An “incandescent….redefining biography of a major poet whose reputation continues to ascend” (Booklist, starred review)—Wallace Stevens, perhaps the most important American poet of the twentieth century. Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) lived a richly imaginative life that he expressed in his poems. “A biography that is both deliciously readable and profoundly knowledgeable” (Library Journal, starred review), The Whole Harmonium presents Stevens within the living context of his times and as the creator of a poetry that continues to shape how we understand and define ourselves. A lawyer who rose to become an insurance-company vice president, Stevens composed brilliant poems on long walks to work and at other stolen moments. He endured an increasingly unhappy marriage, and yet he had his Dionysian side, reveling in long fishing (and drinking) trips to the sun-drenched tropics of Key West. He was at once both the Connecticut businessman and the hidalgo lover of all things Latin. His first book of poems, Harmonium, published when he was forty-four, drew on his profound understanding of Modernism to create a distinctive and inimitable American idiom. Over time he became acquainted with peers such as Robert Frost and William Carlos Williams, but his personal style remained unique. The complexity of Stevens’s poetry rests on emotional, philosophical, and linguistic tensions that thread their way intricately through his poems, both early and late. And while he can be challenging to understand, Stevens has proven time and again to be one of the most richly rewarding poets to read. Biographer and poet Paul Mariani’s The Whole Harmonium “is an excellent, superb, thrilling story of a mind….unpacking poems in language that is nearly as eloquent as the poet’s, and as clear as faithfulness allows” (The New Yorker).

"The exquisite objects created by goldsmith and jeweler Peter Carl Fabergé and his studio in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for the aristocracy and nobility of imperial Russia are considered to be some of the most refined examples of the jeweler's art of any age. Of greatest fascination are the extraordinary Easter eggs created as special commissions for the Russian imperial family and other notable patrons - works that remain unparalleled in their ingenuity of construction and sheer beauty. Accompanying a major exhibition Faberge Revealed represents a landmark for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and for Fabergé scholarship. The essays by Géza von Habsburg and other scholars present new findings on Fabergé, his workshops, and the creation of these extraordinary objects. For the first time all items by or attributed to Fabergé in VMFA's collection are documented along with the museum's significant holdings of other Russian decorative arts..."--Publisher description.

Think Faberge, and what comes to mind are images of fabulous, glittering jewelry, the mystery and allure of Europe's great royal courts and, of course, the magnificent Imperial Easter Eggs made for the Russian Tsars. Carl Faberge was, first and foremost, a goldsmith, and the exquisite objects that came out of the Faberge workshop at its peak represent the ultimate refinement of the goldsmith's art. Each piece was designed with the express purpose of bringing joy to its recipient. Accomplishments of the Faberge workshop were not limited to precious metals and lapidary work. Their enameling techniques consistently attained a subtlety adn brilliance of technique that had rarely been matched elsewhere - the work glows with richly colored enamels used with unrivaled virtuosity.