The Carpenter S Pencil

The acclaimed Galician author’s novel of the Spanish Civil War is “a sincere and beautiful portrait of a brutal, ugly period of Spanish history” (The Guardian). Novelist and El País journalist Manuel Rivas has been heralded as one of the brightest in a new wave of Spanish authors. Originally written in Galician, his native language, The Carpenter’s Pencil was a bestseller in Spain and has been published in nine countries. Set in the dark days of the Spanish Civil War, The Carpenter’s Pencil charts the linked destinies of Dr. Daniel Da Barca, a Republican who cheats death in General Franco’s prisons; Herbal, an illiterate Falangist and Da Barca’s shadow; and an unnamed painter with the carpenter’s pencil, the man who unites them in life and death. It is also the story of Marisa Mallo, loved by both Da Barca and Herbal; Pepe Sánchez, the bolero singer; “Genghis Khan,” the wrestler; and the legend of two estranged sisters, Life and Death. All of these and more are bound by the events of the war. And all are rendered, in Rivas’s skillful hand, with the power of the carpenter’s pencil, a pencil that draws both the measured line and the artist’s fanciful vision.

Over 250 illustrations depict tools identical to ancient devices once used by Greeks, Egyptians, and Chinese, including axes, saws, clamps, chisels, mallets, and much more. Invaluable sourcebook.

One boy's journey through life started with days spent learning his Fathers trade in the woodworkers shop. The simple task given, using the carpenter's pencil, did not seem like much to the young boy, yet the wisdom found through his father's instruction was proven to be very valuable to the carpenter's son. This is a telling story of wisdom, planning, humility, and love.

As two octogenarian fishermen float Colorado’s Green River in their antiquated wooden boat on what will prove to be the last day of their lives, one terror haunts them: veterans of World War Two who experienced wholesale death, neither fear that, but the possibility of extinction in a nursing home terrifies them. For Dr. Tyrone Washington, NAU Professor Emeritus and Morgan Perkins, recipient of the Nobel Prize for literature, the specter grinds away as they float inexorably toward the thundering roar of Disaster Falls. While spirits rise and sink in search of a plan to avoid the home, the the anglers are visited by a huge Raven of superior intelligence and utter devotion to the sacred creeds of Ravenism. Outranking humans, the snobbish bird laughs at their childish philosophies. “After all,” he cries, “Raven was created in the image of God!” Suddenly he notes: “One human is light-colored, the other, dark; why would men of a different feather flock together?“ Out of curiosity the Raven decides to haunt the fishermen, comes to understand their language, and, sensing their fears, becomes a muse who can inspire an answer to their problem. But how can he pervade the minds of men and trigger the solution? Their aging is relentless, and time is short...

Famous across Europe and America, recipient of the highest possible honours in Germany including the order of the Black Eagle and elevation to nobility, admired by Degas as 'the greatest living master', Adolph Menzel was perhaps the greatest German painter of the late nineteenth century. In this splendidly illustrated book - the only comprehensive volume on Menzel in English - photographs of the artist and contemporary Berlin accompany reproductions of hundreds of his paintings and drawings. Menzel specialists and art historians contribute chapters on his life and art, his visits to France, his critical reception, relevant social and historical background, and different approaches to his work. Until recently, Menzel's many paintings and drawings were separated from one another in collections on either side of the Berlin Wall. Now, in the wake of reunification, the Berlin Museums have put together the most extensive Menzel exhibit since the retrospective that followed his death in 1905. This book is the catalogue for the exhibit that had its debut at the Musee D'Orsay in Paris (April 15 to July 28), travels to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (September 15, 1996 to January 5, 1997) and returns to Nationalgalerie in Berlin (February 7 to May 11, 1997).

Henry Petroski traces the origins of the pencil back to ancient Greece and Rome, writes factually and charmingly about its development over the centuries and around the world, and shows what the pencil can teach us about engineering and technology today.