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From rare books, valuable sculpture and paintings, the relics of saints, and porcelain and other precious items, through stamps, textiles, military ribbons, and shells, to baseball cards, teddy bears, and mugs, an amazing variety of objects have engaged and even obsessed collectors through the ages. With this captivating book the psychoanalyst Werner Muensterberger provides the first extensive psychological examination of the emotional sources of the never-ending longing for yet another collectible. Muensterberger's roster of driven acquisition-hunters includes the dedicated, the serious, and the infatuated, whose chronic restlessness can be curbed--and then merely temporarily--only by purchasing, discovering, receiving, or even stealing a new "find." In an easy, conversational style, the author discusses the eccentricities of heads of state, literary figures, artists, and psychoanalytic patients, all possessed by a need for magic relief from despair and helplessness--and for the self-healing implied in the phrase "I can't live without it!" The sketches here are diverse indeed: Walter Benjamin, Mario Praz, Catherine the Great, Poggio Bracciolini, Brunelleschi, and Jean de Berry, among others. The central part of the work explores in detail the personal circumstances and life history of three individuals: a contemporary collector, Martin G; the celebrated British book and manuscript collector Sir Thomas Phillipps, who wanted one copy of every book in the world; and the great French novelist Honoré de Balzac, a compulsive collector of bric-a-brac who expressed his empathy for the acquisitive passions of his collector protagonist in Cousin Pons. In addition, Muensterberger takes the reader on a charming tour of collecting in the Renaissance and looks at collecting during the Golden Age of Holland, in the seventeenth century. Throughout, we enjoy the author's elegant variations on a complicated theme, stated, much too simply, by John Steinbeck: "I guess the truth is that I simply like junk." Originally published in 1993. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
This book traces the psychology, history and theory of the compulsion to collect, focusing not just on the normative collections of the Western canon, but also on collections that reflect a fascination with the "Other" and the marginal – the ephemeral, exotic, or just plain curious. There are essays on the Neoclassical architect Sir John Soane, Sigmund Freud and Kurt Schwitters, one of the masters of collage. Others examine imperialist encounters with remote cultures – the consquitadors in America in the sixteenth century, and the British in the Pacific in the eighteenth – and the more recent collectors of popular culture, be they of Swatch watches, Elvis Presley memorabilia or of packaging and advertising. With essays by Jean Baudrillard, Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, Nicholas Thomas, Mieke Bal, John Forrester, John Windsor, Naomi Schor, Susan Stewart, Anthony Alan Shelton, John Elsner, Roger Cardinal and an interview with Robert Opie.
With this captivating book, a psychoanalyst provides the first psychological examination of the emotional sources of the never-ending longing for yet another collectible. Includes sketches of diverse collectors such as Walter Benjamin, Mario Praz, Catherine the Great, Petrarch, Brunelleschi, and Jean de Berry.
"Collecting objects gives enormous pleasure to approximately one third of the population. On the other hand, the same pursuit can engender pain. Now, for the first time, scientific research in neuro- and behavioral economics gives us a way to enhance the positive aspects of collecting and minimize the negative. Author Shirley M. Mueller, MD, relates her own experiences as a serious collector and as a neuroscientist to examine different behavioral traits which characterize collectors"--
Average Americans Were the True Framers of the Constitution Woody Holton upends what we think we know of the Constitution's origins by telling the history of the average Americans who challenged the framers of the Constitution and forced on them the revisions that produced the document we now venerate. The framers who gathered in Philadelphia in 1787 were determined to reverse America's post–Revolutionary War slide into democracy. They believed too many middling Americans exercised too much influence over state and national policies. That the framers were only partially successful in curtailing citizen rights is due to the reaction, sometimes violent, of unruly average Americans. If not to protect civil liberties and the freedom of the people, what motivated the framers? In Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution, Holton provides the startling discovery that the primary purpose of the Constitution was, simply put, to make America more attractive to investment. And the linchpin to that endeavor was taking power away from the states and ultimately away from the people. In an eye-opening interpretation of the Constitution, Holton captures how the same class of Americans that produced Shays's Rebellion in Massachusetts (and rebellions in damn near every other state) produced the Constitution we now revere. Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution is a 2007 National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction.
