th century figures. Along with Thoreau, Hawthorne, Fuller, the Peabody sisters, the Alcott family, Jonas, Very, the Ripleys, and the Channings, Emerson helped shape a circle of poets, reformers, artists, and thinkers who helped to define a new identity for American art. In this biography, written by American physician, poet, and humorist Oliver Wendell Holmes, Emerson's life is traced from his family genealogy through his childhood, his years in school, his ordination and early writings, to his years as a preeminent thinker, lecturer, poet, and writer. The book, originally published in 1885, even offers a look at the "future of his reputation" from the late 19th century point of view.

This is a collection of 22 charming Japanese fairy tales, originally published in 1905, selected and translated by Yei Theodora Ozaki. Included are legends and fairy tales about peasants and kings, god and bad forces, princesses, animals, the sea, and the sky.

"George Washington" is an intriguing biography of America's first president as told by the man who would later become its twenty-eighth, Woodrow Wilson. Wilson takes us on a journey from a look at Washington's times to his Virginia breeding to his life in colonial America. Wilson looks at how these factors shaped the man who would lead the nation in its fight for independence and into its first years as a new nation. This is an insightful look into our nation's early history by a man who would play a key part in it more than one hundred years later.

Vait-hua was all savage; whatever bewilderments the missionaries had brought had faded when dwindling population left the isle to its own people. In the minds of my happy companions at the vai puna, modesty had no more to do with clothing than, among us, it had to do with food....Savage peoples can never understand our philosophy, our complex springs of action. They may ape our manners, wear our ornaments, and seek our company, but their souls remain indifferent. They laugh when we are stolid. They weep when we are unmoved. Their gods and devils are not ours. -from Chapter VIIIn the years prior to World War I, American author FREDERICK O'BRIEN (1869-1932) took a grand tour of the South Pacific, and the trilogy of books he wrote upon his return sparked a new thirst for all things exotic, far-flung, and gloriously "uncivilized."The first of these volumes, 1919's White Shadows in the South Seas, was a tremendous bestseller in its day, and no wonder. O'Brien romances the people and the culture of the island of Marquesas with this account of the year of drowsy afternoons and nights lit by mysterious moonlight that he spent strolling its sandy shores and basking in its island breezes. But O'Brien's is no mere travelogue: though he introduces us to beautiful young island girls with names like Vanquished Often and Malicious Gossip and discusses the vagaries of native cuisine and the time-measuring power of cigarettes, he also debates himself about the good and the harm done by Western traders and Christian missionaries and ponders the legacy outside influence will have upon the island. O'Brien offers a unique perspective on the South Seas cultures of old just as they were disappearing.OF INTEREST TO: armchair travelers, amateur anthropologists, readers of cross-cultural studies

The falls of Fautaua, famed in Tahitian legend, are exquisite in beauty and surrounding, and so near Papeete that I walked to them and back in a day. Yet hardly any one goes there. For those who have visited them they remain a shrine of loveliness, wondrous in form and unsurpassed in color. Before the genius of Tahiti was smothered in the black and white of modernism, the falls and the valley in which they are, were the haunt of lovers who sought seclusion for their pledgings.A princess accompanied me to them. She was not a daughter of a king or queen, but she was near to royalty, and herself as aristocratic in carriage and manner as was Oberea, who loved Captain Cook. -from Chapter XIIIn the years prior to World War I, American author FREDERICK O'BRIEN (1869-1932) took a grand tour of the South Pacific, and the trilogy of books he wrote upon his return sparked a new thirst for all things exotic, far-flung, and gloriously "uncivilized."In the second of these volumes, 1921's Mystic Isles of the South Seas, O'Brien explores the "merriest, most fascinating world of all the cosmos": the islands of Tahiti and Moorea. This is no simple account of ships boarded and sights seen: O'Brien takes us along on his journey of the heart and soul, to a land where a dance is an expression of passion, the sea is a living being, and fishing is practically religion. But O'Brien also makes pointed and poignant note of the inevitable death of this world, to which Westerners introduced the evils of alcohol and Asians were coming to dominate the population. This is a unique perspective on the South Seas cultures of old just as they were disappearing.OF INTEREST TO: armchair travelers, amateur anthropologists, readers of cross-cultural studies