Houses Of Death

Author : Paul Koudounaris
Publisher : National Geographic Books
ISBN 13 : 0500251789
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.82/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Empire of Death written by Paul Koudounaris and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2011-09-20 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From bone fetishism in the ancient world to painted skulls in Austria and Bavaria: an unusual and compelling work of cultural history. It is sometimes said that death is the last taboo, but it was not always so. For centuries, religious establishments constructed decorated ossuaries and charnel houses that stand as masterpieces of art created from human bone. These unique structures have been pushed into the footnotes of history; they were part of a dialogue with death that is now silent. The sites in this specially photographed and brilliantly original study range from the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Palermo, where the living would visit mummified or skeletal remains and lovingly dress them; to the Paris catacombs; to fantastic bone-encrusted creations in Austria, Cambodia, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Italy, Peru, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, and elsewhere. Paul Koudounaris photographed more than seventy sites for this book. He analyzes the role of these remarkable memorials within the cultures that created them, as well as the mythology and folklore that developed around them, and skillfully traces a remarkable human endeavor.

Author : William R. Drennan
Publisher : Terrace Books
ISBN 13 : 9780299222109
Total Pages : 244 pages
Book Rating : 4.01/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Death in a Prairie House written by William R. Drennan and published by Terrace Books. This book was released on 2007-01-18 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most pivotal and yet least understood event of Frank Lloyd Wright’s celebrated life involves the brutal murders in 1914 of seven adults and children dear to the architect and the destruction by fire of Taliesin, his landmark residence, near Spring Green, Wisconsin. Unaccountably, the details of that shocking crime have been largely ignored by Wright’s legion of biographers—a historical and cultural gap that is finally addressed in William Drennan’s exhaustively researched Death in a Prairie House: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Murders. In response to the scandal generated by his open affair with the proto-feminist and free love advocate Mamah Borthwick Cheney, Wright had begun to build Taliesin as a refuge and "love cottage" for himself and his mistress (both married at the time to others). Conceived as the apotheosis of Wright’s prairie house style, the original Taliesin would stand in all its isolated glory for only a few months before the bloody slayings that rocked the nation and reduced the structure itself to a smoking hull. Supplying both a gripping mystery story and an authoritative portrait of the artist as a young man, Drennan wades through the myths surrounding Wright and the massacre, casting fresh light on the formulation of Wright’s architectural ideology and the cataclysmic effects that the Taliesin murders exerted on the fabled architect and on his subsequent designs. Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the American Association of School Librarians, and Outstanding Book, selected by the Public Library Association

Author : Corinne May Botz
Publisher : The Monacelli Press, LLC
ISBN 13 : 1580932916
Total Pages : 210 pages
Book Rating : 4.12/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Haunted Houses written by Corinne May Botz and published by The Monacelli Press, LLC. This book was released on 2010-09-28 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “When I was between the ages of five and eight, my sister and I slept in a large attic bedroom. At nightfall the room was filled with gypsies who glided around in clusters. They wore colorful thin flowing dresses and rummaged greedily through my drawers and books as if they would steal everything. I lay in bed as stiff as a board, trying to will myself invisible, praying they would not notice me looking . . . Daylight obliterated the gypsies, rendering them as thoroughly insubstantial as they had been real in the dark. I had a vague understanding that my vision was private, so I never told my family what I saw.” So began Corinne May Botz’s fascination with the invisible, a phenomenon that has profoundly influenced her approach to photography in style and subject matter. For more than ten years, she searched for ghost stories in buildings across the United States. She ventured into these haunted places with both camera and tape recorder in hand; her photographs, accompanied by first-person narratives, reveal a rare glimpse into American interiors, both physical and psychological. This book includes more than eighty haunted buildings, from the legendary to the ordinary, including Edgar Allan Poe’s house in Baltimore, a New Jersey tavern, and a Massachusetts farmhouse, a log cabin in Kentucky, and a number of private residences. The text includes ghost stories told to the author by those who lived through the moving rugs, creaking floors, apparitions, disappearing—and reappearing—objects, cries in the night, mysteriously burning candles, and other unexplained occurrences.

