Phaidon Design Classics (3 Volume Set) (Design Classics)

Book Description

PHAIDON DESIGN CLASSICS is the first comprehensive and authoritative collection of classic design objects. This beautifully illustrated three-volume set of books presents 999 industrially manufactured products, carefully selected by a group of experts. It is the first definitive illustrated sourcebook on the evolution of design to include such a wide scope of objects in detail.

From cars to furniture, from tableware to cameras, from everyday objects to airplanes, this breadth of design has never before been collected in such a way before. PHAIDON DESIGN CLASSICS tells the story of design's evolution around the world from the late 1600's to the present, bringing together patents, prototypes, old advertisements, original drawings, images showing the process of manufacturing, as well as rare archival photographs. The anthology features an astonishing 4,000 images.

The objects are presented chronologically, beginning with an elegant pair of Chinese bonsai scissors from the early 1600s, still in production today, and ending with Barber Osgerby's Lunar bath accessories, destined to become a classic. Glancing through the volumes, the reader will gain an understanding not only of the history of design, but a history of taste and culture. The book is an extraordinary journey through the objects that have shaped our society, from the first attempts to combine function and beauty in the nineteenth century, through the machine aesthetics of the thirties, the advent of plastic and other new materials in the fifties and sixties, up to the classics-to-be of the last ten years.

The book includes not only objects created by internationally renowned designers, such as Breuer, Le Corbusier, Dreyfuss, Eames, Yanagi and Castiglioni, but also anonymously designed pieces, such as the clothes peg, the corkscrew and the chopstick, which, in spite of lacking a specific designer, have achieved such perfection in design and functionality that they have eliminated the possibility of improvement.

PHAIDON DESIGN CLASSICS is a laboriously selected examination of some of the world's best products ever made, most of which are still in production. The objects truly encapsulate what design is and what it will be for decades to come. It is a key reference tool for the designer or architect, as well as a fascinating and accessible design history for the newcomer.

The collection comes in a specifically commissioned carrying unit exclusively designed by Konstantin Gricic.

Customer Reviews:

Literally Drew Blood!.......2007-10-02

I thought when I ordered the books that all this thrash about the packaging MUST be overblown. But this is, without a doubt the worst packaging I've ever dealt with. Though the plastic case was damaged in shipping it was still a struggle to free the books. When pulled apart (which is what a small sticker on one of the books advises) the plastic shattered. One piece dug into the palm of my hand and gave me a pretty decent gash. Other smaller fragments ended up all over my room. All I could think was thank God I didn't lose an eye! Even then I only succeeded in liberating one book.

The books themselves are very nice, and were only slighty damaged in the ludicrous struggle to liberate them from the case. It's comical that they come in the worst designed packaging you can imagine.

So while I would recommend the books, I also strongly suggest protective eye wear for the unboxing.

Phaidon Design Classics (3 Volume Set).......2007-09-21

Hello,
the Phaidon Design Classics (3 Volume Set) is state of art issue must have in any designer office/house, or those how like design.
it give you an whole review with pics & explantion.
i really love this product and its worth the money and even more.
brgds,
Eran

Phaidon Design Classics (3 Volume Set.......2007-02-22

Books are great overview of classic designs, but Amazon service is horrible. The carry case is one of the worst designs ever but customers would be lucky to see it. The way Amazon ships the product, the carry case (a flimsy pastic) breaks in shipping. Amazon refuses to ship the carry case alone and states that it is not their problem but that of the manufacturer. They will offer to send a replacement set once (books and carry case), but it will come broken again as they do not ship it differently and you have to set up return shipment of the original package.

Superb book with ironic packaging.......2007-02-10

Superlative book; goes well with the Domus 12 volume set for enough design related material to keep even an avid reader occupied for years to come...

The packaging understandably gets more comment than the books themselves. I suspect it is deliberately ironic - coverage of 999 objects blending form and function, coupled with a piece of something else.

