Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award, TheSoul of a New Machine was a bestseller on its first publication in1981. With the touch of an expert thriller writer, Tracy Kidderrecounts the feverish efforts of a team of Data General researchersto create a new 32-bit superminicomputer. A compelling account ofindividual sacrifice and human ingenuity, The Soul of a New Machineendures as the classic chronicle of the computer age and themasterminds behind its technological advances. "A superb book," said Robert Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art ofMotorcycle Maintenance. "All the incredible complexity and chaosand exploitation and loneliness and strange, half-mad beauty ofthis field are honestly and correctly drawn." The Washington PostBook World said, "Kidder has created compelling entertainment. Heoffers a fast, painless, enjoyable means to an initialunderstanding of computers, allowing us to understand thecomplexity of machines we could only marvel at before, and toappreciate the skills

Here for the first time, the original, complete Star Warstrilogy in a special 25th anniversary collector's editionhardcover.Twenty-five years after the phenomenon was born, StarWars remains one of the greatest fantasy epics ever told. Here inone collector's edition are the original stories from the firstthree classic films -- Star Wars: A New Hope, Star Wars: The EmpireStrikes Back, and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi -- each a New YorkTimes bestseller with over one million copies in print. Read thesethrilling novels to see where it all began with Luke Skywalker, afarm boy looking for adventure in a galaxy far, far away....

作者简介： J. K. (Jo) Rowling was born in Chipping Sodbury in the UK in 1965. Such a funny-sounding name for a birthplace may have contributed to her talent for collecting odd names. She was quiet, freckly, short-sighted and not very good at sports. She even broke her arm playing netball. Her favourite subject by far was English, but she also liked languages. Jo always loved writing more than anything. 'The first story that I ever wrote down, when I was five or six, was about a rabbit called Rabbit. He got the measles and was visited by his friends, including a giant bee called Miss Bee. And ever since Rabbit and Miss Bee, I have wanted to be a writer, though I rarely told anyone so. I was afraid they'd tell me I didn't have a hope.' As she got older, Jo kept writing but she never showed what she had written to anyone, except for some of her funny stories that featured her friends as heroines. Jo attended the University of Exeter in Devon where she studied French. When she was 25,

The Tin Drum, one of the great novels of the twentiethcentury, was published in Ralph Manheim's outstanding translationin 1959. It became a runaway bestseller and catapulted its youngauthor to the forefront of world literature. To mark the fiftiethanniversary of the original publication, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,along with Grass's publishers all over the world, is bringing out anew translation of this classic novel. Breon Mitchell, acclaimedtranslator and scholar, has drawn from many sources: from a wealthof detailed scholarship; from a wide range of newly-availablereference works; and from the author himself. The result is atranslation that is more faithful to Grass's style and rhythm,restores omissions, and reflects more fully the complexity of theoriginal work. After fifty years, THE TIN DRUM has, if anything,gained in power and relevance. All of Grass's amazing evocationsare still there, and still amazing: Oskar Matzerath, theindomitable drummer; his grandmother, Anna Koljaiczek; his mother,Agnes;

This selection covers the full range of Kipling's shortstories throughout his career, with the subject matter ranging fromthe Indian to the occult and from animals to domestic comedy.

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) The three classic novelspublished here in one volume are rich with the crisp prose, subtlecharacters, and intricate plots that made Dashiell Hammett one ofthe most admired writers of the twentieth century. A one-timedetective and a master of deft understatement, Hammett virtuallyinvented the hard-boiled crime novel. In "The Maltese Falcon," SamSpade, a private eye with his own solitary code of ethics, tangleswith a beautiful and treacherous woman whose loyalties shift at thedrop of a dime. "The Thin Man" introduces Hammett's wittiestcreations, Nick and Nora Charles, who solve homicides in betweenwisecracks and martinis. And in "Red Harvest," Hammett's anonymoustough-guy detective, the Continental Op, takes on the entire townof Poisonville in a deadly war against corruption. "DashiellHammett is a master of the detective novel, yes, but also one hellof a writer."--"Boston Globe" "Hammett was spare, hard-boiled, buthe did over and over what only the best writers can ever do.

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) Raymond Chandler's first threenovels, published here in one volume, established his reputation asan unsurpassed master of hard-boiled detective fiction. "The BigSleep," Chandler's first novel, introduces Philip Marlowe, aprivate detective inhabiting the seamy side of Los Angeles in the1930s, as he takes on a case involving a paralyzed Californiamillionaire, two psychotic daughters, blackmail, and murder. In"Farewell, My Lovely," Marlowe deals with the gambling circuit, amurder he stumbles upon, and three very beautiful but potentiallydeadly women. In "The High Window," Marlowe searches the Californiaunderworld for a priceless gold coin and finds himself deep in thetangled affairs of a dead coin collector. In all three novels,Chandler's hard-edged prose, colorful characters, vivid vernacular,and, above all, his enigmatic loner of a hero, enduringly establishhis claim not only to the heights of his chosen genre but to thepantheon of literary art.

