Kirjahaku

Arthur Carhart (1892 -1978), America's first champion of wilderness, the first Forest Service landscape architect, and the most popular conservation writer of mid-century America, won none of the titan status of his contemporary Aldo Leopold. A political maverick, he refused to side with any major advocacy group and none has made him its saint. Carhart was a grassroots thinker in a top-down era.Arthur Carhart, the first biography of this Republican environmentalist and major American thinker, writer, and activist, reveals the currency of his ideas. Tom Wolf elucidates Carhart 's vision of conservation as "a job for all of us," with citizens, municipal authorities, and national leaders all responsible for the environmental effects of their decisions. Carhart loved the local and decried interest groups - from stockmens' associations to wilderness lobbies - as cliques attempting blanket control. He pressured land management agencies to base decisions on local ecology and local partnerships. A lifelong wilderness advocate who proposed the first wilderness preserve at Trappers Lake, Colorado, in 1919, Carhart chose to oppose the Wilderness Act, heartsick at its compromises with lobbies. Because he shifted his stance and changed his views in response to new information, Carhart is not an easy subject for a biography. Wolf traces Carhart's twists and turns to show a man whose voice was distinctive and contrary, who spoke from a passionate concern for the land and couldn't be counted on for anything else. Readers of American history and outdoor writing will enjoy this portrait of a historic era in conservation politics and the man who so often eschewed politics in favor of the land and people he loved.

Japanese-born artist Yasuo Kuniyoshi's career and art evolved from innocence and early success to complexity and disillusionment. Born in Japan in 1889, Kuniyoshi arrived in the United States as a teenager and studied art in New York. He came into prominence during the 1920s through his distinctive modern figural style, original subjects, and humour. His work became more sensuous and worldly after two long stays in Paris, as he painted moody, reflective women and still lifes with unusual objects. Kuniyoshi was thoroughly integrated into American life and the art world-in 1948 the Whitney Museum of American Art held a retrospective of his work, the first retrospective that museum ever devoted to a living artist-but immigration law prevented him from becoming an American citizen. Classified an "enemy alien" after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he remained steadfastly on the side of his adopted country during the painful war years, working with the Office of War Information to create artworks indicting Japanese atrocities. After the war, Kuniyoshi developed a compelling late style, with bitter subjects and paradoxically bright colours. The Artistic Journey of Yasuo Kuniyoshi is a welcome introduction to this complex artist's entire career, featuring seventy of his best works from public and private collections in America and Japan. More than half a century after his death in 1953, this is a chance for a new generation to assess and enjoy Kuniyoshi's life and art. AUTHOR: Tom Wolf is Professor of Art History, Bard College, NY. An artist, he has had paintings exhibited at Artists Space, New York; Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art; Koslow Gallery, Los Angeles and Art Gallery of Western Australia. He is a recipient of Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship, and Winterthur Museum and Library Fellowships. 155 colour illustrations

September 1740: das Jahr des Regierungsantritts Friedrichs II. Der König betraut einen seiner Leibköche, den aus dem Elsaß stammenden Honor? Langustier, mit der heiklen Aufgabe, den Tod eines Adjutanten aufzuklären. Der gewitzte Kochkünstler, der eine ebenso unstillbare Neigung zu verwegenen Gedankenspielen wie auch zu gutem Essen zeigt, beginnt zu ermitteln, wobei ein königliches Permissionsschreiben ihm selbst die geheimsten Kammern des Hofes öffnet. Hofleben, bürgerlicher und gaunerischer Alltag Mitte des 18. Jahrhunderts im preußischen Berlin, aber auch gehobene Küche, Musik, Kunst, Philosophie, Naturwissenschaften und Literatur geraten ins Blickfeld - kein Bereich, den Langustier bei seinen abenteuerlichen Forschungen nicht gründlich sondiert und in anschaulichen Küchengesprächen mit seiner Tochter Marie und dem Polizeipräfekten Jordan erörtert.

Ostern 1750: Bei einem königlichen Bankett im Jagdschloss Grunewald bricht ein Gast mit heftigen Koliken zusammen. Die Adjutanten vermuten einen Anschlag auf den König. Der für die Mahlzeit verantwortliche Zweite Hofküchenmeister Honor? Langustier gerät unter Tatverdacht. Noch während Langustier bemüht ist, seine Unschuld zu beweisen, findet man den kaum wieder genesenen Gast, den Gutsbesitzer Carl Gustav von Randow, tot in einem übel beleumundeten Etablissement in Berlin. Alles deutet nunmehr auf einen gezielten Giftmord hin. Der König erinnert sich der Erfolge seines Koches bei der Aufklärung eines früheren Mordfalles und beauftragt ihn mit den Nachforschungen. Langustiers Ermittlungen zielen offenbar in die richtige Richtung, denn bald trachtet ihm sein unbekannter Gegner nach dem Leben. Doch der Koch hat unerschrockene Helfer.

Juni/Juli 1746. Endlich Friede! Nach der Sicherung seiner schlesischen Eroberung hat Friedrich II. allen Grund zum Feiern und lädt daher zu zahlreichen höfischen Zerstreuungen. Doch das Vergnügen droht im Keim zu ersticken: James Milton, 23. Earl of Moor, wird im ?König von Portugal? ermordet aufgefunden. Der Polizeichef von Berlin steht vor einem Rätsel. Friedrich II. gibt seinem Zweiten Hofküchenmeister Honor? Langustier neuerliche Gelegenheit, seinen Spürsinn zu beweisen.