Bücher veröffentlicht von New Amsterdam Books

Through the centuries, the Dordogne has cherished a tradition of fine cuisine that is framed throughout France, and the region has produced a disproportionate number of Frances finest chefs: Brillat-Savarin, Careme, Escoffier, Andre Noel and, in our own times, Marcel Boulestin. Moreover, the culinary skills found on the farms and in town households are not far removed from the gastronomic secrets of the finest restaurants. Historical and personal anecdotes abound in this rare book, rich in recipes, and full of insight and observation. Food is discussed at great length, and the recipes special to this part of France symbolize to the people of Perigord the traditional skills and patterns of life, a permanent way of looking at the world and its gifts. James Bentley has a house in the Dordogne, and spends a good part of each year there. His many books include travel guides to the Dordogne, the Loire, and Tuscany, and the Blue Guide to West Germany and Berlin.

Since Odysseus dined on mezethes and spit-roasted meat on Corfu in the Homeric epic, the island has been conquered by Rome and Byzantium; taken by Norman adventurers, Genoese pirates and the Angevin kings of Naples; and held for four hundred years by the Venetians. Through the vicissitudes of war and peace the classical Greek cooking has become distinctly Corfiot.

Italian as a national spoken language is a new experience for Italians; until very recently it was normal for the majority of the people to speak in a dialect, and Italian was a literary language used only by a minority. The first section of this book provides an outline of the language, and a sketch of the dialects. The authors also describe the formation of the modern standard language in its varieties (regional, social, and occupational).Part two is a reference grammar of contemporary educated Italian, presented in the way it is actually used, rather than according to traditional prescription.The book concentrates on contemporary usage and will enable the reader to understand and use appropriately a wide range of expressions, characterized where necessary according to their level of formality or their regional nature.The illuminating combination of historical perspective and contemporary grammer make this a unique contribution to Italian linguistics, and an invaluable reference book for all students and scholars in the field of Italian.The second edition has been revised throughout to bring it completely up to date.

The correspondence of Katherine Mansfield and John Middleton Murry is a story in its own right, as compelling and poignant as any that Mansfield herself invented. Here, juxtaposed for the first time, are 300 letters exchanged between them during their extraordinary eleven-year relationship. The letters begin in January 1912, a month after their first meeting, when both were relative newcomers to the London literary scene; the last, a letter from Murry, was written four days before Katherine died, in Fontainebleau, in January 1923. The intervening years were ones of both feverish creativity and heartbreaking frustration; of intense closeness and unassailable distance; of shared idealism and, as Katherine's illness took its inexorable hold, of mutual recognition that the glittering partnership they'd once envisaged would be cut tragically short.Whether sparkling or witty, reflective or despairing, the letters have the immediacy of conversation and the candor of the very finest epistolary writing. They illustrate wonderfully the unique personal magnetism which has become part of the Mansfield legend, and indicate, too, that posterity has perhaps judged Murry more harshly than ever she did. As Katherine herself wrote: "e;I feel no other lovers have walked the earth more joyfully-in spite of all."e;

In his second book, Noah Jonathan Jacobs briefly and profoundly looks at the basis of our nature as revealed in language, the role of illusion in human life, the armed truce between the sexes, and the hate-filled origins of whole tribes of words now quite tame.

This is a coming-of-age novel, something that in other languages is expressed more pointedly as the novel of education.

Ask any Spaniard where you will find the best food in the country and the answer is invariably the Basque provinces. In this beautifully written book, Maria Jose Sevilla describes the region through the eyes of men and women whose lives embrace every aspect of its cooking and culinary traditions, and records the recipes she has learned from them. The author takes us from market to caserio, or farmstead, and shows how the strength of Basque cuisine comes from the quality and range of local produce: superb fish from the Cantabrian coast, cheeses and wild mushrooms from the mountains, and vegetables and fruit-including apples for cider-making-from the caserios of the valleys. Through her portraits of a fisherman, a craftsman of wooden cheese-making utensils, a wine producer, and a young city housewife, the author shows the historical influences and fierce regional pride behind this distinctive culinary repertoire. Finally, three professional chefs take us into their kitchens, and show us how their superb cooking is based on rich popular traditions. More than eighty authentic recipes punctuate evocative descriptions of cultural and culinary traditions, making this an ideal book for the inquisitive traveler who enjoys good food.

