Justus George Lawler's critically acclaimed study of the work of the Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) is, once again, available.

Through the lens of Hopkins's 'masterwork', The Philosophical Mysticism of Gerard Manley Hopkins readdresses Hopkins's frequently overlooked mysticism as an interior narrative within his corpus. Drawing on a range of religious, literary and visual traditions from Augustine's Confessions to the seventeenth-century spiritual emblem, this book demonstrates the ways in which the Wreck deliberately constructs and conceals a mystical and contemplative narrative. Typology and allegory are some of the important hermeneutic tools used in this re-reading of Hopkins, relating the poet to the discursive tradition surrounding the Old Testament Song of Songs, the philosophical theology of the Greek Fathers, and, perhaps most intriguingly, the meditative and visual tradition of the baroque heart-emblem. On the centenary of the publication of Hopkins’s poems, this book places the writer firmly within a mystical tradition, necessitating a fundamental reconsideration of the legacy of this major Victorian poet.

Johns Hopkins destroyed his private papers so thoroughly that no credible biography exists of the Baltimore Quaker titan. One of America’s richest men and the largest single shareholder of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, Hopkins was also one of the city’s defining developers. In The Ghosts of Johns Hopkins, Antero Pietila weaves together a biography of the man with a portrait of how the institutions he founded have shaped the racial legacy of an industrial city from its heyday to its decline and revitalization. From the destruction of neighborhoods to make way for the mercantile buildings that dominated Baltimore’s downtown through much of the 19th century to the role that the president of Johns Hopkins University played in government sponsored “Negro Removal” that unleashed the migration patterns that created Baltimore’s existing racial patchwork, Pietila tells the story of how one man’s wealth shaped and reshaped the life of a city long after his lifetime.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The story of modern medicine and bioethics—and, indeed, race relations—is refracted beautifully, and movingly.”—Entertainment Weekly NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM HBO® STARRING OPRAH WINFREY AND ROSE BYRNE • ONE OF THE “MOST INFLUENTIAL” (CNN), “DEFINING” (LITHUB), AND “BEST” (THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER) BOOKS OF THE DECADE • ONE OF ESSENCE’S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS • WINNER OF THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE HEARTLAND PRIZE FOR NONFICTION NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • Entertainment Weekly • O: The Oprah Magazine • NPR • Financial Times • New York • Independent (U.K.) • Times (U.K.) • Publishers Weekly • Library Journal • Kirkus Reviews • Booklist • Globe and Mail Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine: The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, which are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave. Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family—past and present—is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of. Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah. Deborah was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Had they killed her to harvest her cells? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance? Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.

A Kirkus Reviews Best Book An NCTE Notable Poetry Book Fourteen poems compiled by award-winning poet and anthologist Lee Bennett Hopkins introduce readers to the various construction people who collaborate to create a high-rise hotel building, from architect to crane operator to glaziers and more. How does an empty lot transform into a new hotel? This anthology begins with a busy construction site, and an architect's (and her daughter's) dreams drawn on blueprint paper. Next, workers with huge machines--backhoes, dump trucks, cement mixers, etc.--roll in. Poems full of noise and action describe every step of the construction process. From welders and carpenters building the skeleton of the building to plumbers and electricians making its insides work, this book celebrates people and equipment working together to build something magnificent.

Read Article in Johns Hopkins Magazine "Almost anyone associated with Johns Hopkins would say it's a special place, an extraordinary place. But too few of us know its incredible history, how it grew from a handful of faculty and two buildings at Howard and Eutaw Streets into the amazing worldwide institution it is today. This book tells that story. It will surprise and delight you." -- President William R. Brody Daniel Coit Gilman, Johns Hopkins' first president, described an ambitious and audacious mission for a new style of American university in his 1876 inaugural address. Over the next 125 years he, his faculty, and their successors accomplished virtually every task he had proposed. This book celebrates the realization of Daniel Coit Gilman's vision and "depicts a university made strong by its diversity and individualism but linked closely by a commonality of purpose, commitment, hopes, dreams, and accomplishments," according to Ross Jones, chair of the 125th Anniversary Committee. Johns Hopkins: Knowledge for the World weaves a fascinating story of extraordinary accomplishments and day-to-day life on campuses in Baltimore, suburban Maryland, Washington, D.C., and beyond. It's all here, dramatized in more than four hundred illustrations -- many published for the first time -- and dozens of voices representing all university divisions and the internationally renowned hospital and health system; an absorbing chronology of events spanning more than 125 years complements the images and narratives. Distinguished faculty and determined students in seminars and laboratories ponder great issues and tackle life-and-death challenges; staff, students, and alumni make important contributions around the world; thousands of part-time scholars garner knowledge and advance both their careers and their professions. Then there are those uniquely Hopkins moments. Readers are invited to accompany the Peabody Orchestra to Moscow and legendary physicians as they lead medical rounds. Applied Physics Laboratory scientists work with Homewood astrophysicists to unravel the mysteries of the universe. Engineering and public-health students work side-by-side to understand and alleviate complex problems. Trailblazing women reinvent the nursing profession and break down barriers in graduate and undergraduate schools. Budding diplomats from many countries consider real and imagined global crises. And year after year, the lacrosse team inspires university-wide pride -- and, in 1947, some resolute undergraduates to steal a rather large terrapin. "Hopkins gave me every opportunity that I've had, and it made me realize that you have to think. It made me skeptical. It made me wonder. It made me ask why all the time. That's the great difference it made in me."--Russell Baker, B.A. '47 "We expect you to be great. And we will work as hard as we can to make you great. I know of no place else where people work as hard to help each other. People who've never been here and don't know us think that this is a cutthroat place. They don't understand it's just the opposite. We have the opportunity to take from among the best, and we have among the best teachers to work with them. Great begets great begets great. You're expected to be great and you are. Everybody has every faith in you."--Dr. Catherine DeAngelis "Hopkins was a tough place, but that was part of its charm, and that's what we all shared graduation day, thinking, 'I went through four years of Hopkins. I've got to be good.' I guess students still have that feeling, but it was particularly true in our time. What a wonderful feeling it was to have graduated from Hopkins."--Ernest A. Bates, B.A. '58 "My boss advised me to go to Johns Hopkins. He said, 'When you go to Hopkins and you get up to bat and hit the ball, they let you play. But you've got to hit the ball. Doesn't matter who you are, they'll take care of you.'"--Professor Donald Coffey, Ph.D. '64