I'm surprised at the complaints regarding the packaging being broken in shipment - I would have appreciated someone saving me the trouble, as mine went straight in the recycling bin. I'd rather liberate my books than imprison them.

Five stars for content; 0 stars for shipping.......2007-02-06

Beautiful books and production value, but the plastic carrying case--being especially vulnerable--didn't survive two shipping attempts. On both occasions, the books arrived with their carrying case shattered and the books damaged. You might do better getting these some other way. You'll take your chances if you decide to have them shipped via Amazon (or any other online shipper). Beware.

The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 3: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy, 1950 - 1963 (Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis)

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The great author as a character.
Easily the deepest and most thought provoking of the collections

The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 3: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy, 1950 - 1963 (Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis)
C. S. Lewis
Manufacturer: HarperOne
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0060819227
Release Date: 2007-01-09

Book Description

The final installment of the three-volume collected letters of C. S. Lewis, this volume contains the letters Lewis wrote during the last part of his life, spanning his time at Cambridge, his brilliant creation of the land of Narnia and the children’s series that followed, and his struggle with his wife Joy’s serious illness and death.

Customer Reviews:

The great author as a character. .......2007-05-31

It was absolutely fascinating to crawl around inside the head of this brilliant man as he entered the most tumultuous period of his life. I cannot help but think of Till We Have Faces, as Lewis stuggles through the same difficult lessons of learning to let someone you love go into the arms of God and away from your own. Utterly real, this book is worth the 1700 page read.

Easily the deepest and most thought provoking of the collections.......2007-01-12

Given the fact that this letters collection deals mainly with the latter stages of Lewis's life, I really think this is the best of the three collections.

The main reason is that we get a clearer picture into the mind of the man who created Narnia, wrote the painfully honest and cathartic "A Grief Observed" after the loss of his wife, Joy and we start to see a man who takes faith to a new level in his life, from an intellectual and notionalistic approach to a real, raw encounter with God.

It is very easy to see how Lewis has influenced so many writers today, even the new gneration, who are just beginning to write. His legacy continues on in the minds and pens of Christian thinkers and writers who desperately want to help individuals grow closer to God and examine their faith to keep it vital.

And Lewis is relevant, as J.G. Marking, author of "A Voice Is Calling," so clearly stated, "I believe to some degree every Christian author is likened to C.S. Lewis because he is the intellectual and literary bar that we are all measured against. And thus, in some way, his voice will resonate in all of ours, maybe forever."

This collection reveals more of the soul of Lewis than the mind, which is an even more intriguing glance.

Encyclopedia of War and American Society (3-Volume Set)

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Encyclopedia of War and American Society (3-Volume Set)

Manufacturer: Sage Publications, Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0761930973

Book Description

The impact of war on American society has been extensive throughout our nation’s history. War has transformed economic patterns, government policy, public sentiments, social trends and cultural expression.

SAGE Reference is proud to announce the Encyclopedia of War and American Society. This Encyclopedia is a comprehensive, highly-credentialed multidisciplinary historical work that examines the numerous ways wars affect societies. The three volumes cover a wide range of general thematic categories, issues, and topics that address not only the geopolitical effects of war, but also show how the U.S. engagement in national and international conflicts has affected the social and cultural arena.

Key Features

Explores and analyzes three types of effects of war—direct effects, interactive relationships, and indirect effects—to illustrate the range of connections between war and American society
Probes the correlations between our wartime expeditions and the experiences of the greater American society not limited to just the war years but also demonstrates how the wartime event impacted society after the conflicts ended
Offers readers a host of documents including passages from letters, diaries, autobiographies, official documents, novels, poems, songs, and cartoons, as well as images, graphs, and a number of tables of relevant data, surveys, and public opinion polls to extend their research capabilities
Concentrates mostly on the last 100 years to give more coverage on this often neglected wartime era

Key Themes

Arts and Culture
Civil-Military Relations
Economy and Labor
Education (both military and civilian)
Environment and Health
Journalism and Media
Law and Justice
Military Leaders and Figures
Planning, Command and Control
Race, Gender, and Ethnicity
Religion
Science and Technology
Veterans' Issues and Experiences
The Wars themselves and their civilian and military leaders

The Encyclopedia of War and American Society is a must-have reference for all academic libraries as well as a welcome addition to any social science reference collection.

