If Not Not

In the 1560's and the 1570’s, several authors outside of Spain recorded the text of an oath supposedly uttered by the Aragonese people when they received their king. While most modern historians doubt the authenticity of the oath, they agree that it has frequently served the purposes of political propaganda whenever an Aragonese patriot has wished to epitomize his nation’s tradition of resistance to tyranny. This book studies the oath "We, who are worth as much as you, take you as our king, provided that you preserve our laws and liberties, and if not, not" as an example of historiographical fiction which belongs to a complex of legal-historical legends about the origins of Aragon. Originally published in 1968. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

From Holbein to Hockney, from Norman Rockwell to Pablo Picasso, from sixteenth-century Rome to 1980s SoHo, Robert Hughes looks with love, loathing, warmth, wit and authority at a wide range of art and artists, good, bad, past and present. As art critic for Time magazine, internationally acclaimed for his study of modern art, The Shock of the New, he is perhaps America’s most widely read and admired writer on art. In this book: nearly a hundred of his finest essays on the subject. For the realism of Thomas Eakins to the Soviet satirists Komar and Melamid, from Watteau to Willem de Kooning to Susan Rothenberg, here is Hughes—astute, vivid and uninhibited—on dozens of famous and not-so-famous artists. He observes that Caravaggio was “one of the hinges of art history; there was art before him and art after him, and they were not the same”; he remarks that Julian Schnabel’s “work is to painting what Stallone’s is to acting”; he calls John Constable’s Wivenhoe Park “almost the last word on Eden-as-Property”; he notes how “distorted traces of [Jackson] Pollock lie like genes in art-world careers that, one might have thought, had nothing to do with his.” He knows how Norman Rockwell made a chicken stand still long enough to be painted, and what Degas said about success (some kinds are indistinguishable from panic). Phrasemaker par excellence, Hughes is at the same time an incisive and profound critic, not only of particular artists, but also of the social context in which art exists and is traded. His fresh perceptions of such figures as Andy Warhol and the French writer Jean Baudrillard are matched in brilliance by his pungent discussions of the art market—its inflated prices and reputations, its damage to the public domain of culture. There is a superb essay on Bernard Berenson, and another on the strange, tangled case of the Mark Rothko estate. And as a finale, Hughes gives us “The SoHoiad,” the mock-epic satire that so amused and annoyed the art world in the mid-1980s. A meteor of a book that enlightens, startles, stimulates and entertains.

A Medal of Honor recipient looks back at his own service in the Vietnam War—and ahead to America’s future. Jack Jacobs was acting as an advisor to the South Vietnamese when he and his men came under devastating attack. Wounded, 1st Lt. Jacobs took command and withdrew the unit, returning again and again, saving fourteen lives—for which he received the Medal of Honor. Here, Col. Jacobs tells his stirring story of heroism, honor, and the personal code by which he has lived his life, and expounds with blunt honesty and insight his views on our contemporary world, and the nature and necessity of sacrifice. If Not Now, When? is a compelling account of a unique life at both war and peace, and the all-too-often unexamined role of the citizenry in the service and defense of the Republic.

In the tradition of novels of Gayle Forman and John Green comes this extraordinary YA debut about a blind teen girl navigating life and love in high school. Parker Grant doesn't need 20/20 vision to see right through you. That's why she created the Rules: Don't treat her any differently just because she's blind, and never take advantage. There will be no second chances. Just ask Scott Kilpatrick, the boy who broke her heart. When Scott suddenly reappears in her life after being gone for years, Parker knows there's only one way to react--shun him so hard it hurts. She has enough on her mind already, like trying out for the track team (that's right, her eyes don't work but her legs still do), doling out tough-love advice to her painfully naive classmates, and giving herself gold stars for every day she hasn't cried since her dad's death three months ago. But avoiding her past quickly proves impossible, and the more Parker learns about what really happened--both with Scott, and her dad--the more she starts to question if things are always as they seem. Maybe, just maybe, some Rules are meant to be broken. Combining a fiercely engaging voice with true heart, debut author Eric Lindstrom's Not If I See You First illuminates those blind spots that we all have in life, whether visually impaired or not.

WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE Iconic singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and illustrator David Walker team up to present this charming, cozy, and touching interpretation of “If Not for You.” If not for you… I’d be sad and blue. If not for you… I just wouldn’t have a clue. If not for you… What would I do? In this inventive interpretation of Bob Dylan’s 1970 song “If Not for You,” illustrator David Walker beautifully imagines Dylan’s lyrics as portraying the bottomless love between a parent and a child—and the magical experiences they might share together.

By combining the ancient mysteries of Sappho with the contemporary wizardry of one of our most fearless and original poets, If Not, Winter provides a tantalizing window onto the genius of a woman whose lyric power spans millennia. Of the nine books of lyrics the ancient Greek poet Sappho is said to have composed, only one poem has survived complete. The rest are fragments. In this miraculous new translation, acclaimed poet and classicist Anne Carson presents all of Sappho’s fragments, in Greek and in English, as if on the ragged scraps of papyrus that preserve them, inviting a thrill of discovery and conjecture that can be described only as electric—or, to use Sappho’s words, as “thin fire . . . racing under skin.” "Sappho's verse has been elevated to new heights in [this] gorgeous translation." --The New York Times "Carson is in many ways [Sappho's] ideal translator....Her command of language is hones to a perfect edge and her approach to the text, respectful yet imaginative, results in verse that lets Sappho shine forth." --Los Angeles Times

From the author of The Road to Winter trilogy comes an empowering standalone novel about the courage and consequences of taking climate action in a small coastal community.

Starting your own business is hard. But the biggest obstacles often have less to do with time and money, and more to do with fear and doubt. In What If? and Why Not? serial entrepreneur and small business advocate Jen Groover—creator of the Butler Bag and creator and host of Launcher's Café, an online community for entrepreneurs—shows you how to transform your fears into action by rethinking the negative questions that can lead to failure before you even get started. Being an entrepreneur, Groover says, isn't just about selling a product. It's about personal growth—about taking your vision and bringing it to fruition, and about always pushing yourself to take that vision further. What gets in your way isn't the money you don't have, or what you don't know about the industry you want to get into—it's believing you can't do it, that you don't have the power or the resources you need to make your dream into a reality. Groover walks you step by step through ten negative “What If?" questions—What if I don't know what I'm doing? What if I don't have the money? What if I fail?—and how to turn them around by asking yourself: What if I can learn? What if I don't need much money? What if I succeed? She also asks “What Not?": Why not find a mentor or take a class? Why not ask for investors? Why not try? With dozens of personal stories from successful entrepreneurs in areas as diverse as dog walking and handbag-invention, plus practical advice for every step of your journey, What If? and Why Not? is the most complete guide available to help you you start the business of your dreams.