Author : Drac Von Stoller
Publisher : Drac Von Stoller
ISBN 13 : 1476264821
Total Pages : 4 pages
Book Rating : 4.20/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The House of Death written by Drac Von Stoller and published by Drac Von Stoller. This book was released on 2012-04-22 with total page 4 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mr. and Mrs. Jackson had been searching for their dream home for many years with little luck. Mr. Jackson thought that if they were to look in the countryside area instead of the city they could get more land and house for their buck. Mr. Jackson was a handyman, so if the house needed repairs he knew how to fix it up back to its original beauty. He asked his wife to come along with him to look at some houses in the country after he got off from work today. Of course, Mrs. Jackson said yes. Mr. Jackson arrived home around 3 p.m. Mrs. Jackson was waiting for her husband in the living room watching her favorite soap opera. Mr. Jackson entered the front door of his house, and called out to his wife saying, "Betty, are you ready to go house hunting?" "Yes, Mike, I'm ready to go," said his beautiful wife Betty. Mike and Betty got into the car and drove out to the country in search of their dream home. Mike and Betty were having a good time driving in the country and seeing the beautiful green pastures, cattle, and beautiful mansions. The weather was warm and sunny with a slight breeze, just a little over seventy degrees. The Jacksons couldn't have picked a more perfect day to search for their dream home. "Slow down honey, I think this may be the one," said Betty. Mike pulled into the front gate of the mansion. Put the car in park, got out of the car opened the gate, got back in the car, and drove to the front of the mansion. Mike put the car in park shut off the engine and said, "Darling, if the outside of the mansion looks as good as the inside we'll do everything in our power to get this home," said Mike. "Mike, I'm so excited I almost lost my breath when my eyes gazed upon this beautiful mansion," replied Betty. Mike got out of the car went over and opened Betty's door and went to the front door to see if anyone was home. Just as Mike knocked on the door, there was an envelope next to his foot. Mike picked up the envelope, opened it, and read it aloud to his wife Betty. "The letter says, the owner is out of the country and if you are inquiring about purchasing the mansion call this number and the realtor will be happy to show you the mansion," said Mike. "Call the realtor, Mike, maybe he can still come by. It’s only four o'clock," said Betty. Mike gave the realtor a call. The realtor said he was only fifteen minutes away and would be happy to show the Jacksons the home. "Mike darling, I'm so glad you got a hold of the realtor," said Betty. "Well since it's going to take the realtor about fifteen minutes to get here why don't we look at the backyard and the rest of the property," said Mike. "That's fine with me," said Betty. Betty and Mike took a stroll around the property and liked what they saw. Betty gave her husband a kiss on the cheek and said," I'm glad you decided to find a home in the country instead of the city. I hope we get this place. I feel like we belong here," said Betty. Betty and Mike were unaware of the evil inside the mansion that was waiting to devour them both.

Author : Terry Alford
Publisher : Liveright Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1631495615
Total Pages : 317 pages
Book Rating : 4.18/5 ( download)

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Download or read book In the Houses of Their Dead: The Lincolns, the Booths, and the Spirits written by Terry Alford and published by Liveright Publishing. This book was released on 2022-06-14 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Here is Lincoln in the Bardo—for real. You couldn’t make it up—necromancers, mad actors, frauds, true believers, and, in the middle, the greatest President.” —Sidney Blumenthal, author of The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln The story of Abraham Lincoln as it has never been told before: through the strange, even otherworldly, points of contact between his family and that of the man who killed him, John Wilkes Booth. In the 1820s, two families, unknown to each other, worked on farms in the American wilderness. It seemed unlikely that the families would ever meet—and yet, they did. The son of one family, the famed actor John Wilkes Booth, killed the son of the other, President Abraham Lincoln, in the most significant assassination in American history. The murder, however, did not come without warning—in fact, it had been foretold. In the Houses of Their Dead is the first book of the many thousands written about Lincoln to focus on the president’s fascination with Spiritualism, and to demonstrate how it linked him, uncannily, to the man who would kill him. Abraham Lincoln is usually seen as a rational, empirically-minded man, yet as acclaimed scholar and biographer Terry Alford reveals, he was also deeply superstitious and drawn to the irrational. Like millions of other Americans, including the Booths, Lincoln and his wife, Mary, suffered repeated personal tragedies, and turned for solace to Spiritualism, a new practice sweeping the nation that held that the dead were nearby and could be contacted by the living. Remarkably, the Lincolns and the Booths even used the same mediums, including Charles Colchester, a specialist in “blood writing” whom Mary first brought to her husband, and who warned the president after listening to the ravings of another of his clients, John Wilkes Booth. Alford’s expansive, richly-textured chronicle follows the two families across the nineteenth century, uncovering new facts and stories about Abraham and Mary while drawing indelible portraits of the Booths—from patriarch Julius, a famous actor in his own right, to brother Edwin, the most talented member of the family and a man who feared peacock feathers, to their confidant Adam Badeau, who would become, strangely, the ghostwriter for President Ulysses S. Grant. At every turn, Alford shows that despite the progress of the age—the glass hypodermic syringe, electromagnetic induction, and much more—death remained ever-present, and thus it was only rational for millions of Americans, from the president on down, to cling to beliefs that seem anything but. A novelistic narrative of two exceptional American families set against the convulsions their times, In the Houses of Their Dead ultimately leads us to consider how ghost stories helped shape the nation.

