The international bestselling author of Fermat’s Last Theorem explores the eccentric lives of history’s foremost mathematicians. From Archimedes’s eureka moment to Alexander Grothendieck’s seclusion in the Pyrenees, bestselling author Amir Aczel selects the most compelling stories in the history of mathematics, creating a colorful narrative that explores the quirky personalities behind some of the most groundbreaking, influential, and enduring theorems. Alongside revolutionary innovations are incredible tales of duels, battlefield heroism, flamboyant arrogance, pranks, secret societies, imprisonment, feuds, and theft—as well as some costly errors of judgment that prove genius doesn’t equal street smarts. Aczel’s colorful and enlightening profiles offer readers a newfound appreciation for the tenacity, complexity, eccentricity, and brilliance of our greatest mathematicians.

Birds were "the objects of my greatest delight," wrote John James Audubon (1785-1851), founder of modern ornithology and one of the world's greatest bird painters. His masterpiece, The Birds of America depicts almost five hundred North American bird species, each image--lifelike and life size--rendered in vibrant color. Audubon was also an explorer, a woodsman, a hunter, an entertaining and prolific writer, and an energetic self-promoter. Through talent and dogged determination, he rose from backwoods obscurity to international fame. In This Strange Wilderness, award-winning author Nancy Plain brings together the amazing story of this American icon's career and the beautiful images that are his legacy. Before Audubon, no one had seen, drawn, or written so much about the animals of this largely uncharted young country. Aware that the wilderness and its wildlife were changing even as he watched, Audubon remained committed almost to the end of his life "to search out the things which have been hidden since the creation of this wondrous world." This Strange Wilderness details his art and writing, transporting the reader back to the frontiers of early nineteenth-century America.

At first Viola and Viljo's childhood days were almost idyllic. They had parents who loved them, older sisters who tolerated them, and their grandmother, Susanna; who could be quite strict at times, but obviously doted on them. From a young age, they had learned a lot about the various flora and fauna on their land from their mother, Ida and they enjoyed the hikes and picnics that they shared as she patiently shared her knowledge with them. Their father, Einar brought home a black, Labrador puppy and they had almost limitless freedom, with few restrictions, to play their games, explore the wilderness, forage for wild berries and to go fishing and wading in the creek nearby. Things tragically change however when their mother, Ida becomes ill and passes away not very long after giving birth to their baby brother Eino. Viljo and Viola are then for the first time in their lives separated and unhappily sent to stay with different family members while their father has to go away for the winter to work at a bush camp. They are reunited again in the spring but find that they must grow up in a hurry when their older sisters leave home to go and work in the city and their elderly grandmother dies. Their father does odd jobs for farmers in the area but finds that he can't earn enough money to make a living and after much deliberation decides that he will have to go back to work in the logging camps for a few months. After stocking the cupboards with food supplies and ensuring that they will have enough firewood for the wood stove, he departs, leaving his son, thirteen year old Viljo in charge of his nine year old sister Viola. The children are now completely alone at the homestead in the wilderness until their father's return. Together, they persevere with the difficult day-to-day chores of cooking, keeping the wood stove going and carrying in water, as well as dealing with the great unpredictability of nature, finding inner reserves of strength that have never been tested before. Being so young, they also find the time to turn tedium into play and even manage to find humour in their day to day struggles. The days and nights become filled with stark fear when they gradually become aware that Frank, the misshapen, emotionally disturbed hermit, who lives a few miles distant, in the thickest part of the woods is furtively lurking around their homestead, and watching them, even at night. While doing their best to cope with this frightening turn of events, they remain totally oblivious that an other unearthly presence also observes and listens and is never very far away. They have no one to rely on but themselves when terrifying occurrences begin to escalate out of their control as they desperately wait for their father, Einar to come back home. Strange Township is an actual place in Northwestern Ontario and the characters in this story are actual people.

Inside the Invisible investigates the life and works of Turner Prize-winning Black British artist and curator Lubaina Himid (CBE) to provide the first study of her lifelong determination to do justice to the hidden histories and untold stories of Black women, children, and men bought and sold into transatlantic slavery.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The remarkable true story of a man who lived alone in the woods of Maine for 27 years, making this dream a reality—not out of anger at the world, but simply because he preferred to live on his own. “A meditation on solitude, wildness and survival.” —The Wall Street Journal In 1986, a shy and intelligent twenty-year-old named Christopher Knight left his home in Massachusetts, drove to Maine, and disappeared into the forest. He would not have a conversation with another human being until nearly three decades later, when he was arrested for stealing food. Living in a tent even through brutal winters, he had survived by his wits and courage, developing ingenious ways to store edibles and water, and to avoid freezing to death. He broke into nearby cottages for food, clothing, reading material, and other provisions, taking only what he needed but terrifying a community never able to solve the mysterious burglaries. Based on extensive interviews with Knight himself, this is a vividly detailed account of his secluded life—why did he leave? what did he learn?—as well as the challenges he has faced since returning to the world. It is a gripping story of survival that asks fundamental questions about solitude, community, and what makes a good life, and a deeply moving portrait of a man who was determined to live his own way, and succeeded.

A Companion to Australian Art A Companion to Australian Art is a thorough introduction to the art produced in Australia from the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 to the early 21st century. Beginning with the colonial art made by Australia’s first European settlers, this volume presents a collection of clear and accessible essays by established art historians and emerging scholars alike. Engaging, clearly-written chapters provide fresh insights into the principal Australian art movements, considered from a variety of chronological, regional and thematic perspectives. The text seeks to provide a balanced account of historical events to help readers discover the art of Australia on their own terms and draw their own conclusions. The book begins by surveying the historiography of Australian art and exploring the history of art museums in Australia. The following chapters discuss art forms such as photography, sculpture, portraiture and landscape painting, examining the practice of art in the separate colonies before Federation, and in the Commonwealth from the early 20th century to the present day. This authoritative volume covers the last 250 years of art in Australia, including the Early Colonial, High Colonial and Federation periods as well as the successive Modernist styles of the 20th century, and considers how traditional Aboriginal art has adapted and changed over the last fifty years. The Companion to Australian Art is a valuable resource for both undergraduate and graduate students of the history of Australian artforms from colonization to postmodernism, and for general readers with an interest in the nation’s colonial art history.