On November 28, 1864, James Allen was born in Leicester, England. Allen's father travelled to the United States in 1879 in search of ways to rescue his failing stocking knitting business and support his family. He also planned to live there. Sadly, he was probably killed before his family could come and join him. James Allen quit school and began working because his family was struggling financially. Like his father before him, he started out as a knitter for frames. Then, until his retirement, he worked as a private secretary. He wed Lily Louisa Oram in 1895. Their daughter, Nora, was later born.

Dorothy Jean Hulst, a free-lance writer, had as one of her favorite books As A Man Thinketh, by James Allen. In this short volume, Allen expressed his belief that an individual, through the power of positive thought, forms their character and consequent happiness. Hulst was inspired by the content of Allen's book but tired of the mental exercise required to substitute feminine equivalents for masculine terms. Using a pencil, she crossed out all masculine references, replacing them with feminine words. The result, As A Woman Thinketh, allows women to identify directly and personally with Allen's concepts.

In 1904, a relatively unknown Englishman named James Allen wrote a little book called As a Man Thinketh. The book has become one of the world’s greatest self-help books — “self-empowerment” is a better term — for it not only reveals to us that the keys to success are within our own minds, it shows us how to use these keys to unlock the greatest fulfillment we can imagine. In this revised edition, author and publisher Marc Allen updates this classic, changing language that has become dated or obsolete, and honing the clarity of the message. He makes As You Think gender inclusive, showing how these principles are truly universal and apply to everyone, regardless of sex, age, race, beliefs, social class, or education. As You Think is a simple yet powerful reminder that “all we achieve and all that we fail to achieve is the direct result of our own thoughts.” We are the masters of our destinies.

From the editor of the popular Annotated Pride and Prejudice comes an annotated edition of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey that makes her lighthearted satire of the gothic novel an even more satisfying read. Here is the complete text of the novel with more than 1,200 annotations on facing pages, including: -Explanations of historical context -Citations from Austen’s life, letters, and other writings -Definitions and clarifications -Literary comments and analysis -Maps of places in the novel -An introduction, bibliography, and detailed chronology of events -225 informative illustrations Filled with fascinating details about the characters’ clothing, furniture, and carriages, and illuminating background information on everything from the vogue for all things medieval to the opportunities for socializing in the popular resort town of Bath, David M. Shapard’s Annotated Northanger Abbey brings Austen’s world into richer focus.

Translation and commentary by Hidy Ochiai Although it was written more than 300 years ago as a treatise on strategy and combat, Musashi's The Book of Five Rings is treasured today as a classic work that speaks with equal power to the modern businessperson, philosopher and martial artist. In A Way to Victory, Ochiai - a legend in the martial arts world - provides a new translation with notes that clarify the original's lessons for the contemporary reader. With an in-depth analyses of the book's themes, this is a perfect compliment to Musashi's work.

Programming Legend Charles Petzold unlocks the secrets of the extraordinary and prescient 1936 paper by Alan M. Turing Mathematician Alan Turing invented an imaginary computer known as the Turing Machine; in an age before computers, he explored the concept of what it meant to be computable, creating the field of computability theory in the process, a foundation of present-day computer programming. The book expands Turing’s original 36-page paper with additional background chapters and extensive annotations; the author elaborates on and clarifies many of Turing’s statements, making the original difficult-to-read document accessible to present day programmers, computer science majors, math geeks, and others. Interwoven into the narrative are the highlights of Turing’s own life: his years at Cambridge and Princeton, his secret work in cryptanalysis during World War II, his involvement in seminal computer projects, his speculations about artificial intelligence, his arrest and prosecution for the crime of "gross indecency," and his early death by apparent suicide at the age of 41.