When I Was Your Age, Volume One: Original Stories About Growing Up (When I Was Your Age)

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A WONDERFUL BOOK , ESPECIALLY FOR PRE-TEENS !

When I Was Your Age, Volume One: Original Stories About Growing Up (When I Was Your Age)

Manufacturer: Candlewick
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0763610348
Release Date: 2001-02-01

Book Description

Perfect for literature classes and beginning writers of all ages!

"Tell me a story of when you were little" is something children love to ask. Now ten award-winning writers: Mary Pope Osborne, Laurence Yep, James Howe, Katherine Paterson, Walter Dean Myers, Susan Cooper, Nicholasa Mohr, Reeve Lindbergh, Avi, and Francesca Lia Block tell young readers stories drawn from their own childhood memories. The authors have also contributed notes about why they chose particular memories to write about and what in their lives led them to be writers. In this way, the extraordinary stories in WHEN I WAS YOUR AGE bear witness to the origins of a writer’s art—and honor the courage, tenderness, and fragility of children.

Customer Reviews:

A WONDERFUL BOOK , ESPECIALLY FOR PRE-TEENS !.......2000-06-20

The original tales presented in this book are actual memories of childhood penned by notable children's book authors. Although most of the stories have 8-10 year-olds as their protagnonists, they deal with emotions and predicaments more easily understood, I think, by slightly older children.

Pre-teenage can be such an awkward time; these tales can be healing/instructive to those in this time of life. The authors all have written beautiful stories which really should not be missed. And, as an extra special "gift" to the reader, each story is followed by a one-page explanation/note written by the tale's author. It's a relief to realize that each author not only survived growing up, but also flourished. And I loved being allowed to share private memories of these marvelous authors.

As a great fan of Katherine Paterson, I was especially touched by her story, which involved her older, prettier sister. Perhaps even more revealing, however, is the note she wrote to accompany this story. I am sure that the feelings here expressed were the souce of her poignantly beautiful novel "Jacob Have I Loved." (Great for girls age 12 and up.)

This book also provided an introduction (at least for me) to several authors with whom I was not familiar; I look forward to reading more by them.

Book Description

An account of Woolf's life during the period in which To the Lighthouse and The Waves were written. "Her steel-trap mind and elegant prose...make this a most valuable and pleasurable book" (Publishers Weekly). "Volume three is as witty and intelligent as its predecessors" (Atlantic Monthly). Edited by Anne Olivier Bell, assisted by Andrew McNeillie; Index.

Customer Reviews:

Simply beautiful.......2002-11-29

Of all of Virginia's diaries (there are five volumes), volumes 3 and 4 are perhaps the most interesting, if only because they span the period in which she wrote her classics such as Orlando, To The Lighthouse, and The Waves (which itself literally spans the period between Vol 3 and Vol 4.)

If you read the collected Diaries and Woman Of Letters by Phyllis Rose, you will gain a vital series of insights into the life and thoughts of this most haunting of female writers.

Whenever I think of Virginia, I always think of the lines from "Vincent" by Don Maclean...

This world was never meant
for one as beautiful as you...

If you have never read any Virginia Woolf, I would respectfully suggest you rent a copy of Sally Potter's Orlando. While Sally takes artistic license with the novel, she has created a very sympathetic work of Art.

This diary above all gives you many insights into her thought processes and her writing career, including her reactions to the publication of her works and their reception by the public and the sub-species known as Critics.

Book Description

Covering Irish history from the beginnings of Irish Nationalism through 1973, Robert Kee's treatment ranges from the Protestant Plantations through Wolfe Tone and the Great Famine to the founding of the Fenian Movement and the Irish Free State. His authoritative and comprehensive history is masterly in its detail and judicious analysis. A classic in its field, this is essential reading for anyone attempting to understand the complex historical forces that have shaped Ireland.

