Foreword by Neil Gaiman The world's leading Arthurian authority reimagines one of the most beloved and influential legends--the story of King Arthur and his Knights--for a new century in this gorgeous keepsake edition, illustrated with luminous full-color paintings and drawings by internationally acclaimed Tolkien artist John Howe. The stories of King Arthur and Merlin, Lancelot and Guinevere, Galahad, Gawain, Tristan and the rest of the Knights of the Roundtable, and the search for the Holy Grail have been beloved for centuries and are the inspiration of many modern fantasy novels, films, and shows. These legends began when an obscure Celtic hero named Arthur stepped on to the stage of history sometime in the sixth century, generating a host of oral tales that would be inscribed some 900 years later by Thomas Malory in his classic Morte D'Arthur (The Death of Arthur). The Great Book of King Arthur brings these legends into the modern age, using accessible prose for contemporary readers for the first time. In addition to the stories in Morte D'Arthur, John Matthews includes many tales of Arthur and his knights either unknown to Malory or written in other languages, such as the story of Avenable, the girl brought up as a boy who becomes a famous knight; Morien, whose adventures are as fantastic and exciting as any found in Malory's work; and a retelling of the life of Round Table favorite Gawain, from his strange birth to his upbringing among the poor to his ascension to the highest position--Emperor of Rome. In addition, there are some of the earliest tales of Arthur, deriving from the tradition of Celtic storytelling. The epic hero is represented in such powerful stories as "The Adventures of Eagle-boy" and "The Coming of Merlin," which is based on the early medieval text Vita Merlini and tells a completely new version of the great enchanter's story. The Great Book of King Arthur includes 15 full-color paintings and 25 pencil drawings.

Hailed as a masterpiece by Jean Genet, Marguerite Duras, and Jean-Paul Sartre, Tropisms is considered one of the defining texts of the nouveau roman movement. Nathalie Sarraute has defined her work as the "movements that are hidden under the commonplace, harmless instances of our everyday lives." Like figures in a grainy photograph, Sarraute's characters are blurred and shadowy, while her narrative never develops beyond a stressed moment. Instead, Sarraute brilliantly finds and elaborates subtle details--when a relationship changes, when we fall slightly deeper into love, or when something innocent tilts to the smallest degree toward suspicion.

Sixteen more lost stories by Ben Hecht from the Snickersnee Press, this compilation about Chicago's pioneering Modernist artists, their art and the pioneering skyscrapers punctuating the cityscape. Audiences include 1. Art and cultural historians of early Modernism in Chicago; 2. Short story lovers interested in literary journalism of Ben Hecht at his before-30 Chicago brightest. 3. Chicago history. The 1921-1922 short works reveal Hecht's passion for avant-garde art including German DaDa, show off his unbridled wordsmithery, philosophizing and humor in his salad days before he became Hollywood's most sought-after film writer and script doctor (Scarface, Spellbound, Notorious). Written for his Chicago Daily News column 1001 Afternoons in Chicago, the pieces vary from bar rooom comedy about specific artists to intellectual arguments about Modernism and beauty, subjects unexplored by other Hecht biographers. Uncompiled until rediscovered on microfilm by archival research consultant and Hecht biobibliographer Florice Whyte Kovan, they rejuvenate and contextualize with her historical notes and profuse illustrations. Hecht interviews Primitivist Jerome Blum, visiting Russian painter Nicholas Roerich; satirizes landscape artist George Peyraud, expounds on Dadaist Johannes Van Baader. He features his own illustrators Herman Rosse and Wallace Smith, the latter illustrating Hecht's banned book, Fantasius Mallare. Two-page spreads recall George Grosz's early Americana drawings; works by eccentric Stanislaw Szukalski's, recently a NetFlix subject. No-Jury artists rejected at Art Institute of Chicago, as Hecht laments, receive a two-page cartoon spread. Over 20 artists referenced. Hecht's skyscraper stories track daily construction of the spire-topped Temple Building and extoll the iconic Wrigley Tower. A roman a clef with a surprise ending invokes the extravagant dreams of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Kovan's quirky landscape-oriented layout varies column height evoking the cityscape. Her research at Smithsonian Archives of American Art, MoMA and Library of Congress establishes that several artist friends became Hollywood artists and set designers. She adds scholarly value with material, 104 reference images including film stills; bibliography, image acknowledgements, internal commentary, endnotes, foreword, afterword, index. The vibrant sundrenched cover is from hand-made painted washi paper by Washington, DC artist Sheila Crider who created it for Kovan's original artist book.

Kenneth Goldsmith's Theory offers an unprecedented reading of the contemporary world: 500 texts – from poems and musings to short stories – printed on 500 pages assembled in the form of a ream of paper. Curated by the author-poet, this unique collection maps out the various issues and trends in contemporary literature in a world currently being shaken up by everything online and digital,and calls for the reinvention of creative forms.