Leon Hicks Iconic Caper Dancing

This book features a new series of drawings by African-American artist Leon Hicks exhibited at the Sheldon Art Galleries in St. Louis from February 24 - June 30, 2007. For 50 years, virtuoso artist, theoretician and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Art at Webster University in St. Louis, Leon Hicks has created works that are aesthetically beautiful and conceptually complex. This book presents a selection from three new series: "Iconic Caper/Dancing," "The Hip-Hop Allergories," and "Three Sinks X Series, Iconic Caper/Dancing: Special Series." Hicks has an M.F.A degree in printmaking and an M.A. in painting from the State University of Iowa and a B.S. in painting and sculpture from Kansas State University. He also studied Art History at Stanford University, La Romita School of Art and at Atlanta University. Hicks has exhibited nationally and internationally and his works are in numerous public and private collections.

'Mackrell's enthralling biography restores Lydia Lopokova to her rightful position centre-stage' DAILY MAIL 'Superb ... Mackrell, with her insider's knowledge of ballet and theatre, lovingly recreates Lydia's many worlds' GAY & LESBIAN REVIEW 'A hugely entertaining and informative study of the Ballets Russes star' SPECTATOR Born in 1891 in St Petersburg, Lydia Lopokova lived a long and remarkable life. Her vivacious personality and the sheer force of her charm propelled her to the top of Diaghilev's Ballet Russes. Through a combination of luck, determination and talent, Lydia became a star in Paris, a vaudeville favourite in America, the toast of Britain and then married the world-renowned economist, and formerly homosexual, John Maynard Keynes. Lydia's story links ballet and the Bloomsbury group, war, revolution and the economic policies of the super-powers. She was an immensely captivating, eccentric and irreverent personality: a bolter, a true bohemian and, eventually, an utterly devoted wife.

Introduced by Donald Smith. Set in Rome during Nero’s reign of terror, The Blood of the Martyrs is a disciplined historical novel tracing the destruction of one cell of the early church. With a cast of slaves, ordinary Roman people, exiles and entertainers, it is thorough in its historical interpretation and in its determination to make the past accessible and readable. Written in 1938-9, the novel contains many symbolic parallels to the rise of European fascism in the 1930s and the desperate plight of persecuted minorities such as the Jews and the left-wing activists with whom Naomi Mitchison personally campaigned at the time. With the invasion of Britain a real possibility, she felt compelled to write a testament to the power of human solidarity which, even faced with death, can overcome the worst that human evil can achieve. The Blood of the Martyrs is the least autobiographical of Mitchison’s major works of fiction, yet, with its implicit credo, is her most passionately self-revealing. ‘ . . . when a novelist is historically faithful in these treacherous waters of the human psyche, the results are tremendous. As a twentieth-century woman, it no doubt hurt Naomi Mitchison a good deal to describe the savagery of the early Christian persecution in The Blood of the Martyrs . . . But it is the pain that gives the history its lifeblood. The imagination that is a novelist’s fuel must be harnessed to serve history as history was, not as anyone wishes it had been.’ Joanna Trollope

This authoritative catalogue of the Corcoran Gallery of Art's renowned collection of pre-1945 American paintings will greatly enhance scholarly and public understanding of one of the finest and most important collections of historic American art in the world. Composed of more than 600 objects dating from 1740 to 1945.

Murder darkens the bright days of summer in an idyllic Suffolk village, in an Albert Campion mystery that is simply “unforgettable” (A.S. Byatt). Private detective Albert Campion’s glorious summer in Pontisbright is blighted by death. Amidst the preparations for Minnie and Tonker Cassand’s fabulous summer party, a murder is discovered—and it falls to Campion to unravel the intricate web of motives, suspicion and deception. Danger is hardly unknown in this idyllic rural village, but it is a less romantic peril than Campion faced on his first visit, more than twenty years ago . . . “My very favourite of the four Queens of Crime is Allingham.” —J. K. Rowling “Margery Allingham has precious few peers and no superiors.” —The Sunday Times “Allingham has that rare gift in a novelist, the creation of characters so rich and so real that they stay with the reader forever.” —Sara Paretsky

Miss Lucy Pym is a high school teacher of French language who wrote a pop psychology book which, to her surprise, turned out best-seller. She is invited by an old friend, a principle of Leys Physical Training College, to be a guest speaker at this women's facility. Miss Pym is warmly accepted and implored to stay at the college until the day of the demonstration. She becomes interested in the lives and personalities of the college students and their teachers. However, under apparently normal relations Miss Pym detects tension, rivalry and jealousy which eventually lead to an accident. But Miss Pym believes there is more to it.