Customer Reviews:

Extremely enlightening book.......2007-08-22

Robert Kee, contrary to previous reviews, is almost surprising in the objectivity he brings to a segment of history notorious for being incredibly emotionally charged -- historical objectivity rather surprising to find in someone that doesn't make history their calling.

His well researched trilogy sheds light on the tragic effects of English misrule in Ireland, as well as the startling contrast of nationalist myth and fact -- that militant republicanism, despite the whitewash radicals would like to use, succeeded more in spite of itself than anything, and that it is deeply unrepresentative of Irish political opinion. Indeed, the final success of militant republicanism can be more attributed to the extreme political missteps of the English administration in Ireland than the supposed correctness of their methods. Hardly the imagery painted in Republican music and myth.

I highly recommend this book to anyone that seeks an understanding of the underlying causes of the centuries of political strife and violence that have plagued Ireland, and -- despite steps toward peace -- may continue to plague Ireland in the future.

English Propaganda.......2007-06-29

Kee, a former RAF officer, lets his English propaganda brush slap on to the window pane. His examination of the Fenian Brotherhood of American is very shallow. He doesn't want to lose his American audience. He avoids tagging the former American officers as "terrorists." Yet one might ask oneself:why would an Irish born officer, founded at Fredericksburg return to Ireland --and not pick up his civilian life in America? A question not answered by Mr. Kee! Mr. Kee parleyed his trilogy into a multi-part BBC Tv series where is expressions and voice betrayed his lack of objectivity.

One of the Best Books on Irish Political History-Ever.......2001-09-08

This is a famous and well reputed book. It has been in print now for almost 30 years-deservedly so I might add. I suspect it will still be in print another 30 years from now.
Robert Kee was a journalist and a famous World War 2 P.O.W. escapee. He writes lucidly and with great style, eloquence even. Yet above all his books are a darn good read. This book is vividly written, fleshed out with characters and facts that are dispassionatly but richly detailed.
This book follows the course of Irish nationalism from the distant past of the Tudor wars and Anglo-Scottish Settlements up through the rise of DeVelera.
Its true strength is in parts two and three which recount, in great detail, the growth of Irish nationalist sentiment (and rebellion) and land reform/Catholic emancipation, during the 19th Century. Kee demonstrates clearly the ever so slight, but vital, strand of personal connection that linked Wolfe Tones' United Irishmen to Emmet, Parnell, the Fenians and eventually the I.R.A..
Part three details the rise of the Nationalist cause in the wake of Parnell's fall and the rise of the I.R.B./I.R.A. in the late Victorian era up through the Civil war of the 1920s. This book painted very clearly the horror of the Black and Tan war as well as the subsequently even more nasty Irish civil war.
Up until the 1970s a great many people in Ireland would not even speak to each other because of the bitterness engendered by the latter conflict. It spawned Ireland's two major parties and the emotions, recriminations and even hatred caused by the Collins/DeVelera conflict still has significant effect today. This era also shaped the course of the present day three I.R.A.s (Provisional,"Real" and "Stickie").
This book does not deal with the Present Ulster 'troubles' at all. But you can not understand them, nor modern Ireland without reading this book.
Above all, this book was written in a 'neutral' fashion, by an outsider, who deeply loved his subject. It lacks the usual bombast of many other slanted histories. At the same time none of the drama, emotion, glory nor hatred are lost in the telling.
To illustrate what I mean by the above review: in 1987 I asked a series of Irish politicians of all persuasions what history book would still be in print in 2037 and what volumes would they use if they had to teach Irish history to a class at Harvard. Every politician (except the Rev.Ian Paisley) mentioned this book.

