THIS is the first of a series of volumes edited by Professor M. Cable illustrating progress in understanding glass making from the 17th century to the early part of the 19th. Known as THE WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS BOOK ON GLASSMAKING, it was first published, in Italian, in 1612, as L'Arte Vetraria by Antonio Neri who claimed to have experience of glassmaking in several countries and described the best practice of that time, particularly in making coloured glasses. A second edition printed in 1661 made the work more widely known. An English translation by Christopher Merrett MD, one of the early Fellows of the Royal Society, was published in 1662. Merrett added very extensive notes of his own which almost doubled the length of the book. That text became the master for subsequent editions. It was eventually translated into Latin, French, German, and Spanish, and reprinted at least twenty times over the course of almost two centuries. This edition reproduces Merrett's original layout, including the printers ornaments, but is set more legibly and corrects some errors. It is introduced by an essay written in 1962 by Professor W. E. S. Turner FRS which explains the background and importance of this work.

A young woman journeys deep into the untamed jungle, wrestling with love and loss, trauma and healing, faith and redemption, in this sweeping debut from "the gutsiest woman adventurer of our day" (Book Magazine) Marika Vecera, an accomplished war reporter, has dedicated her life to helping the world's oppressed and forgotten. When not on one of her dangerous assignments, she lives in Boston, exploring a new relationship with Seb, a psychologist who offers her glimpses of a better world. Returning from a harrowing assignment in the Congo where she was kidnapped by rebel soldiers, Marika learns that a man she has always admired from afar, Pulitzer-winning war correspondent Robert Lewis, has committed suicide. Stunned, she abandons her magazine work to write Lewis's biography, settling down with Seb as their intimacy grows. But when Marika finds a curious letter from a missionary claiming to have seen Lewis in the remote jungle of Papua New Guinea, she has to wonder, What if Lewis isn't dead? Marika soon leaves Seb to embark on her ultimate journey in one of the world's most exotic and unknown lands. Through her eyes we experience the harsh realities of jungle travel, embrace the mythology of native tribes, and receive the special wisdom of Tobo, a witch doctor and sage, as we follow her extraordinary quest to learn the truth about Lewis—and about herself, along the way.

Public broadcasting has changed dramatically since its founding in 1967. The growing equation of marketplace efficiency with the public interest has, in Tom McCourt's analysis, undermined the value of public goods and services. In addition, political and cultural discourse is increasingly beset by fragmentation. Public radio provides an exemplary site to examine the prospects and problems of contemporary public life. Beginning with a description of the events that led to the creation of National Public Radio, McCourt discusses the relationship between NPR and its affiliate stations and the ways in which struggles over funding and programming have affected public radio's agenda. He also examines how public radio incorporates the roles of public representatives into its operations and how its methods to determine the needs and interests of the public have changed across the system's history. The social, political, and economic pressures that have impacted the mission and practices of National Public Radio, McCourt asserts, are manifest in all areas of American life. Through extensive historical research, he examines whether American public broadcasters, as represented by NPR, have succeeded or failed to engender an enlightened, participatory democracy.

A Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year: “Part social satire, part thriller, and entirely clever” (Elle). It is a midsummer’s evening in the English countryside, and the three grown Palmer children are coming to the end of an enjoyable meal in the company of their partners and offspring. From this pleasant vantage point they play a dinner-party game: What kind of society would you be willing to accept if you didn’t know your place in it? But the abstract question of justice, like all their family conversations, is eventually brought back to the more pressing problem of their eccentric mother, Frieda, the famous writer, who has abandoned them and her old life, and gone to live alone in Exmoor. Frieda has always been a powerful and puzzling figure, a monster mother with a mysterious past. What is she plotting against them now? Has some inconvenient form of political correctness led her to favor her enchanting half-Guyanese grandson? What will she do with her money? Is she really writing her memoirs? And why has she disappeared? Has the dark spirit of Exmoor finally driven her mad? The Witch of Exmoor brilliantly interweaves high comedy and personal tragedy, unraveling the story of a family whose comfortable, rational lives, both public and private, are about to be violently disrupted by a succession of sinister, messy events. “Leisurely and mischievous,” it is a dazzling, wickedly gothic tale of a British matriarch, her three grasping children, and the perils of self-absorption (The New Yorker). “As meticulous as Jane Austen, as deadly as Evelyn Waugh.” —Los Angeles Times

"McCauley's work draws on a wealth of primary sources, including dozens of interviews with people who have been central to the NPR story. He examines various internal debates about the direction of NPR and the content of its programming. McCauley also places the development of NPR within the historical context of the wider U.S. radio industry, the ideological and political conflicts of postwar America, and contemporary debates about the ways in which mass media can better serve the citizens of a democracy."--BOOK JACKET.