american philosophy

Hardcover. Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1st, 1929, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, bright green cloth with gilt and black stamping, 548 pages. Illustrated from photographs, facsimiles, plates. Study of Jefferson's mind based on contributions of "French thinkers" on his political philosophy. Inscription on inside front cover, otherwise a clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, Abrams, 1st, 2023, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 265 pages illustrated in b&w. From Bill Griffith, creator of Zippy the Pinhead and Nobody's Fool, comes Three Rocks, a biography of cartoonist Ernie Bushmiller, creator of the iconic comic strip Nancy. But this graphic novel is about more than a single comic book artist. It is the story of this American art form, tracing its inception to 1895 with the Yellow Kid, the creation of Nancy in 1933, and all the strips that followed, including Peanuts and The Far Side. When Bushmiller died in 1982, Nancy was running in almost 900 daily newspapers--a number few syndicated cartoonists ever achieve. Nancy is hailed as the "perfect" comic strip by fans and cartoonists alike. The title Three Rocks refers to the trope of three hemispherical rocks often seen in a Bushmiller landscape--just enough to communicate environment to the reader. This distillation is exemplary of the iconic, diagrammatic look of Nancy, a comic strip about the nature of what it means to be a comic strip--the perfect avatar for Griffith to expand upon his philosophy of creating comics. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. NY, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1st, 1964, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, From Nihilism to Atheism, from Agnosticism to Apathy: Explorations in American Religion. Hardcover in a lightly worn and chipped dust jacket, 231 pages. No markings.

Hardcover. NY, New York University Press, 2nd pr., 1972, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, orange cloth covers, gilt lettering on spine, 159 pages. While Morgan's literary portfolio shows remarkable diversity, it is studded with works on Puritanism. 'Visible Saints' further solidifies his reputation as a leading authority on this subject. An expanded version of his Anson G. Phelps Lectures of 1962 (presented at New York University), this slender volume focuses on the central issue of church membership. Morgan posits and develops a revisionary main thesis: the practice of basing membership upon a declaration of experiencing saving grace, or 'conversion,' was first put into effect not in England, Holland, or Plymouth, as is commonly related, but in Massachusetts Bay Colony by non-separating Puritans. Characterized by stylistic grace and exegetic finesse, 'Visible Saints' is another scholarly milestone in the 'Millerian Age' of Puritan historiography. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, Penguin Press, 1st, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 474 pages, b&w illustrations. "A "heroic" and "fascinating" biography of John Cage showing how his work, and that of countless American artists, was transformed by Zen Buddhism". (The New York Times). Where the Heart Beats is the story of the tremendous changes sweeping through American culture following the Second World War, a time when the arts in America broke away from centuries of tradition and reinvented themselves. Painters converted their canvases into arenas for action and gesture, dancers embraced pure movement over narrative, performance artists staged "happenings" in which anything could happen, poets wrote words determined by chance.

Hardcover. Middlebury, VT, Swift & Chipman, 2nd American from the 7th London Edition, 1811, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, 202 pages. Hardcover. Brown leather cover boards, front cover board slightly bowed (see image), gilt title on spine with gilt bands. Binding tight. Spine straight. Some appropriate agewear throughout: tanning, foxing, etc. A series of graphic and interesting scenes illustrating the temper and conduct of the pilgrim on his way to Zion.