West, Volume 3, Frank Lloyd Wright Field Guide

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Essential for Wright-seers
California Reader Extremely WRONG
California wrong
book available in June 1999, East don't know

West, Volume 3, Frank Lloyd Wright Field Guide
Thomas A. Heinz
Manufacturer: Academy Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

The Frank Lloyd Wright Field Guide series provides the first comprehensive visitor's guide to all of Wright's buildings in the US and overseas. Each guide is written and compiled by an acknowledged expert on Frank Lloyd Wright, Thomas A Heinz. With his highly readable and informative style. Heinz presents each building page by page, providing brief histories and background details, information on accessibility and viewing, and directions from Interstate routes. Every entry is accompanied by a photograph and location map produced by the author. There are four books in the Field Guide series: Upper Great Lakes. MetroChicago, West and East. Each guide is arranged geographically, beginning in the northwest and ending in the southeast of the region covered. Full alphabetical and geographical lists enable buildings to be easily accessed either by location or name.

Customer Reviews:

Essential for Wright-seers.......2002-07-13

Has 2 critical and unique features for each site -- GPS address (in addition to street address) and the accessibility for public viewing. Before this book, I've wasting much travel time trying to find sites and then finding them completely hidden from view.

California Reader Extremely WRONG.......2000-04-19

As a practicing architect and architectural historian living in California, I have found this book to be an essential part to my research for projects designed by FLW. The photography is rich and alive. I have visited most of the buildings included in this book, the photography could not be more powerful. What else can be expected from such a talented author as Mr. Heinz? Another fine book by Mr. Heinz and cannot wait to see his upcoming book on Green and Green's Blacker House.

California wrong.......2000-04-09

The reader from California must have the wrong book. There is no photo of a decorative detail of the Hollyhock House. I checked on the cities and found that some are noted differently than other texts but are accurate. One example is the Sturges House (page 49) listed in Los Angeles, most others list it in Brentwood. After the OJ trial, everyone now knows Brentwood is actually a neighborhood of Los Angeles. The photo of the Millard House (page 61) is printed backwards but the house is symmetrical and is still recognizable.

The book reveals a great deal of new, previously unpublished material that adds a great deal to our understanding of Wright's work such as the sections on San Francisco and Los Angeles that give locations and information of the clients or sites for buildings that are demolished to those only proposed. It helps to make the work more real and exciting.

The California reader must keep in mind that the purpose of this book is to assist all the Pilgrims making their way to every one of Wright's work. For that it is one of the greatest books available as Wright's work needs to be seen in person to be appreciated.

I am sure we are all eagerly awaiting the last of the series, The East!

book available in June 1999, East don't know.......1999-06-05

this book is now available and the Publisher/Distributor, John Wiley & Sons, has it in their warehouse. It covers the Western US as well as Japan, Central America and South Asia. It is the first in the series to use color in the maps which makes them much more readable. The binding has been altered from the first two volumes but should shill lie flat when opened. The GPS numbers are entered in full. The Alphabetical index at the back locates all of the buildings for the first three volumes. There is a problem with the last volume, #4, East. The publisher is hesitating to bring it out. If you are interested in seeing the series complete, please write to the publisher, John Wiley & Son, in New York and request that it be published. These books bring a tremendous amount of new information on the buildings but expecially on the people who comisioned them, the clients. There are many new findings on buildings that have been demolished as well as those that were mereely planned. These make goot reading and make the humt for each pilgrimage site much easier and effecient. Each site is rated. The rating indicates how much effort one should expend to get to the site. A low rating does not mean the building is not a good one but that if you travel to see it, you may not be able to because it is inreachable or unseeable. Each community should take pride in having a world class design in it.

