Join us on a literary world trip!
Add this book to bookshelf
Grey
Write a new comment Default profile 50px
Grey
Subscribe to read the full book or read the first pages for free!
I want to read the book!
All characters reduced
The Public Library - cover

The Public Library

Robert Dawson

Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Summary

A “beautifully crafted” visual celebration with 150 photos and essays by Barbara Kingsolver, Bill Moyers, Ann Patchett, Anne Lamott, Amy Tan, and more (Publishers Weekly).   Many of us have vivid recollections of childhood visits to a public library: the unmistakable musty scent, the excitement of checking out a stack of newly discovered books. Today, the more than 17,000 libraries in America also function as de facto community centers offering free access to the internet, job-hunting assistance, or a warm place to take shelter. And yet, across the country, cities large and small are closing public libraries or curtailing their hours of operation. Over eighteen years, photographer Robert Dawson crisscrossed the country documenting hundreds of these endangered institutions. The Public Library presents a wide selection of his photographs—from the majestic reading room at the New York Public Library to Allensworth, California’s one-room Tulare County Free Library, built by former slaves. Accompanying them are essays, letters, and poetry by some of America’s most celebrated writers.   “For book lovers, library denizens, and fans of architecture or Americana, The Public Library is a delight.” —The Christian Science Monitor   “If you think all public libraries look pretty much the same, well, you need to take a look at this book. Oh, sure, there are plenty of grand ones, such as Philadelphia’s own Central Library on the Parkway. But we also have the Fishtown Community Branch, featured in this volume, which used to be a firehouse and, before that, a stable. There’s also the log cabin library in Cable, Wis. And many, many more, both grand and humble.” —Philadelphia Inquirer   “An irrefutable argument for the preservation of public libraries . . . profound and heartbreakingly beautiful.” —Toni Morrison
Available since: 09/04/2018.
Print length: 114 pages.

Other books that might interest you

  • As If! - The Oral History of Clueless As Told by Amy Heckerling and the Cast and Crew - cover

    As If! - The Oral History of...

    Jen Chaney

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    Will we ever get tired of watching Cher navigate Beverly Hills high school and discover true love in the movie Clueless? As if! Written by Amy Heckerling and starring Alicia Silverstone, Clueless is an enduring comedy classic that remains one of the most streamed movies on Netflix, Amazon, and iTunes even twenty years after its release. In the first book of its kind, Jen Chaney has compiled an oral history of the making of this iconic film using recollections and insights collected from key cast and crew members involved in the making of this endlessly quotable, ahead-of-its-time production. Get a behind-the-scenes look at how Emma influenced Heckerling to write the script, how the stars were cast into each of their roles, and much more. This wonderful twentieth anniversary commemoration includes never-before-seen photos, original call sheets, casting notes, and production diary extracts. With supplemental critical insights by the author and other notable movie experts about why Clueless continues to impact pop culture, As If! will leave fans new and old totally buggin' as they understand why this beloved film is timeless.
    Show book
  • Kindness and Wonder - Why Mister Rogers Matters Now More Than Ever - cover

    Kindness and Wonder - Why Mister...

    Gavin Edwards

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    A pop culture celebration of Fred Rogers and the enduring legacy of his beloved, award-winning PBS show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood that offers essential wisdom to help us in our troubled times.  
Won’t you be my neighbor? 
For more than thirty years, Fred Rogers was a beloved fixture in American homes. Warm and welcoming, he spoke directly to children—and their parents—about the marvels of the world, the things that worried them, and above all, the importance of being themselves. Dressed in his cardigan and sneakers, Fred Rogers offered a wholesome message of generosity and love that changed the landscape of television and shaped a generation of children. Kindness and Wonder pays tribute to this cultural icon: the unique, gentle man who embodied the best of what we could be. Today’s audiences will be reminded of Mr. Rogers’s uplifting persona in the upcoming TriStar Pictures film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (November 2019), where Tom Hanks stars as the real-life Fred Rogers.   
Looking back at the history of the show and the creative visionary behind it, pop culture aficionado Gavin Edwards reminds us of the indelible lessons and insights that Mister Rogers conveyed—what it means to be a good person, to be open-hearted, to be thoughtful, to be curious, to be compassionate—and why they matter. Beautifully crafted, infused with Mister Rogers’ gentle spirit, and featuring dozens of interviews with people whose lives were touched by Fred Rogers—ranging from Rita Moreno to NFL Hall of Famer Lynn Swann—Kindness and Wonder is a love letter to this unforgettable cultural hero and role model, and the beautiful neighborhood he created.
    Show book
  • Locating the Moving Image - New Approaches to Film and Place - cover

    Locating the Moving Image - New...