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) The only complete edition ofstories by the undisputed master of detective literature, collectedhere for the first time in one volume, including some stories thathave been unavailable for decades. When Raymond Chandler turned towriting at the age of forty-five, he began by publishing stories inpulp magazines such as "Black Mask" before later writing his famousnovels. These stories are where Chandler honed his art anddeveloped his uniquely vivid underworld, peopled with good cops andbad cops, informers and extortionists, lethally predatory blondesand redheads, and crime, sex, gambling, and alcohol in abundance.In addition to his classic hard-boiled stories-in which hissignature atmosphere of depravity and violence swirls around thecool, intuitive loners whose type culminated in the famousdetective Philip Marlowe-Chandler also turned his hand to fantasyand even a gothic romance. This rich treasury of twenty-fivestories shows Chandler developing the terse, laconic, understatedstyle

As a young man Frank Oppenheimer followed in his famousbrothers footstepsgrowing up in a privileged Manhattan household,becoming a physicist, working on the atomic bomb. Tragically, Frankand Robert both had their careers destroyed by the Red Scare. Buttheir paths diverged. While Robert died an almost ruined man, Frankcame into his own, emerging from ten years of exile on a Coloradoranch to create not just a multimillion dollar institution but alsoa revolution that was felt all over the world. His Exploratoriumwas a "museum of human awareness" that combined art and sciencewhile it encouraged play, experimentation, and a sense of joy andwonder; its success inspired a transformation in museums around theglobe. In many ways it was Franks answer to the atom bomb. K. C.Colea friend and colleague of Franks for many yearshas drawn fromletters, documents, and extensive interviews to write a verypersonal story of the man whose irrepressible spirit would inspireso many.

Spanning a period of almost 50 years, the stories of Henry Jamesrepresent one of the most remarkable feats of sustained literarycreation in modern times -- a body of work that, for sheerrichness, variety, and intensity, is unsurpassed in its genre. Thiscollection includes all the major stories as well as many that areunfamiliar but equally fascinating and memorable.Volume II includesthe magnificent works of James's maturity -- "The Figure in theCarpet", "The Turn of the Screw", "The Beast in the Jungle", amongmany others -- in which the deepening darkness of the author's ownlife casts a tragic but heroic shadow on the themes of hisyouth.

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) Franz Kafka's imagination so faroutstripped the forms and conventions of the literary tradition heinherited that he was forced to turn that tradition inside out inorder to tell his splendid, mysterious tales. Scrupulouslynaturalistic on the surface, uncanny in their depths, these storiesrepresent the achieved art of a modern master who had the gift ofmaking our problematic spiritual life palpable and real. Thisedition of his stories includes all his available shorter fictionin a collection edited, arranged, and introduced by GabrielJosipovici in ways that bring out the writer's extraordinary rangeand intensity of vision. Translated by Willa and Edwin Muir

Philip Schultz, winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for poetry,has been celebrated for his singular vision of the Americanimmigrant experience and Jewish identity, his alternately fierceand tender portrayal of family life, and his rich and riotousevocation of city streets. His poems have found enthusiasticaudiences among readers of Garrison Keillor's "Writer's Almanac,""Slate," "The New Yorker," and other publications. His willingnessto face down the demons of failure and loss, in his previous bookparticularly, make him a poet for our times, a poet who can write"If I have to believe in something, I believe in despair." Yet heremains oddly undaunted: "sometimes, late at night, we, myhappiness and I, reminisce, lifelong antagonists enjoying eachother's company.""The God of Loneliness," a major collection ofSchultz's work, includes poems from his five books ("Like Wings,""Deep Within the Ravine," "The Holy Worm of Praise," "Living in thePast," "Failure") and fourteen new poems. It is a volume tocherish, fro

In his international blockbusters The Da Vinci Code, Angels Demons, and The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown masterfully fusedhistory, art, codes, and symbols. In this riveting new thriller,Brown returns to his element and has crafted his highest-stakesnovel to date. In the heart of Italy, Harvard professor of symbology, RobertLangdon, is drawn into a harrowing world centered on one ofhistory’s most enduring and mysterious literary masterpieces . . .Dante’s Inferno. Against this backdrop, Langdon battles a chilling adversaryand grapples with an ingenious riddle that pulls him into alandscape of classic art, secret passageways, and futuristicscience. Drawing from Dante’s dark epic poem, Langdon races to findanswers and decide whom to trust . . . before the world isirrevocably altered.

