Kirjahaku

Blindfold Games was the first volume of Alan Ross's autobiography. He was a most attractive man. William Boyd has eloquently described his appeal, 'There was a sophisticated raffishness and glamour about him . . . nothing seedy or earnest. He owned racehorses. He loved women and travel. . . He was a poet and a brilliant writer on cricket.' He was also one of the great literary editors, running the London Magazine in its heyday.This volume begins in Bengal, where he was born, and ends in Germany in 1946 when the author was twenty-four. It takes in his childhood in India, his schooldays in England, his time at Oxford, and, most hauntingly, his experiences on the Arctic convoys during the Second World War. He survived: very many of his friends were killed. To give it a less humdrum description one can turn to the author's own words. 'War, India, cricket: these were my first subjects as a writer and they remain the preoccupations of this book. In due course, the playing of games was replaced by writing about them, and it was to the belief that the best characteristics of each derive from the same source that I nailed my colours. The searching for 'suitable similes' . . . whether for Hammond's off-drive, Stanley Matthews' mesmeric dribbling, or a racehorse's action, was as good a way as I could imagine of relating techniques to aesthetics. . .Perhaps, as much as anything, writing this book has been an attempt to reconcile differing definitions of style and to trace the manner in which a single-minded devotion to sport developed into a passion for poetry.' 'An exceptional autobiography, beautifully written' John Carey'A beautifully composed book' Raleigh Trevelyan'A Delightful account of the first part of his life, which, I shall lay odds, is likely to become a classic' Allan Massie, Listener'A brilliant performance' Anthony Curtis

'It was rugged travel; the hotels where we stayed were basic and often dirty. We lived on bread, cheese, figs, pastis and wine. The bus journeys were slow and suffocating, with long stops for no particular reason. One day we would be languishing in the humid heat of an estuary, the next exhilarated by sweet mountain air, waking to forests and mountains. We never saw an English person, and hardly any French, except at Calvi and Ile-Rousse towards the end of our trip.'That is Alan Ross describing Corsica in 1947 which he and the artist John Minton visited, in the footsteps of Edward Lear, expressly to write this book. Although admitting, perhaps too modestly, to the influence of Graham Greene's The Lawless Roads and Journey Without Maps and therefore 'too inclined to see Corsica in terms of defeated priests, corrupt politicians and saintly monks' he wrote one of the best travel books since the Second World War. It is, in fact, a collaboration between a gifted writer and the most romantic artist of his generation, and, in its own lesser way, it played a part, alongside the early Elizabeth Davids (also illustrated by John Minton), of reminding drab, grey, post-war Britain of a warmer, sunnier, more colourful alternative: the Mediterranean.'Evocative and splendid . . . alert, fresh and sensuous' Times Literary Supplement'Poetic, personal, the pungent effect of travel on keen senses' V. S. Pritchett, New Statesman'Splashed with bold strokes and burning colours . . . We are made to see and small, hear and feel the place. That is the test of a good travel book' Observer

This, the second volume of Alan Ross's autobiography, deals with his postwar life as cricket correspondent, publisher, man of letters and racehorse owner. The narrative is richly peopled: Johnny Minton, Keith Vaughan, Agatha Christie, Gavin Maxwell, Wilfred Thesiger, Cyril Connolly, T. C. Worsley , William Plomer, Terence Rattigan, William Sansom are just some who are memorably characterized. William Boyd has written of Alan Ross, 'He was the opposite of parochial, his interests were wide and not elitist, his enthusiasms were carefully hedonistic. He was a very fine writer of prose - his two volumes of memoirs are small classics - and his poetry is limpid and evocative.' As a beguiling bonus, each chapter of Coastwise Lights is eked out with a small and apt selection of his poems.The first autobiographical volume, Blindfold Games, is also available in Faber Finds as will be many other of his titles.'A true celebration of friendship and talent as well as the sports - football, cricket, horse-racing - which have engaged him in the last four decades.' Philip Oakes, New Statesman'His obvious affection for the friends who flit through this beautifully written sketchbook is masked by a writer's curiosity and detached amusement.' Euan Cameron, Independent'A fascinating history of metropolitan literary life from the end of the war.' Chris Peachment, The Times

Every so often a Test match offers such high drama as to transcend the series of which it was part. Such a battle was the second Test between England and West Indies at Lord's in June 1963. Wisden called it one of the most dramatic played in England. Alan Ross's eyewitness account amply evokes its excitement. Lord's was packed with supporters of both sides, and the two teams, led by Ted Dexter and Frank Worrell, were very strong. West Indies had Garry Sobers and the pace attack of Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith, against whom Dexter's first innings 70 was noteworthy. Fred Trueman took 11 wickets for England, though he could not stop a colossal century by Basil Butcher. But England's final innings run-chase would be distinguished by one courageous knock from Brian Close, and a commensurately brave effort by Colin Cowdrey.

