Angelo Bonatura, a perfectionist in all he did--fishing, turkey shooting, politicking, murder and bootlegging--was understandably put out when his sheriff, the incumbent Big Turk, lost the election to young McCalla the candidate of the "dry" element in the county. McCalla, whose father the police chief had once long ago prevented Angelo from practising his legitimate trade as a barber, proved hard to kill. But there were other ways of removing an honest sheriff and Angelo found a simple but foolproof method in the person of a young woman who wanted lots of money very badly

Roughly fifteen years after Gutenberg printed the first substantial book in Mainz in 1455, Nicolas Jenson of Venice produced what has been universally recognized among the most beautiful typefaces ever created. Based on the humanistic calligraphy of the Renaissance, an even and infinitely various set of lowercase letters that had evolved from the Carolingian minuscules of the ninth century, Jenson's types were a miracle of proportion and evenness of color. In the late nineteenth century, it was imitated by Morris in his Golden Type of 1892 (far too heavy), and in the next by Cobden-Sanderson with his Doves Type, Goudy with his Deepdene, and Hunter Middleton with his Eusebius. But it was really not until Bruce Rogers, following his stint at the Riverside Press in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he first attempted a version of the type in his Montaigne font, tackled the challenge of creating a roman equal to (and in some ways surpassing) the Jenson original. The proof of his success is that it has been used, and held in high esteem, ever since. The story behind the type, the many permutations through which it went, the myths that accrued and surrounded it (many based on Rogers's somewhat erratic and chimerical memory) are all exposed in this fully documented account of the type's genesis and development. All the variations are included, from the 16-pt. roman originally produced for the exclusive use of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to its conversion to the Monotype machine under the supervision of Stanley Morison, a typewriter version, a short-lived film version, and its ultimate appearance as a digital face. Included as well is a discussion of the Arrighi italic, developed to accompany the roman by Frederic Warde and Stanley Morison at the Monotype Corporation. The book has been designed and set in a new digital version of Centaur, often and justly called "the noblest roman of them all," created by Jerry Kelly. The authors have unearthed, mined, and refined a trove of typographic material to create the definitive history of what many consider the most beautiful typeface created by an American in the last century and used, to immortal effect, in two of the century's greatest books, T.E. Lawrence's Odyssey of Homer and the Oxford Lectern Bible. Illustrated with many examples in full color, with a dust jacket printed letterpress, issued in an edition of only 1,000 copies, this is a book no certified member of the lunatic fringe of type fanatics can afford to ignore.

This award-winning biography delves beyond the myths about Ancient Rome’s most famous assassin: “A beautifully written and thought-provoking book” (Christopher Pelling, author of Plutarch and History). Conspirator and assassin, philosopher and statesman, promoter of peace and commander in war, Marcus Brutus was a controversial and enigmatic man even to those who knew him. His leading role in the murder of Julius Caesar on the Ides of March, 44 BC, immortalized his name, but no final verdict has ever been made about his fateful act. Was Brutus wrong to kill his friend and benefactor or was he right to place his duty to country ahead of personal obligations? In this comprehensive biography, Kathryn Tempest examines historical sources to bring to light the personal and political struggles Brutus faced. As the details are revealed—from his own correspondence with Cicero, the perceptions of his peers, and the Roman aristocratic values and concepts that held sway in his time—Brutus emerges from legend, revealed as the complex man he was. A Choice Outstanding Academic Title Winner

With extraordinary narrative power, New York Times bestselling author Colleen McCullough sweeps the reader into a whirlpool of pageantry and passion, bringing to vivid life the most glorious epoch in human history. When the world cowered before the legions of Rome, two extraordinary men dreamed of personal glory: the military genius and wealthy rural "upstart" Marius, and Sulla, penniless and debauched but of aristocratic birth. Men of exceptional vision, courage, cunning, and ruthless ambition, separately they faced the insurmountable opposition of powerful, vindictive foes. Yet allied they could answer the treachery of rivals, lovers, enemy generals, and senatorial vipers with intricate and merciless machinations of their own—to achieve in the end a bloody and splendid foretold destiny . . . and win the most coveted honor the Republic could bestow.

In recent years, a long-established view of the Roman Empire during its great age of expansion has been called into question by scholars who contend that this model has made Rome appear too much like a modern state. This is especially true in terms of understanding how the Roman government ordered the city--and the world around it--geographically. In this innovative, systematic approach, Daniel J. Gargola demonstrates how important the concept of space was to the governance of Rome. He explains how Roman rulers, without the means for making detailed maps, conceptualized the territories under Rome's power as a set of concentric zones surrounding the city. In exploring these geographic zones and analyzing how their magistrates performed their duties, Gargola examines the idiosyncratic way the elite made sense of the world around them and how it fundamentally informed the way they ruled over their dominion. From what geometrical patterns Roman elites preferred to how they constructed their hierarchies in space, Gargola considers a wide body of disparate materials to demonstrate how spatial orientation dictated action, shedding new light on the complex peculiarities of Roman political organization.

In 1948, the world-renowned book designer Bruce Rogers wrote a brief text that documented and illustrated his creation of the Centaur typeface several decades earlier: The Centaur Types. The book was privately printed by Rogers himself under the name of his design studio, October House. This limited edition of the book was transferred to the Purdue University Libraries at the time of his death along with his other papers and books. Over the years remaining stock of the original private printing has found its home in the Special Collections of the Libraries, and although known as something of a collector's item by those who are aware of the few copies in circulation, it is here available to the general market for the first time in both paperback and digital versions. The Centaur Types is a fascinating book for several reasons: in the designer's own words, we learn of the evolution of the typeface and of his interest in the art and craft of creating type; it demonstrates different and comparable typefaces, and gives examples of Centaur from six to seventy-two point; and it stands as a fitting example of fine bookmaking from one of the master book designers of the twentieth century.