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Rubens: Baroque Artist, Renaissance Man

Scribner鈥檚 classic biography and introduction to the wide range of works by the great Flemish Baroque master Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). Rubens is an 鈥榓rtist鈥檚 artist鈥�, known for his glowing, painterly treatments of classical mythology and religious themes and his stunning portraits and landscapes. His paintings鈥攎any commissioned by Europe鈥檚 leading princes and prelates鈥攁dorn the walls of the world鈥檚 greatest museums, from the Hermitage, Prado, and Louvre to the Metropolitan and National Gallery. Painters from Watteau to Delacroix to C茅zanne and Matisse have looked to Rubens for inspiration. His prodigious output included easel paintings, tapestries, altarpieces, decorative ceilings, sculpture designs, and monuments for festivals; he was also a leading diplomat鈥攌nighted by the kings of England and Spain鈥攁n antiquarian, humanist, and amateur architect: in short, the Baroque fulfillment of the Renaissance man. This illuminating biographical study of Rubens and his time is accompanied by 80 illustrations of Rubens鈥檚 work and comparative examples by other artists. The 43 color plates are each introduced by in-depth commentaries on the picture鈥檚 context and meaning.

Spell Freedom: The Underground Schools that Built the Civil Rights Movement

In the summer of 1954, educator Septima Clark and small businessman Esau Jenkins travelled to rural Tennessee鈥檚 Highlander Folk School, an interracial training center for social change founded by Myles Horton, a white southerner with roots in the labor movement. There, the trio united behind a shared mission: preparing Black southerners to pass the daunting Jim Crow era voter registration literacy tests that were designed to disenfranchise them.

Together with beautician-turned-teacher Bernice Robinson, they launched the underground Citizenship Schools project, which began with a single makeshift classroom hidden in the back of a rural grocery store. By the time the Voting Rights Act was signed into law in 1965, the secretive undertaking had established more than nine hundred citizenship schools across the South, preparing tens of thousands of Black citizens to read and write, demand their rights鈥攁nd vote. Simultaneously, it nurtured a generation of activists鈥攎any of them women鈥攖rained in community organizing, political citizenship, and tactics of resistance and struggle who became the grassroots foundation of the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. King called Septima Clark, 鈥淢other of the Movement.鈥�

In the vein of Hidden Figures and Devil in the Grove, Spell Freedom is both a riveting, crucially important lens onto our past, and a deeply moving story for our present.

Chesapeake Requiem: A Year with the Watermen of Vanishing Tangier Island

Tangier Island, Virginia, is a community unique on the American landscape. Mapped by John Smith in 1608, settled during the American Revolution, the tiny sliver of mud is home to 470 hardy people who live an isolated and challenging existence, with one foot in the 21st century and another in times long passed. They are separated from their countrymen by the nation鈥檚 largest estuary, and a twelve-mile boat trip across often tempestuous water鈥攖he same water that for generations has made Tangier鈥檚 fleet of small fishing boats a chief source for the rightly prized Chesapeake Bay blue crab, and has lent the island its claim to fame as the softshell crab capital of the world.

Yet for all of its long history, and despite its tenacity, Tangier is disappearing. The very water that has long sustained it is erasing the island day by day, wave by wave. It has lost two-thirds of its land since 1850, and still its shoreline retreats by fifteen feet a year鈥攎eaning this storied place will likely succumb first among U.S. towns to the effects of climate change. Experts reckon that, barring heroic intervention by the federal government, islanders could be forced to abandon their home within twenty-five years. Meanwhile, the graves of their forebears are being sprung open by encroaching tides, and the conservative and deeply religious Tangiermen ponder the end times.   

Chesapeake Requiem is an intimate look at the island鈥檚 past, present and tenuous future, by an acclaimed journalist who spent much of the past two years living among Tangier鈥檚 people, crabbing and oystering with its watermen, and observing its long traditions and odd ways. What emerges is the poignant tale of a world that has, quite nearly, gone by鈥攁nd a leading-edge report on the coming fate of countless coastal communities.

The Mindful Our Father

The Lord鈥檚 Prayer is a simple prayer that goes back to Jesus. But even though it has been around for a long time, we no longer know how to pray it as it should be prayed. We grow up saying this prayer in a hurried way, we continue to recite it in a rush, and we risk dying without ever waking up to its richness. This book slows things down, in order to help us recognize something of the richness of this great prayer. There is a real need to reflect and meditate on each phrase of the Our Father, to 鈥榗hew鈥� on the words as a cow would chew on the cud, to find the marrow of meaning, and so discover true nourishment. It is like digging for hidden treasure. Each chapter approaches a particular phrase of the Our Father from multiple perspectives, in order to facilitate a deepening level of engagement with its richness. By going through the Lord鈥檚 Prayer phrase by phrase, it is possible to taste something of the unique flavour of each line. Every chapter includes moving stories which throw a new spotlight on the marvellous riches concealed in this familiar prayer. Each chapter also includes short prayers based on the Lord鈥檚 Prayer, prayers that get us in touch with the depth and breadth of this foundational prayer. Once we translate the spiritual wisdom of the Lord鈥檚 Prayer into the personal language of our experience, we shall be led to a unique encounter with the God who yearns for us more than we could ever yearn for him.