Drinking with Dickens is a light-hearted sketch by Cedric Dickens, the great-grandson of Charles Dickens. There are vivid and memorable drinking scenes in Dickens' books, and Drinking with Dickens abounds in recipes, many based on the drinks of Dickensian England and America: Bishop, Dog's Nose, Hot Bowl Punch, Milk Punch, Mint Julep, Sherry Cobbler, Shrub and Negus, to mention only a few. Unbelievably it seems to be the first book on this vast and important subject, and Cedric has added some recipes and experiences of his own.The Victorian sources include a penny notebook dated 1859 and kept by "e;Auntie Georgie,"e; Georgina Hogarth, when she was looking after the younger children of Charles Dickens at Gads Hill. It starts with a recipe for Ginger Beer, a teetotal drink which calls for a quart of brandy!Then there is the catalogue for the sale of Gads Hill after Charles Dickens died which shows what was in the cellar at that time. This book transcends the generations. Cedric, with an eye for people and detail, describes a whole series of joyous episodes where drink, wisely taken, has been the catalyst.

Isbister in the Orkneys is one of those extraordinary archaeological sites where the remains of Neolithic man and his works have been so well preserved that they give us an amazingly clear picture of the life and people of 5000 years ago.In Tomb of the Eagles John W. Hedges describes vividly the activities of a tribe which had as its totem the magnificent white-tailed sea eagle. For these people the building and use of the tomb was symbol and expression of their identity. It was here that the dead joined their ancestors-but only after the flesh had been stripped from their bones. It was here, too, that offerings were made. Here broken pots were piled; fish, eagles and joints of meat mouldered; and the hands of the living sorted the heaped bones of the dead.

In 1937, the Scottish writer, Neil Gunn, gave up his job in the civil service, sold his house in Inverness, and bought a boat. With his wife and his brother John, he set off on a three-month voyage around Inner Hebrides.The boat had outlived its first youth, and its engine was somewhat cranky; she went tolerably under sail. These are not high recommendations, but for Gunn, and at times his fellow voyagers, the vessel was an argosy of freedom, of adventure and misadventure-for they were fairly inexperienced sailors, and the waters of the region are by no means placid.Gunn was a Scots nationalist in a sense that goes far beyond the political, even though he thought that an independent Scotland was the only proper basis for a reasonable civilization. He was by nature poetic, uplifted or cast down by changing skies, seascapes, and shores. His descriptions of those things, including their moods, are remarkably evocative. And he is also a passionate historian of his country, exalting its possibilities, anathematizing its shortcomings. The book is illustrated with Daisy Gunn's photographs taken on the voyage, which are palpably amateur but wonderfully telling.

The author writes in his introduction that evening is the magical moment to wander about Rome: "e;That is the moment to see the city of conflicting moods as it always has been and still is, hateful and holy, wicked and wise, pagan and papal, sometimes so beautiful that it is scarcely to be endured, and always quite inscrutable. That is the supreme moment to rhapsodize and pay homage, to make the final assault upon the hidden secret of Rome's eternal decay, and to be deliciously deceived... The early morning on the other hand is more to our purpose, for it is not at all romantic."e; The early morning serves to light for Lees-Milne the eight Roman buildings-from the somber Pantheon first built by Marcus Agrippa in 27 B.C. to the Trevi fountain, whose waters were brought to Rome via aqueduct by the same Agrippa, but whose completion had to await the eighteenth century-that are in the author's opinion the chef architectural monuments of the city. All of them, he says, are powerful archetypes, and two among them, the Pantheon and the Tempietto, have individual features that are reflected in practically every town in Europe, the British Commonwealth, and America.

Here is an updated edition of Joan Nunn's detailed survey of costume in the Western world over the past eight centuries. She not only gives the reader a vivid visual impression of the clothes themselves, but also outlines the historical and social background and the changes in manufacturing techniques and fashionable life that have influenced the way costume has developed and the manner in which it has been worn. The book is illustrated throughout with hundreds of line drawings.

"e;I, Hasan the son of Muhammad the weigh-master, I, Jean-Leon de Medici, circumcised at the hand of a barber and baptized at the hand of a pope, I am now called the African, but I am not from Africa, nor from Europe, nor from Arabia. I am also called the Granadan, the Fassi, the Zayyati, but I come from no country, from no city, no tribe. I am the son of the road, my country is the caravan, my life the most unexpected of voyages."e;Thus wrote Leo Africanus, in his fortieth year, in this imaginary autobiography of the famous geographer, adventurer, and scholar Hasan al-Wazzan, who was born in Granada in 1488. His family fled the Inquisition and took him to the city of Fez, in North Africa. Hasan became an itinerant merchant, and made many journeys to the East, journeys rich in adventure and observation. He was captured by a Sicilian pirate and taken back to Rome as a gift to Pope Leo X, who baptized him Johannes Leo. While in Rome, he wrote the first trilingual dictionary (Latin, Arabic and Hebrew), as well as his celebrated Description of Africa, for which he is still remembered as Leo Africanus.

