On August 13, 1931, Captain Joseph Medill Patterson of the "New York Daily News" sent a telegram to Chester Gould, the man who created Dick Tracy, that read: YOUR PLAINCLOTHES TRACY HAS POSSIBILITIES STOP. Within the pages of "Dick Tracy: The Official Biography" you will find the great adventures of the greatest detective in the funny pages, his unforgettable enemies from Flattop to Pruneface, his allies from Pat Patton to Diet Smith, his 2-way radio (late 2-way TV), and Tess Trueheart, his long-suffering sweetheart and eventual mate. Jay Maeder, a top editor at "The New York Daily News" might be providing an official biography, but he is doing so from a pop culture perspective. Consequently, we begin with Dick Tracy, square-jawed and straight-shooting, a creation of the time when crime was rampant in 1931, but trace his entire career, both in comics, radio and the movies. As you would expect, this book is loaded with black & white strips as well as 24 pages in color.

The character that Chester Gould created was absolutely dedicated to getting rid of the crime gangs afflicting the big city. Like the real-life Eliot Ness, Dick Tracy was brave, incorruptible, and sworn to making the world clean again. The catalyst for his career was the murder of Tess Trueheart's father in his deli by a robber. Gould had worked on earlier comic strips, "The Radio Cats" and "The Girl Friends," when he came up with the submission idea for "Plainclothes Tracy." The idea was refined before the first strip appeared on October 12, 1931, with Dick calling on the Truehearts for dinner. But the Big Boy, the first official Tracy villain, sent some boys to rob the Truehearts deli and Emil Trueheart ended up dead with Tracy vowing a blood oath over the body. The rest is the history that Maeder is detailing.

The approach of "Dick Tracy: The Official Biography" is basically chronological, beginning with the effort to bring Big Boy to justice, which was followed over the years by the Buddy Waldorf kidnapping, working as a G-Man across state lines, and, of course, all those battles with the Grotesques which would end up defining the strip for the world: The Blank, Pruneface, Flattop, Wormy, Flayface, and the rest. Maeder also devotes chapters to not only Tess and Junior, but the atonement of Stooge Viller and Steve the Tramp, which shows there was rehabilitation as well as justice in the Dick Tracy universe. Then there is Sparkle, B.O., and the other Plentys, along with Moon Maid and the whole Space Period of the strip. The result is not a strict chronology, but more of a constant circling forward, which reflect an effort to provide each chapter with thematic unity. Bu the primary goal remains to tell the story of how Chester Gould created a great and enduring American icon.

However, Maeder deals as well with the twilight period of the story of Dick Tracy when the culture turned against the character as he does with the original glory days and the later period of cultural retrieval. The major strength of the book is the way he puts all the pieces together, so that there is a sense of progression and character growth. Maeder is able to not only provide a concise description of Dick Tracy dealing with a terrorist-bomb incident or an adventure with Nilon Hoze, but also takes pain to show what was different or special that time around. I did not exactly work it out, but it sure looks like Maeder literally accounted for every "Dick Tracy" strip ever drawn by Gould. While I was never all that interested in the comic strip I found this to be a fascinating look at the over half-century that Dick Tracy fought his never-ending battles against the most memorable bad guys ever to embody evil. Oh, and do not forget to pay attention to the great tips provided in those Crimestoppers Textbooks!

This overview of the DICK TRACY comic strip coincided with a plethora of books that were part of the hype machine for Disney's movie extravagaza, and it was the best. Written by Jay Maeder, an historian of sorts for New York's Daily News, this "Official Biography" lovingly revisits the plot lines and characters of Chester Gould's 70 year old comic strip and brilliantly summarizes what it has become: an enduring pop cultural epic.

When Gould first created the exploits of his young gangbuster he was merely following the crime filled headlines of the day with crude, childlike artwork and a storytelling style that read like a cornball silent matinee. This, however, was the Depression and readers starving for breathless thrills found themselves hooked. Gould, who himself stated he never knew how the plotlines would evolve, became both a master puppeteer and an enthusiastic front row spectator. Soon, the plots became more intricate, the criminals became uglier, the violence became unflinchingly bloodier (a bold move when you consider today's hightened sensitivity), and the crude artwork became a style onto its own. All the while Dick Tracy, and his immediate family of cops and others became like friends we earnestly knew.

That was the beauty of comic strip storytelling from its golden age in that it was to unfold like a saga and in the case of DICK TRACY it was a saga that spanned the life of the 20th Century. The Depression, World War 2, Eisenhower's 50's, the psychodelic 60's- Tracy rode his police car through all of this and writer Maeder critically keeps his eyes on how the strip stayed the course (or derailed in the 60's...remember the Moon Maid?) and managed to entertain ever changing taste. With plenty of illustrations and a cogent reading style, this out of print book is an underrated gem.

