He wanted nothing more than to live in peace, until a petty tyrant forced him into a cruel choice: Swiss hunter William Tell is famous for his great skill with a crossbow. A mild-mannered husband and father, he just wants a quiet life for his family. Yet his homeland’s brutal foreign rulers are making such an existence impossible. Then, one day, a ruthless official forces Tell into a terrible choice: Shoot an apple off his son’s head—or be killed along with his son. Will he accept this awful challenge?

This wordless book captures the heart and drama of the famous marksman and Swiss folk hero Wilhelm Tell with bold, bright illustrations by Warja Lavater. Told in pictograms inspired by Manhattan street signs, Lavater turns characters and objects into symbols in this lavish accordion-style fold out book. The drama literally unfolds, with the direction of an arrow motif. Originally published in 1962, NorthSouth is proud to bring this design gem back into print.

Friedrich Schiller is not merely one of Germany's foremost poets. He is also one of the major German contributors to world literature. The undying words he gave to characters such as Marquis Posa in Don Carlos and Wilhelm Tell in the eponymous drama continue to underscore the need for human freedom. Schiller cultivated hope in the actualization of moral knowledge through aesthetic education and critical reflection, leading to his ideal of a more humane humanity. At the same time, he was fully cognizant of the problems that attend various forms of idealism. Yet for Schiller, ultimately, love remains the gravitational center of the universe and of human existence, and beyond life and death joy prevails. This collection of cutting-edge essays by some of the world's leading Schiller experts constitutes a milestone in scholarship. It includes in-depth discussions of the writer's major dramatic and poetic works, his essays on aesthetics, and his activities as historian, anthropologist, and physiologist, as well as of his relation to the ancients and of Schiller reception in 20th-century Germany. Contributors: Steven D. Martinson, Walter Hinderer, David Pugh, Otto Dann, Werner von Stransky-Stranka-Greifenfels, J. M. van der Laan, Rolf-Peter Janz, Lesley Sharpe, Norbert Oellers, Dieter Borchmeyer, Karl S. Guthke, Wulf Koepke. Steven D. Martinson is Professor of German at the University of Arizona.