Books are fragile objects. In the wring environment, excessive bent and cold, humidity, animals and insects-even people- can cause rapid damage to a book's fabric.In this practical guide to maintaining a collection at its best, the author explains the reasons for decay in books and documents and gives straightforward advice on creating the right conditions for a library, large or small.*Fully revised and expanded edition of this authoritative work*Illustrated with photographs and line drawings. *An invaluable addition to any library

As well as fulfilling a functional need, furniture has always been an index of status. From the throne of Tutankhamen or the bed of State of Louis XIV to the austere Shaker chest or the Charles Eames chair and later modern pieces from Europe, the Far East and the United States, the style of each piece tells much about the outlook of the makers and the needs and skills of the time.This absorbing history traces the development of furniture design and production, from the days of ancient Egypt to the present, describing what articles were made in each period, how they were made, and what were the social and economic conditions that affected style and finish. The author discusses techniques such as joinery, turning, veneering, marquetry, polishing, upholstery, bentwood work and lamination. Many examples are shown in the illustrations, which are invaluable recognition sources and a lively visual accompaniment to the text.

"e;...A comprehensive portrait of slavery in the Islamic world from earliest times until today..."e;-Arab Book World

In A Woman of Passion, Julia Briggs chronicles the life of author Edith Nesbit who is credited with being the first modern writer for children and the creator of the children's adventure story. Nesbit recorded her life with varying degrees of honesty in verse and prose, and while she seldom wrote entirely openly of her own experiences, she seldom wrote convincingly of anything else. In this fascinating read, Julia Briggs attempts to fill in the gaps of Nesbit's autobiographical material, painting an intriguing portrait of the famous author.

The relationship between the Christian and Muslim worlds has been a long and tortuous one. Over the course of the centuries the balance of power has swung in pendulum fashion-at times the initiative seems to have lain with the Muslim community, with the Christian world simply being compelled to react to developments outside itself, while at other points the opposite has been true and Muslims have found themselves having to respond to Christian challenges in different forms. Today Christians and Muslims comprise the world's two largest religious communities. Although they can coexist fairly peacefully, at times they still engage in violent confrontation, such as in the recent conflicts in Bosnia and the Sudan. This book investigates the history of the relationships between Christians and Muslims over the centuries, from their initial encounters in the medieval period, when the Muslims were the dominant group, through to the modern period, when the balance of power seems to have been reversed. This much-needed overview of the Christian-Muslim encounter places the emphasis on the context within which perceptions and attitudes were worked out and provides a depth of historical insight to the complexities of current Christian-Muslim interactions on different continents.

From the Butt of Lewis in the north to Barra Head in the south, the Western Islands form a unique part of Scotland: a rocky chain of islands 130 miles long, cut off from the Mainland by the Minch as effectively as the Channel separates Britain as a whole from the rest of Europe. Despite their diversity in history and landscape, Harris and Lewis, North and South Uist, Benbecula, Barra and the smaller islands have been united by the struggle against a sometimes harsh environment, and the first to maintain their independent economic and cultural identity¿whether against the 'Fife Adventurers' in 1598, or the land clearances of Victorian times which saw so many 'superfluous' Islanders dispatched overseas. But The Western Islands of Scotland is not a nostalgic look at a people in retreat. Illustrated with outstanding color and black-and-white photographs which emphasize the megaliths, castles, crafts and seamanship, Francis Thompson records a linguistic and cultural heritage which is now staging a forceful comeback after centuries of retreat. Many famous names have had connections with the Islands¿MacAulay and Gladstone among them¿while the traditions of the folktale and the ceilidh continue to produce successors to the Gaelic bard Ian Lom and the storyteller Donald MacPhee. Francis Thompson concludes with a look at the appeal of the Islands to outsiders, many of whom are attracted to crofting as a self-sufficient, "green" form of farming.

"Several books on Scotch have been published since Professor McDowall's, but none better, particularly for its emphasis on the single malts."-Financial Times