Chester Higgins captures the beauty, strength and courage of the African-American elders he photographs. I am awestruck by the depth he achieves in these portraits. This collection of photos along with tips from the subjects on how to get along in life is truly an inspiring book for anyone interested in viewing a piece of history.

I had been waiting since May for the release of this book! It is an honor and a privilege to see our elders dipicted with such natural grace & beauty. Chester Higgins is a absolutely centered photographer! He sees with such clarity. He captured everyone's beauty, emotion, prowess & coutenance. I walk around with the book to show it to everyone I encounter, especially the elders & the children. Everyones' first expression is Ahh! The elders start to reminisce, the rest of us can see how we will grow old 'gracefully'!

Back in the sixties I had several copies of this book, read it, used it, sang and played from it. Books get borrowed or lent, and I distinctly recall the surviving copy falling apart and having to be held together with rubber bands.

The songs included here are the most sung numbers of Campion, Dowland, Rosseter, Morley, Jonson and others of the era 1580 to 1620 give or take a few years. Most of them were originally lute songs, but the accompaniments here are piano transcriptions. The melody line is clear cut, sung harmonies are optional, accompaniments interchangeable.

These songs are more than merely poems set to music. Music and verse are one with each other: the lyrics alone are inconsequential and slight, the music alone loses the cognitive quality the words lend it. In this epoch people were expected to sight read and improvise and to be able to turn a sonnet or verse with grace. In several languages!

So in trying to reconstruct a song each of Campion and Dowland I have been seeing these pages in my mind's eye. I found the words on line easily enough, as well as some MIDI sequencing of the tunes, but no sheet music. This I've spent an afternoon reconstructing and hoping I get it right. Of course, I'll be looking for a used copy... and, no, you may not borrow it!

This book, a collection of lute songs, part songs, and rounds with an excellent introduction by W.H. Auden, is a fine source of Elizabethan-era English music for any who wish to study it or better still attempt it. (The only drawbacks I can find are the occasional omission of verses, e.g. for "Angelus ad Virginem," though OTOH some of the quite unsingable verses of "Nova, Nova" could have been omitted, and the binding that won't lie flat.) I once could point any interested in early music at it and at the other book Noah Greenberg edited (which covered English music from a wider chunk of time). Once through with this review, I will look for W.W. Norton's web page and plead with them to reissue the paperback versions, which no home that delights in early music should be without...

...Wait! Great news: Dover has reprinted this book, under the title _An English Medieval and Renaissance Song Book: Part Songs and Sacred Music for One to Six Voices_. If you have any interest in early music, seek it out.

If you wish to own a single book about the contributions of the 100/442 this is it.

This book probably should rate at least 588 stars. 588 stars because that is the number of Silver Stars won by these fine AMERICAN fighting men in WWII.

A lot of folks probably know the 100/442 was the most decorated unit in WWII. In fact, this fighting team was the most decorated unit in AMERICAN history. This great volume goes a long way to perhaps explaining why this was so. These AJA men were fighting a two front war. Hitler and Germany tried this and failed. The fighting men of the 100/442 prevailed on both fronts they were fighting on. These men proved their were good Americans with their bravery and with their blood.

Mr. Tanaka knows, he was there! He was one of the few men to make it through all of the major campaigns with the 100/442. His personal experiences appear to have been invaluable in putting the story together.

The men of the 100/442 had the Germans and their allies to deal with in Europe and the stupidly cruel actions of the American government and people to deal with back in the US and they prevailed.

Mr. Tanaka skillfully weaves first person remembrances into the story, and this coupled with the many fine pictures personalizes the AJA men of the 100/442 and the two battle fronts they were engaged on in WWII. The reader will come away knowing war is hell if they had missed the point before. The reader will come away with the idea that courage and spirit applied in liberal doses to any situation will win out.

Mr. Tanaka's book provides a fitting tribute to those members of the 100/442 who did not live to come home, men who fought and died while their families were imprisoned back at home.

The Japanese American 100th Infantry Battalion and 442ndRegimental Combat Team were among the finest units of World War II.Their astonishing exploits, decorations awarded, and casualties taken are legendary, but when the cheering subsided the discrimination they and their families suffered did not disappear.
Their story is well told here in this fine pictorial record of their achievements, with 240 photos, 8 maps, and informative endpapers, tied together with a good narrative, to form an admirable tribute to these brave soldiers.
Highly recommended for military history readers, students of the ETO campaign, and WWII buffs in general.

(The "score" rating is an unfortunately ineradicable feature of this page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)

There are a few things you can depend on in Chester Himes's great police procedurals featuring Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones : colorful characters, distinctive dialect, a fierce racial sensibility, and plenty of mayhem. Meanwhile, the stories are pleasantly devoid of the kind of self-analysis and interior monologue which clutter up so much of modern fiction, even crime fiction. The Heat's On is something of an exception. Oh, there's more than enough mayhem and what with a giant albino junkie, a hunchback dwarf, a pony-sized attack dog, a faith healer, and various and sundry other folk about, there's certainly adequate local color.