Alan Ross (1922-2001) - distinguished poet, travel writer, and editor of London Magazine - also managed to excel in the role of cricket correspondent for the Observer, in which capacity he followed England/MCC on tours of Australia, South Africa and the West Indies. In the book-length accounts he published of these tours, his lifelong love of the game found glorious expression. Cape Summer and the Australians in England (1957) treats the 1956 Ashes series, memorable above all for the bowling performance of Jim Laker; and the following winter's MCC tour to apartheid South Africa, where one of England's strongest ever sides had an unexpectedly tough contest and where, as ever, Ross's discerning eye and finessing pen were alive to dimensions of the game beyond the boundary rope.

In 1960, against most predictions, the England cricket team won their first ever series in the West Indies. Even against a home side boasting Hall and Watson, Worrell, Sobers and Ramadhin, the visitors - fuelled by the bowling of Trueman and Statham and a batting order including Dexter, Barrington and Subba Row - emerged triumphant over five tests.Alan Ross describes the action in graphic detail, including some violent scenes at Port-of-Spain. And as always he paints vivid pictures in words of all that he saw outside of the cricket grounds, from Spanish Town, Jamaica, to Nelson's dockyard in Antigua, and the carnival in Trinidad.'Alan Ross has established himself as one of the most graceful and cultured of cricket writers.' Times

'This valedictory volume is the quintessence of [Alan] Ross, a deft and deceptively airy set of literary wanderings through a part of the Mediterranean - the islands of the south-western coast of Italy - he had known since being demobilised from the Royal Navy at the end of the Second World War... Ross's memoir is a showcase for a supremely poetic sensibility, and a naturally gifted writer with an unerring eye for detail, reporting on his experience with an infectiously joyous lyricism.' Eldon King, Observer'A fund of associative literary information that could only have been amassed by a passionate reader. Gorky, Ibsen, Rilke, DH Lawrence, Walter Benjamin, Pablo Neruda and scores more wrote in or near Ischia; Ross describes their books and their lives with detailed succinctness, en route dipping in and out of his own thoughts and travel observations.' Helen Simpson, Guardian

Indian prince, Sussex and England cricketer, K.S. Ranjitsinhji was unique in many ways. W.G. Grace predicted that there would not be another batsman like 'Ranji' for a hundred years; arguably we are still waiting. His prodigious run-scoring ability alone assured his place in the annals of cricket, but his talents transcended statistics. His batting married subtlety and strength in a way that was quite new to the game, and he was a 'character' and crowd-pleaser from his century-making test debut in 1896 to his withdrawal from cricket in 1907 after he was installed as Jam Saheb of Nawanagar. 'A splendid memorial... In Alan Ross, Ranji is perfectly matched with one of the best writers the game ever attracted.' Guardian'A gem of a book.' Yorkshire Post

After Pusan, first published in 1995, is the third panel (alongside Blindfold Games and Coastwise Lights, also in Faber Finds) of a triptych of memoirs by Alan Ross. Inspired by Ross's visit in 1986 to the South Korean coastal city of Pusan, like its predecessors it gracefully entwines poetry and prose. 'After Pusan opens with a thirty-page prose memoir of [Ross's] visit, economically and self-effacingly told, deft in its detail and tireless in its curiosity... This memoir is more than merely an adjunct to Ross's other travel writings, though, and more than only a prelude to the poems which fill the rest of these hundred pages. After Pusan breaks a long silence in his life as a poet; and it was that visit to Korea... that suggested to him 'that if poetry was ever going to come again it might do so now.' PN Review

First published in 1954 as South to Sardinia, this account of a summer journey in the early 1950s sees Alan Ross alternating the past and present of a strange island whose interior, especially, had been only rarely visited at that point. His descriptions of the landscape and local customs and mores (including billiards, 'one of the great Sardinian occupations') are interspersed with tales of a cast of characters who might have come out of Boccaccio, adding up to a memorable evocation.'An alert and sensitive travel book... Alan Ross has an exceptional descriptive gift.' Listener'So closely packed with good writing that it requires to be read slowly, as Mr Ross travelled.' Time and Tide'He is a specialist in the vin triste... a delightful offbeat.' Cyril Connolly, Sunday Times'An exceptionally good book by any standard.' TLS'A work of art and imagination.' Times