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) One of the most popular Americanwriters of the twentieth century, Dashiell Hammett gave us crimefiction stripped down to its most subtle and searing essentialsand, at the same time, elevated to literature. The diamond-sharpprose and artfully manipulated intrigue for which he is known areon full display in the four classic short stories and two rivetingnovels published here in one volume. The Continental Op, Hammett'sanonymous antihero, was the indelible prototype for generations oftough-guy detectives. Single-minded, emotionally detached, anddecidedly unglamorous, he narrates the four linked storiescollected here--"The House in Turk Street," "The Girl with theSilver Eyes," "The Big Knockover," and "$106,000 Blood Money." InTHE DAIN CURSE, the Continental Op takes on his most bizarre case,that of a wealthy young woman who appears to be the victim of adeadly family curse. And THE GLASS KEY--Hammett's own favoriteamong his works--features his most cynical and morally ambiguoushero

Daniel Johnson -- journalist, editor, scholar, and chessenthusiast who once played Garry Kasparov to a draw in asimultaneous exhibition -- is the perfect guide to one of history'smost remarkable periods, when chess matches were front-page newsand captured the world's imagination. The Cold War played out inmany areas: geopolitical alliances, military coalitions,cat-and-mouse espionage, the arms race, proxy wars -- and chess. Anessential pastime of Russian intellectuals and revolutionaries, andlater adopted by the Communists as a symbol of Soviet power, chesswas inextricably linked to the rise and fall of the "evil empire."This original narrative history recounts in gripping detail thesingular part the Immortal Game played in the Cold War. Fromchess's role in the Russian Revolution -- Marx, Lenin, and Trotskywere all avid players -- to the 1945 radio match when the Sovietscrushed the Americans, prompting Stalin's telegram "Well donelads!"; to the epic contest between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spasskyin 197

From the acclaimed author of Conquistador comes this thrillingaccount of one of history’s greatest adventures of discovery. Withcinematic immediacy and meticulous attention to historical detail,here is the true story of a legendary sixteenth-century explorerand his death-defying navigation of the Amazon—river of darkness,pathway to gold. In 1541, the brutal conquistador Gonzalo Pizarro and hiswell-born lieutenant Francisco Orellana set off from Quito insearch of La Canela, South America’s rumored Land of Cinnamon, andthe fabled El Dorado, “the golden man.” Driving an enormous retinueof mercenaries, enslaved natives, horses, hunting dogs, and otheranimals across the Andes, they watched their proud expedition beginto disintegrate even before they descended into the nightmarishjungle, following the course of a powerful river. Soon hopelesslylost in the swampy labyrinth, their numbers diminishing dailythrough disease, starvation, and Indian attacks, Pizarro andOrellana made a fateful decisi

Dubbed "the American Tolkien" by "Time" magazine, #1 "New YorkTimes" bestselling author George R.R. Martin is a giant in thefield of fantasy literature and one of the most excitingstorytellers of our time. Now he delivers a rare treat for readers:a compendium of his shorter works, collected into two stunningvolumes, that offer fascinating insight into his journey from youngwriter to award-winning master. Gathered here, in Volume I, are thevery best of George R.R. Martin's early works, includingnever-before-published fan pieces, his Hugo, Nebula, and BramStoker Award-winning stories--plus the original novella "The IceDragon, "from which Martin's "New York Times" bestsellingchildren's book of the same title originated. A dazzling array thatfeatures extensive author commentary, Dreamsongs, Volume I," " isthe perfect collection for both Martin devotees and a newgeneration of fans.

An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaurDNA has been discovered. Creatures once extinct now roam JurassicPark, soon-to-be opened as a theme park. Until something goeswrong...and science proves a dangeroustoy...."Wonderful...Powerful."THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD "Fromthe Paperback edition."

The Spartans is a compelling narrative that explores theculture and civilization of the most famous "warrior people": theSpartans of ancient Greece, by the world's leading expert in thefield. Sparta has often been described as the original Utopia--aremarkably evolved society whose warrior heroes were forbidden anyother trade, profession, or business. As a people, the Spartanswere the living exemplars of such core values as duty, discipline,the nobility of arms in a cause worth dying for, sacrificing theindividual for the greater good of the community (illustrated bytheir role in the battle of Thermopylae), and the triumph of willover seemingly insuperable obstacles--qualities that today arefrequently believed to signify the ultimate heroism. Paul Cartledgeis the distinguished scholar and historian who has long been seenas the leading international authority on ancient Sparta. He tracesthe evolution of Spartan society--the culture and the people, aswell as the tremendous influence they had on their worl

“Every reader knows of writers who are likesecrets one wants to keep, and whose books one wants to tell theworld about. Millhauser is mine.” —David Rollow, Boston Sunday Globe From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author: the essential storiesacross three decades that showcase his indomitableimagination. Steven Millhauser's fiction has consistently, and to dazzlingeffect, dissolved the boundaries between reality and fantasy,waking life and dreams, the past and the future, darkness andlight, love and lust. The stories gathered here unfurl in settingsas disparate as nineteenth-century Vienna, a contemporaryConnecticut town, the corridors of a monstrous museum, and ThomasEdison's laboratory, and they are inhabited by a wide-ranging castof characters, including a knife thrower and teenage boys, ghostsand a cartoon cat and mouse. But all of the stories are united intheir unfailing power to surprise and enchant. From the earliest tothe stunning, previously unpublished novella-length tit