But when, first, the detectives are suspended for treating the dwarf a tad too roughly (for instance, he dies in custody) and then Digger is shot and reported killed, Cotton Ed lets his slip show a little. He becomes a frenzied dynamo of barely contained brutality as he tears a steaming hot Harlem apart searching for the cache of heroin that led to the whole mess. This is a terrific entry in the series and is particularly interesting for Himes's fearsome hostility towards the drug traffic which was blighting the inner-city even then. His attitude makes for an interesting contrast with the permissive modern attitude of many black leaders, who decry harsh prison sentences for drug dealers. It's awfully hard to see Coffin Ed, Grave Digger, or Chester Himes arguing that pushers are victims of an unjust drug war.

GRADE : A

Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones are 2 of strongest characters and 2 of the toughest partners in crime fiction. However in this volume of the Himes series they play an almost secondary role. In spite of this I enjoyed the book as much as Cotton Comes to Harlem. Coffin Ed will go to extremes to revenge his partner as he unravels this mystery.

An encyclopedic guide to Excel 2000, this book is the only guide I would consider using for the new version of Excel.

I got a chance to see an early review copy of the book and have to say it's great. It is especially comprehensive in the areas or data analysis, including Excel PivotTables that use SQL Server 7.0 OLAP features, as well as programming Excel with simple macros. If you're a power user that's looking for a deeper understanding of Excel, plus some stuff that's hard to find anywhere else, this book's for you.

At one time or another, all communities are likely to face attempts by powerful outside interests to contest the course of future community development. This book constitutes a detailed example of local mobilization that effectively used a thorough understanding of the formal procedural framework to successfully protect important community priorities and values and, in fact, the community's vision of itself.

This is a very well-written, detailed and incredibly thorough book about a successful effort by a group of activists and residents in a small community in New York State to battle a proposed construction of Wal-mart in their rural town. The book explains in detail the legal and practical aspects of the environmental review process in New YOrk State. It also explains legal and theoretical bases for appropriate and planned economic growth in a rural community. The book would be useful for community activists and environmentalists in any state that has similar statutes as SEQRA in NY State. I am thoroughly enjoying reading this book.

This work, along with Friedberg's book and Hessler's work, make up the three primary basic reference works on United States Currency. The Catalog contains an excellent reference section on National Bank Notes, receiving much more press than in Friedberg's work. The pricing, while out of date, is actually fairly realistic in today's market, unlike the Black Book or even Friedberg's book. A great plus is that this work is cross referenced by Friedberg Numbers, which are the standard cataloging numbers used by all dealers and collectors in the hobby. Well worth the investment!

I'm interesting in catalog of all US paper money. Something o it. Am i find my interesting?

This book is very well thought out and put together.All the periphial sections,such as HOW TO USE THIS CATALOG,COUNTRY INDEX, FOREIGN EXCHANGE TABLE,MINT INDEX,THE COIN DENOMINATION SECTION, THE INTERNATIONAL NUMERAL SYSTEMS,THE COIN SIZE CHART,HEJIRA DATE CHART,AND THE 18TH CENTURY LEGENDS,all are informative and very helpfull.The small tidbit of information they throw in at the begining of each nation section is just enough history to make it interesting.The photos for the most part are very good and usualy show enough detail so as to make a positive determination. Throughout the book there are numerous charts for indivdual piece dating and mint mark identification.With all of this in one book, this book is surprisingly easy to use and understand.

This book is a guide excellent for the coins collector of the 18th century's coins. Well, if you are interested in World Coins that it was be mint between 1701 and 1800, to then buy a Krause WC book, especially, this book, "Standard Catalog of World Coins : Eighteenth Century, 1701-1800 (2nd Ed)". They do it differently every couple of years. Before then they used to have one massive volume covering from about 1700 to present. Later you'll have to buy both the 1801-1900 and then the 1900 to present volumes and it's a real pain to start following a listing in a country and then have to dig out the other volume when you pass 1899. Also you'll probably need the 1600-1700. So you will have a complete numismatic guide.

i really love this book.I like the way that the main character has a handicap and has to overcome lots of different experiances including comunicating with hearing people since she mainly signs in a.s.l. i have studied a.s.l.(american sign language)and know how hard it is to write and describe it and this sereis and author have captured more than i could ever imagine that is why i gave it a 5 star rating.

This book illustrates the emotional agony that Sara Howell, a deaf girl goes through after her friend is found dead at Shadow Point Park. It is very suspenceful and has an unpredicible ending. Ages 12up. Grades 7-11. Mystery.I recomend this for all mystery lovers