A surprising book that is also a little scary and more than a little deep, Margarash is about a young boy and a seemingly-nasty monster who realize they need each other. Mark Riddle is a Youth Services Librarian with a colossal beard. He was born in Australia, has lived in Taiwan and Turkey, and now resides in North Carolina with his wife, Kate; their cat, Warda Runciblespoon; and several fish and chickens. This is his first picture book. Tim Miller is the author-illustrator of Moo Moo in a Tutu and What's Cooking, Moo Moo?, and the illustrator of the Snappsy the Alligator books, Horse Meets Dog, Margarash, and the middle grade series Hamstersaurus Rex. Tim studied at the School of Visual Arts where he earned a Bachelor's in Cartooning and a Master's in Art Education. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and three cats.
On the eve of his thirtieth birthday, Miguel Santos leaves his high-powered life behind for a visit to the small town he grew up in... and the high school sweetheart whose wild passion he's never stopped craving. Faith Bennett loved Miguel the moment she saw him. But she always knew his future was in New York, while hers was tied to the auto shop that was her close-knit family's livelihood. Pushing him away nearly broke her, but when he took her heart with him, he left something precious behind. Now he's back, demanding her body, her desire, her very soul as retribution for the pain he still carries. He won't settle for anything less than everything she's got, but she still can't leave with him and he still can't stay, and their past has secrets too explosive to share.
Sheikh Ra'id Al Maktabi has mastered the wild, inhospitable desert out of necessity. But the sexy stowaway who has clambered onto his yacht he'll tame for fun…. He assumes that socialite Antonia Ruggiero is used to being pampered and preened. But on his boat, Ra'id is the master. So he'll put her to work clearing the decks—and after hours pleasure her in his bed…. But that's until they get to dry land, where the only mistress Ra'id obeys is duty. Or so he thinks—until he gets an unexpected surprise! Now Antonia is with her sheikh for the journey….
“River of Stars is a major accomplishment, the work of a master novelist in full command of his subject.”—Michael Dirda, in The Washington Post “Game of Thrones in China.”—Salon.com Ren Daiyan was still just a boy when he took the lives of seven men while guarding an imperial magistrate. That moment on a lonely road changed his life in entirely unexpected ways, sending him into the forests of Kitai among the outlaws. From there he emerges years later—and his life changes again, dramatically, as he circles toward the court and emperor, while war approaches Kitai from the north. Lin Shan is the daughter of a scholar, his beloved only child. Educated by him in ways young women never are, gifted as a songwriter and calligrapher, she finds herself living a life suspended between two worlds. Her intelligence captivates an emperor—and alienates women at the court. But when her father’s life is endangered by the savage politics of the day, Shan must act in ways no woman ever has. In an empire divided by bitter factions circling an exquisitely cultured emperor who loves his gardens and his art far more than the burdens of governing, dramatic events on the northern steppe alter the balance of power in the world, leading to events no one could have foretold, under the river of stars.
Ah, "beach week": a time-honored tradition in which the D.C. suburbs' latest herd of high school grads flocks to Chelsea Beach for seven whole days of debauched celebration. In this dark comedy, ten teenage girls plan an unhinged blowout the likes of which their young lives have never seen. They smuggle vodka in water bottles and horde prescription drugs by the dozen. Meanwhile, their misguided, affluent parents are too busy worrying about legal liabilities to fret over some missing pills or random hookups. For Jordan Adler and her family, though, this rite of passage threatens to become more than just frivolous fun. The teen's parents, Leah and Charles, might not let their only child go at all. Their marriage is in shambles, their old house is languishing on the market, and the bills are stacking up. With all that stress, it soon seems they're behaving as irresponsibly as their daughter and her friends. With the wit of Nora Ephron and the insight of Tom Perrotta, Susan Coll satirizes a new teenage rite of passage, in the process dismantling the lives of families in transition. Beach Week is a hilarious, well-observed look at the end of childhood and the human need to commemorate it—expensively.