Richard Rogers: Complete Works - Volume 3 (Richard Rogers: Complete Works)

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Richard Rogers: Complete Works - Volume 3 (Richard Rogers: Complete Works)
Kenneth Powell
Manufacturer: Phaidon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0714844292

Book Description

Features Most Recent Built Work by Internationally RespectedArchitect. Richard Rogers is head of an internationally respected architecturalpractice responsible for many landmark buildings around the world.He isbest known for such pioneering buildings as the Centre Georges Pompidou inParis (with Renzo Piano), Lloyd's of London and the Millennium Dome,London.The Richard Rogers Partnership was recently commissioned to expandthe Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and design Tower 3' on the site ofthe World Trade Center, both in New York City. RICHARD ROGERS COMPLETE WORKS: VOLUME THREE by Kenneth Powell, features thework of the Richard Rogers Partnership from 1994-2005. The book featuresover 48 projects and competitions, looking at the most recent period of thepractice. It is the third in a series of books on the practice, picking upfrom Volume Two that was published in 2001. This book features the realized and unrealized projects of the last tenyears, such as Greenwich Peninsula and the Millennium Dome, London, aschool near Kyoto, the transformation of a Barcelona bullring into a majorentertainment complex, master plans for Wembley, London, and Florence,Madrid Barajas Airport and London Heathrow's Terminal 5, as well as a newlibrary for Birmingham and London's first Maggie's Centre.The book is prefaced with a general introduction about the office, whichbrings the story of the practice up to date.Essays by architecture criticKenneth Powell examine the impact of Richard Rogers in the political arena,particularly his chairmanship of the Urban Task Force and his work asadvisor on architecture and urbanism to the mayors of London and Barcelona. He also discusses the continuing growth of the practice both at home andabroad and the impact of a new generation of talent rising to theforeground.

Eric Owen Moss Volume III (Buildings and Projects 3)

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Eric Owen Moss: Buildings and Projects 3

Eric Owen Moss Volume III (Buildings and Projects 3)
Eric Owen Moss
Manufacturer: Rizzoli International Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0847822605
Release Date: 2002-12-13

Book Description

Eric Owen Moss has become a major force--nationally and internationally--in the field of architecture. Moss's unusual combinations of materials--wood, glass, wallboard, and metals--and his experiments with spatial layering have given rise to many complex and evocative structures. Since his rise to international prominence over the past decade, the award-winning Los Angeles-based architect has continued to invent form and space that defy conventional labels.

Among his best known works are Samitaur/Kodak in Los Angeles and several large on-going projects in Culvert City, which includes adaptive reuse, retail, and office buildings.

This book, following successful volumes 1 and 2 on Moss, considers mostly recent, built work including continuing projects in Los Angeles and Culvert City; the winning competition entry for the new Queens Museum of Art in New York; and important projects in Vienna, Dusseldorf, and St. Petersburg.

Customer Reviews:

Eric Owen Moss: Buildings and Projects 3.......2003-09-24

In a brief introduction, Richard Meier contributes a keen appreciation of Moss, who represents the Dionysian spirit in architecture as expressively as the New York mandarin embodies the Apollonian. The roller coaster ride begins immediately after, racing through the latest installment of urban interventions in Culver City, and a flurry of unrealized projects from Ibiza to St Petersburg, nearly all sponsored or encouraged by the maverick developer Frederick Samitaur Smith. Much as one admires Smith's enlightened patronage, one wishes that other clients would also commission work from Moss, especially in LA, a place to which his work has a peculiar affinity.

Janet Frame: An Autobiography; Volume One : To the Is-Land, Volume Two : An Angel at My Table, Volume Three : The Envoy from Mirror City/ 3 Volumes in One Book

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Brilliant
Frame saves herself and achieves, in spite of all!
Excellent Autobiography
She Gives Us Good Reason To Write
To The Is-Land

Janet Frame: An Autobiography; Volume One : To the Is-Land, Volume Two : An Angel at My Table, Volume Three : The Envoy from Mirror City/ 3 Volumes in One Book
Janet Frame
Manufacturer: George Braziller
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0807612596

Customer Reviews:

