"The Story of the Invention of Steel Pens: With a Description of the Manufacturing Process by Which They Are Produced" by Henry Bore looks at how writing implements have changed over time and, as a result, how communication has changed as well. Steel pens eventually became one of the most important tools in schools, businesses, and even personal lives. However, before arriving at this model, writing needed to move from carvings to ink, and the population at large needed to have a greater need for written communication, which is all explored in this fascinating text.

Empire, the fourth novel in Gore Vidal's monumental six-volume chronicle of the American past, is his prodigiously detailed portrait of the United States at the dawn of the twentieth century as it begins to emerge as a world power. ------While America struggles to define its destiny, beautiful and ambitious Caroline Sanford fights to control her own fate. One of Vidal's most in-spired creations, she is an embodiment of the complex, vigorous young nation. From the back offices of her Washington newspaper, Caroline confronts the two men who threaten to thwart her ambition: William Randolph Hearst and his protégé, Blaise Sanford, Caroline's half brother. In their struggles for power the lives of brother and sister become intertwined with those of Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt, as well as Astors, Vanderbilts, and Whitneys--all incarnations of America's Gilded Age. ------"Mr. Vidal demonstrates a political imagination and insider's sagacity equaled by no other practicing fiction writer," said The New York Times Book Review. "Like the earlier novels in his historical cycle, Empire is a wonderfully vivid documentary drama." ------With a new Introduction by the author.

The book deals with some syntactic and semantic aspects of the shared Balkan Sprachbund properties. In a comprehensive introductory chapter, Tomić offers an overview of the Balkan Sprachbund properties. Sobolev, displaying the areal distribution of 65 properties, argues for dialect cartography. Friedman, on the example of the evidentials, argues for typologically informed areal explanation of the Balkan properties. The other contributions analyze specific phenomena: polidefinite DPs in Greek and Aromanian (Campos and Stavrou), Balkan constructions in which datives combine with impersonal clitics or non-active morphology (Rivero), Balkan optatives (Ammann and Auwera), imperative force in the Balkan languages (Isac and Jakab), clitic placement in Greek imperatives (Bošković), focused constituents in Romanian and Bulgarian (Hill), synthetic and analytic tenses in Romanian (D'Hulst, Coene and Avram), "purpose-like" modification in a number of Balkan languages (Bužarovska), Balkan modal existential “wh”-constructions (Grosu), child and adult strategies in interpreting empty subjects in Serbian/Croatian (Stojanović and Marelj), conditional sentences in Judeo-Spanish (Montoliu and Auwera).

Painting a grand panorama of New York City in the Roaring Twenties, Henry Roth once again draws us into the adolescent world of Ira Stigman. Through this absorbing narrative, Roth evokes a bygone- a time of innocence shadowed by forbidden experience, for Ira's fateful story is that of a tormented teenager doomed to near madness by the twisted, violent urges within his own heart. So intense and consuming is a secret carried by the young Ira that it can only be revealed by the old man, seventy years later, in streams of cathartic torrents that free him from the shackles of his past.

Capture the Beauty of the Cosmos with Stunning Watercolor Masterpieces From sparkling galaxies and starry night skies to surreal clouds and striking planets, the captivating watercolor paintings in Galaxy Watercolor can help you capture the majesty of celestial bodies and splendor of outer space. Artist extraordinaire Sosha Davis has long found inspiration and creativity in all things cosmic, and now she’s sharing her favorite projects with you. Perfect for both beginners looking to learn the basics of watercolor painting and more experienced artists in search of new subjects, this book breaks down Sosha's dreamy, ethereal paintings with easy-to-follow steps and helpful photos to guide you. One-of-a-kind projects such as Night Sky Shapes and Floral Crescent Moon marry earth and sky with Sosha’s masterful use of color, and paintings like Cosmic Card and Celestial Bookmark let you show off your art in fun craft projects that make perfect gifts! If you’re feeling more meditative, you can try soulful cosmic projects such as Line Art Goddess, Astrology Wheel and Soul Circle Art for whimsical art worthy of being framed. With all the tips and techniques you need to begin your watercolor journey and create eye-catching cosmic art, this collection of out-of-this-world paintings is your new go-to for relaxing, inspirational and outright impressive watercolor art.