    Julia Hallam, Les Roberts

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    Essays exploring the methodologies used by film scholars to develop a spatial history of the moving image. 
 
Leading scholars in the interdisciplinary field of geo-spatial visual studies examine the social experience of cinema and the different ways in which film production developed as a commercial enterprise, as a leisure activity, and as modes of expression and communication. Their research charts new pathways in mapping the relationship between film production and local film practices, theatrical exhibition circuits and cinema going, creating new forms of spatial anthropology. Topics include cinematic practices in rural and urban communities, development of cinema by amateur filmmakers, and use of GIS in mapping the spatial development of film production and cinema going as social practices. 
 
“Introduces some of the concrete ways practical mapping and GIS technologies help elaborate historical film projects. . . . The scope of many of these projects is breathtaking in scale. . . . Others embrace ethnographic methods that tell poignant individual stories. Still others deftly merge qualitative and quantitative approaches. . . . As a whole, the volume brings together disparate fields of study in interesting ways.” —James Craine, California State University, Northridge 
 
“This collection breaks new ground for cinema history. Hallam and Roberts have gathered some of the foremost scholars who are mapping spatial histories of the moving image and the geographies of film production, distribution and consumption. Introducing new interdisciplinary methods and asking new questions, Locating the Moving Image takes film studies into new territory, beyond the boundaries of the text and its interpretation, towards an understanding of the relationship between culture, spatiality and place.” —Richard Maltby, Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor of Screen Studies, Flinders University
    Show book
  • Discovering Classical Music: Schumann - cover

    Discovering Classical Music:...

    Ian Christians

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    "I recommend this book wholeheartedly to new music lovers"  Sir Charles Groves CBE      Thanks to Nigel Kennedy and Pavarotti, millions of people have recently discovered that classical music is a highly enjoyable experience, perhaps contrary to their expectations. But the world of classical music can be highly intimidating and confusing. Ian Christians, for many years a passionate believer in broadening the interest in classical music, has developed a unique approach, designed to make it as easy as possible for both newcomers to classical music and those who have started down the path to explore with confidence. Discovering Classical Music concentrates on the greatest composers. The author takes you step-by-step into their most approachable music and, in some cases, boldly into some of the greatest works traditionally considered too difficult for newcomers. Rarely does a book offer such potential for continued enjoyment.This volume concentrates on the life, personality and music of Edward William Elgar.
    Show book
  • Owen Benjamin: Huge Pianist - cover

    Owen Benjamin: Huge Pianist

    Owen Benjamin

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    In his sidesplitting new special, Owen Benjamin touches on everything from the prank he loves playing at Starbucks to the surprising reason his parents have been married for so many years. He also takes to the piano to reveal the surprising trend that links all commercials geared toward women and much more.
    Show book
  • Why Harry Met Sally - Subversive Jewishness Anglo-Christian Power and the Rhetoric of Modern Love - cover

    Why Harry Met Sally - Subversive...

    Joshua Louis Moss

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    From immigrant ghetto love stories such as The Cohens and the Kellys (1926), through romantic comedies including Meet the Parents (2000) and Knocked Up (2007), to television series such as Transparent (2014–), Jewish-Christian couplings have been a staple of popular culture for over a century. In these pairings, Joshua Louis Moss argues, the unruly screen Jew is the privileged representative of progressivism, secular modernism, and the cosmopolitan sensibilities of the mass-media age. But his/her unruliness is nearly always contained through romantic union with the Anglo-Christian partner. This Jewish-Christian meta-narrative has recurred time and again as one of the most powerful and enduring, although unrecognized, mass-culture fantasies. Using the innovative framework of coupling theory, Why Harry Met Sally surveys three major waves of Jewish-Christian couplings in popular American literature, theater, film, and television. Moss explores how first-wave European and American creators in the early twentieth century used such couplings as an extension of modernist sensibilities and the American “melting pot.” He then looks at how New Hollywood of the late 1960s revived these couplings as a sexually provocative response to the political conservatism and representational absences of postwar America. Finally, Moss identifies the third wave as emerging in television sitcoms, Broadway musicals, and “gross-out” film comedies to grapple with the impact of American economic globalism since the 1990s. He demonstrates that, whether perceived as a threat or a triumph, Jewish-Christian couplings provide a visceral, easily graspable, template for understanding the rapid transformations of an increasingly globalized world.
    Show book