Author : Margareta Magnusson
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1501173251
Total Pages : 144 pages
Book Rating : 4.57/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning written by Margareta Magnusson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-01-02 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *The basis for the wonderfully funny and moving TV series developed by Amy Poehler and Scout Productions* A charming, practical, and unsentimental approach to putting a home in order while reflecting on the tiny joys that make up a long life. In Sweden there is a kind of decluttering called döstädning, dö meaning “death” and städning meaning “cleaning.” This surprising and invigorating process of clearing out unnecessary belongings can be undertaken at any age or life stage but should be done sooner than later, before others have to do it for you. In The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, artist Margareta Magnusson, with Scandinavian humor and wisdom, instructs readers to embrace minimalism. Her radical and joyous method for putting things in order helps families broach sensitive conversations, and makes the process uplifting rather than overwhelming. Margareta suggests which possessions you can easily get rid of (unworn clothes, unwanted presents, more plates than you’d ever use) and which you might want to keep (photographs, love letters, a few of your children’s art projects). Digging into her late husband’s tool shed, and her own secret drawer of vices, Margareta introduces an element of fun to a potentially daunting task. Along the way readers get a glimpse into her life in Sweden, and also become more comfortable with the idea of letting go.

Author : Pat Mora
Publisher : University of Arizona Press
ISBN 13 : 9780816527960
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.62/5 ( download)

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Download or read book House of Houses written by Pat Mora and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2008-10-15 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Combining poetic language and the traditions of magic realism to paint a vivid portrait of her family, Pat MoraÕs House of Houses is an unconventional memoir that reads as if every member, death notwithstanding, is in one room talking, laughing, and crying. In a salute to the Day of the Dead, the story begins with a visit to the cemetery in which all of her deceased relatives come alive to share stories of the family, literally bringing the food to their own funerals. From there the book covers a year in the life of her clan, revealing the personalities and events that Mora herself so desperately yearns to know and understand. ÒPoet MoraÕs complex and dramatic family history comprises more than personal reminiscences: it also embraces resonant aspects of Mexican American history. Mora recounts her familyÕs traumatic exodus from Mexico to escape the violence of Pancho Villa and his forces and their struggles to begin new lives in another country. To anchor her psychologically rich, dramatic, sometimes funny, often touching multigenerational tale, Mora uses the image of a houseÑthe house of housesÑduring a single year, a fruitful metaphor that allows her to dwell on the bright beauty of flowers, birds, and trees, emblems of the loving legacy of her nurturing family.ÓÑBooklist ÒMora has created an ingenious structure for these recollections of her extended family, of their lives and the tales they share about the familyÕs history. Woven in with these memories are recipes, fragments of songs and poetry, folk remedies, and jokes, all of the small matters that most reveal a familyÕs identity. In a language deftly mingling the natural cadences of speech and precise, poetic imagery, Mora believably summons up both a group of tough, loving, idiosyncratic survivors and a vivid, detailed portrait of life in the Southwest in [the last] century.Ó ÑKirkus Reviews

Author : New York (State). Legislature. Assembly. Tenement House Committee
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 814 pages
Book Rating : 4.58/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Report of the Tenement House Committee as Authorized by Chapter 479 of the Laws of 1894 written by New York (State). Legislature. Assembly. Tenement House Committee and published by . This book was released on 1895 with total page 814 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 954 pages
Book Rating : 4.74/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Parliamentary Papers written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons and published by . This book was released on 1910 with total page 954 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Jamie Thomson
Publisher : Fabled Lands Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9781909905375
Total Pages : 152 pages
Book Rating : 4.72/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Houses of the Dead written by Jamie Thomson and published by Fabled Lands Publishing. This book was released on 2021-09-03 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The underworld was once ruled over by the death god Hades, but he sleeps in his immortal tomb, weakened by centuries of neglect. What is to be done with his realm now? Who will refurbish its sepulchral halls, sweep away the corpse dust that coat its tenebrous terraces, and revitalise the dead that once walked its cheerless cloisters? Who else but you? And what is to be found in the underworld? Bone chilling winds sweep across desolate plains, carrying the despairing moans of lost souls to every corner of the realm of the dead. Swamps fester in the pale nacreous glow that rises up from the decaying earth, tombs litter the landscape like broken teeth, shadows walk the land, muttering in the darkness. Here lie the houses of the dead, home to the shades of the deceased - and other things. As you explore the Vulcanverse you will forge friendships, meet companions, make enemies - all of whom have long memories and will help or hinder you throughout your adventures. In this vast open world you will find hundreds of amazing quests, make choices with lasting consequences, win glory, cheat death, and face challenges at every turn. Every decision is in your hands. Start in any book, be whoever you choose, go anywhere you please, and do anything you want. The only limit is your imagination.