The Devil's Dictionary by Oxford University Press, USA $17.95
History, n. an account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools. Marriage, n. The state or condition of a community consisting of a master, a mistress, and two slaves, making in all two. Self-Esteem, n. An erroneous appraisement. These caustic aphorisms, collected in The Devil's Dictionary, helped earn Ambrose Bierce...

The Professor and the Madman (P.S.) by HarperCollins e-books $12.99
The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary -- and literary history. The compilation of the OED, begun in 1857, was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing...

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt $29.95
In this fast-paced information age, how can Americans know what's really important and what's just a passing fashion? Now more than ever, we need a source that concisely sums up the knowledge that matters to Americans -- the people, places, ideas, and events that shape our cultural conversation. With more than six thousand entries,The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy is that invaluable source....

Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by W. W. Norton $15.95
"So engrossing, clearheaded, and lucid that its arrival is not just welcome but cause for celebration."—Dan Cryer, NewsdayStephen Greenblatt, the charismatic Harvard professor who "knows more about Shakespeare than Ben Jonson or the Dark Lady did" (John Leonard, Harper's), has written a biography that enables us to see, hear, and feel how an acutely sensitive and talented boy, surrounded by the...

The Chemical History of a Candle (Michael Faraday) by Book Jungle $9.95
"From the primitive pine-torch to the paraffin candle, how wide an interval! between them how vast a contrast! The means adopted by man to illuminate his home at night, stamp at once his position in the scale of civilisation. The fluid bitumen of the far East, blazing in rude vessels of baked earth; the Etruscan lamp, exquisite in form, yet ill adapted to its office; the whale, seal, or bear fat,...

Philip and Elizabeth: Portrait of a Royal Marriage by W. W. Norton $27.95
Privileged access to both the Queen and Prince Philip is the key to this revealing and engrossing royal biography.This is the first major biography of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh—both royal, both great-great-great grandchildren of Queen Victoria, but in temperament and upbringing very different people. Her childhood was loving and secure, his turbulent: the Duke's grandfather was...

The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by Simon & Schuster $15.00
33,000 PAGES 44 MILLION WORDS 10 BILLION YEARS OF HISTORY 1 OBSESSED MAN Part memoir and part education (or lack thereof), The Know-It-All chronicles NPR contributor A.J. Jacobs's hilarious, enlightening, and seemingly impossible quest to read the Encyclopaedia Britannica from A to Z. To fill the ever-widening gaps in his Ivy League education, A.J. Jacobs sets for himself the daunting task...

A World History of Photography by Abbeville Pr $65.00
Encompasses the entire range of the photographic medium, from the camera lucida to up-to-date computer technology, and from Europe and the Americas to the Far East. The text investigates all aspects of photography - aesthetic, documentary, commercial and technical - while placing it in historical context. It includes three technical sections with detailed information about equipment and...

The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia by Kingfisher

Great Dialogues of Plato (Mentor) by Eric H. Warmington $6.99
"In Rouse's pages, Soctrates' strength of mind, his dedication to the philosophical truth, are borne in on the modern reader with something of the power that impressed and disturbed the ancient Greeks."--Time"There has been no adequate translation of Plato since Jowett...and I think Rouse has done it." --Dudley Fitts* Rouse is one of the world's most respected classical scholars