This highly original book is the first in-depth study of a footsoldier of the seventeenth-century German Republic of Letters. Its subject, the polymath and schoolteacher Christian Daum, is today completely forgotten, yet left behind one of the largest private archives of any early modern European scholar. On the basis of this unique source, this book portrays schools as focal points of a whole world of Lutheran learning outside of universities and courts, as places not just of education but of intense scholarship, and examines their significance for German culture.Multi-confessional Germany was different from Catholic France and Protestant England in that its network of small cities fostered educational and cultural competition and made possible a much larger and socially open Republic. This book allows us for the first time to understand how the Republic of Letters was constructed from below and how it was possible for individuals from relatively humble backgrounds and occupations to be at the centre of European intellectual life.This book is aimed at other specialists as well as postgraduate students in the fields of cultural and social history, and can also serve as an introduction to recent European literature on early modern scholarship for undergraduate students.

The Lost Teachings of Spiritualism is a book taken from the evening slide lecture by the same name, which Alan has presented in the US, the UK and Canada. The presentation is based upon the channeled messages of the Washington DC lawyer, James E. Padgett and his successor Dr. Daniel G. Samuels. In The Lost Teachings of Spiritualism many historic, scientific, philosophical, and spiritual subjects are examined. This book traces Spiritualism from its ancient beginnings to the emergence of Modern Spiritualism in America. it explains the creation of the world, the origin of man, the destiny of the human soul, a description of the spirit world and of God are just some of the subjects contained in This book.

This book is Alan Ross's 1954 travel book, "The Bandit on the Billiard Table: A Journey through Sardinia". It is the fascinating account of a summer trip to Sardinia, an island rarely visited when the book was first published. An interesting exploration of culture and customs, this book is highly recommended for those with an interest in historical travel writing, and would make for a worthy addition to any collection. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing "The Bandit on the Billiard Table: A Journey through Sardinia" now in an affordable, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction.

Love'em or hate'em, there's no denying that the New York Yankees have won twenty-six world championships. No other team comes close to matching that record. Some clubs are fortunate enough to assemble a team that can be called a dynasty, most never come close -- the Yankees have had five.Long before the 2000 World Series trophy was awarded, Alan Ross, a lifelong Yankees fan, began compiling a unique, concise treasury of quotations about the Yankees by the players, coaches, and sportswriters who called Yankee Stadium home. The result is an eloquent collection of pinstripe pride that should swell the heart of every Yankees fan. Sentiments from heroes past and present echo through the pages, from Ruth and Gehrig to Stengel and Mantle to Torre and Jeter. Not only are the voices heard of the greats whose names appear on the monuments beyond the left-center field fence at Yankee Stadium -- Ruth, Gehrig, Dickey, DiMaggio, Mantle, Maris, Berra, Ford, Munson, Guidry, Jackson, Hunter, and Mattingly -- but also those of other Yankee heroes such as Charley Keller, Spud Chandler, Joe Gordon, Tommy Henrich, Vic Raschi, Allie Reynolds, Bobby Murcer, Bobby Richardson, Tony Kubek, Joe Pepitone, and Sparky Lyle.This tribute to the Yankees also includes a brief history of the team, statistics from the successful World Series campaigns, and the lineups that amassed this legacy. In the end, it is a celebration of the greatness of the Yankees that spanned a century.This is the kind of book a fan reads over and over. After all, that is the way their Yankees seem to collect world championships.

The Curse, the Wall, the Rocket, the homer Teddy Ballgame, Yaz, Fenway, Nomar, and Pedro. Included in THE RED SOX CENTURY is one hundred and one years of Red Sox baseball from 1903-2003. While the Olde Towne Team may have registered more than its fair share of heartaches on the diamond, the Red and Blue have etched themselves deeply into the rich fiber of the American game as a perennial contender in the American League. THE RED SOX CENTURY is the story of Boston's beloved baseball team, a you are there"" account of all the greats of the Hub's Hose and the best seat in the house for the epic milestones in team history, as told through the voices of players, coaches, and sportswriters. This tribute also includes an all-time Red Sox team, a special shrine to No. 9, and the player rosters of every Red Sox World Series team. From Pesky's Pole and the Green Monster to the Red Seat and those #*?@ Yankees, this treasury of team lore has it all for Red Sox fans and followers of all ages. Batter up It's Bosox time in Beantown.""