Brilliant.......2007-07-31

Like some of the other reviewers I discovered Janet Frame through the movie,'An Angel at my Table," and I knew I had to read something of hers.
I started with her autobiography, and I'm so glad that I did.
This is perhaps the finest piece of writing, bar none, fiction or non-fiction that I have ever read. I think Frame is a genius, she should be awarded every prize for literature in the world. This is a funny thing to say about such a humble woman who endured so much to become one of the greatest writers the world has ever known.
I was completely bowled over, enthralled, by her recounting of her life. Her word pictures, her recollections of places and things are incredible. I don't know another writer who has as fine a capacity for detail and description. The book is utterly lyrical as she weaves a painful, at times, story through decades of her life. I could not put this book down at times and I grieved when I had finished it. Stories like hers are instructional and give us all a reason to go on living. I sometimes wonder, I'm a memoirist myself, but a baby compared to Frame, how did she do it? It may be crazy to think this but I wonder if those numerous shock treatments she endured rearranged her brain in some magical fashion and gave her the capacity to be a superwoman writer? The line between genius and insanity is permeable. I think writers, for good and ill, are exquisitely fine-tuned, sensitive people. Unfortunately some of them are so beyond ordinary human beings they can't survive living in the world, but what they have left us is priceless as we make our own life journeys. Frame has allowed millions of readers, I hope, to accompany her on her challenging journey through life and she shows how she coped with fate and a set of circumstances given her courageously, copiously, and heart breakingly. I am in awe of her acheivement.
She is a writers writer. Her musings on art and the capacity of the imagination are among the finest I have ever read. She is an inspiration to artists everywhere.

Frame saves herself and achieves, in spite of all!.......2007-07-03

I came to this book by way of the movie "An Angel at My Table" [which was fairly true to the book]. I had never heard of Janet Frame, and was so intrigued by the film that I knew I had to read her autobiography. The book introduces you to her impoverished life in New Zealand [she was born in 1924], and includes about two dozen pages of photos of Janet's family [it was wonderful putting the real faces to the ones we were introduced to in the movie]. From the epilepsy of her brother, the drownings of her two sisters, her own mental breakdown in college [which was erroneously diagnosed as schizophrenia], you understand how all of her traumas and perceptions are incorporated later into her writing career. She overcomes daunting events and social alienation to become a novelist, poet, and short-story author.
I have continued to read more of her writings.

Excellent Autobiography.......2007-01-06

I do not know of any author who can retain so much authencity in his writing and yet produce such beautiful and imaginative prose, other than Janet Frame.

Her excellent autobiography is definitely worth a reading and offers an insight to her other works which are, at times, more experimental and harder to grasp. I have seen the film adaptation but this book has even more to offer: the heartfelt descriptions of the family members, some beautifully written passages which could hardly be translated into film, the 24 pages of delightful photos of Frame and her family...etc.

Excellent.

She Gives Us Good Reason To Write.......2005-01-09

Janet Frame was an amazing woman. She died on Jan 30, 2004. I had this book on my 'need to read' shelf when I read an obituary in the NY Times about her death at age 79. She endured so much and wrote so keenly. She was thought to be a schizophrenic and wrote about her periods of madness in mental institutions. This autobiography was fascinating for me. There is a gentleness and everlasting patience about her that will make anyone like her. If you want a real treat...find the film AN ANGEL AT MY TABLE (from 1990) that Jane Campion (famous for the film THE PIANO) to complement the book. If only I could have met this woman. I would have loved to have tea and crumpets with her.

To The Is-Land.......2003-04-19

To forever capture the past in the present - to be always telling the tale, towards the destination and yet always on the go, postponing the end of self-perception and portrayal: one does not write an autobiography about what one gained but what one lost. Janet Frame shows an intense desire (and flair) in retaining her possessions - a place, an object, a thought, an emotion, a fragment of memories - in writing. It deals with loss and trauma in an honest, realistic, and fairly subdued manner, making it more geniune than a lot of best-selling memoirs. Frame has been described as an ego-centric writer in her fiction - always writing about and examining herself - but in her autobiography she reminds us of existential moments when one detaches from one's self and looks at the world: the unnamable sadness that we do and do not experience. The imagery here is also a lot richer than most autobiographies - if you enjoy down-to-earth and yet beautiful and touching stories, this is something you should read.

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