Madonnas of Color

Brother Mickey McGrath's latest book is a colorful celebration of Mary as the beloved and timeless Madonna of Color. His color-铿乴led images and 铿乺sthand stories lend both new relevance and reverence to ancient titles and traditions surrounding the Black Madonna and help us to see her crucial importance in our divided and racist world. Mary the Madonna of Color reminds us that following her Son means centering our hearts on love, not fear.

James: A Novel

When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.鈥�

Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon,鈥痶his brilliant and tender novel radically鈥痠lluminates Jim鈥檚 agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature.

History Matters

History Matters brings together selected essays by beloved historian David McCullough, some published here for the first time, written at different points over the course of his long career but all focused on the subject of his lifelong passion: the importance of history in understanding our present and future. Edited by McCullough鈥檚 daughter, Dorie McCullough Lawson, and his longtime researcher, Michael Hill, History Matters is a tribute to a master historian and offers fresh insights into McCullough鈥檚 enduring interests and writing life. The book also features a foreword by Jon Meacham.

McCullough highlights the importance of character in political leaders, with Harry Truman and George Washington serving as exemplars of American values like optimism and determination. He shares his early influences, from the books he cherished in his youth to the people who mentored him. He also pays homage to those who inspired him, such as writer Paul Horgan and painter Thomas Eakins, illustrating the diverse influences on his writing as well as the influence of art.

Rich with McCullough鈥檚 signature grace, curiosity, and narrative gifts, these essays offer vital lessons in viewing history through the eyes of its participants, a perspective that McCullough believed was crucial to understanding the present as well as the past. History Matters is testament to McCullough鈥檚 legacy as one of the great storytellers of this nation鈥檚 history and of the lasting promise of American ideals.

The Buffalo Creek Disaster

One Saturday morning in February 1972, an impoundment dam owned by the Pittston Coal Company burst, sending a 130 million-gallon, 25-foot tidal wave of water, sludge, and debris crashing into southern West Virginia's Buffalo Creek hollow. It was one of the deadliest floods in U.S. history. 125 people were killed instantly, more than 1,000 were injured, and over 4,000 were suddenly homeless. Instead of accepting the small settlements offered by the coal company's insurance offices, a few hundred of the survivors banded together to sue. 

Sacred Muse: A Preface to Christian Art & Music

This small book provides an introduction to the rich and variegated subject of Christian currents through art and music down the ages, from Early Christian art to the present. It is personal and selective in its focus on favorite major artists and their subjects as exemplars of a wide range of sacred themes. The author鈥檚 lifelong professional focus on the Baroque giants Rubens and Bernini, along with the revolutionary Caravaggio, is evident in the central place they claim as he places them in the context of the broader tradition: medieval art, Michelangelo, Titian, Bellini, Rembrandt, Tiepolo, and other giants of the Renaissance and Baroque. Scribner鈥檚 focus is decidedly European鈥昻ot global. The masters of music will be equally familiar to readers and listeners: from Palestrina and Vivaldi to Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, and Verdi down to the 20th century. It is intended to be protreptic, something that will encourage and spur on the reader鈥晅eacher, student, amateur alike鈥晅o pursue her or his own explorations in periods and artists that likewise hold special appeal. This book includes 45 color and black and white illustrations.

Memorial Days: A Memoir

Many cultural and religious traditions expect those who are grieving to step away from the world. In contemporary life, we are more often met with red tape and to-do lists. This is exactly what happened to Geraldine Brooks when her partner of more than three decades, Tony Horwitz鈥昷ust sixty years old and, to her knowledge, vigorous and healthy鈥昪ollapsed and died on a Washington, D. C. sidewalk.

After spending their early years together in conflict zones as foreign correspondents, Geraldine and Tony settled down to raise two boys on Martha鈥檚 Vineyard. The life they built was one of meaningful work, good humor, and tenderness, as they spent their days writing and their evenings cooking family dinners or watching the sun set with friends at the beach. But all of this ended abruptly when, on Memorial Day 2019, Geraldine received the phone call we all dread. The demands were immediate and many. Without space to grieve, the sudden loss became a yawning gulf.

Three years later, she booked a flight to a remote island off the coast of Australia with the intention of finally giving herself the time to mourn. In a shack on a pristine, rugged coast she often went days without seeing another person. There, she pondered the various ways in which cultures grieve and what rituals of her own might help to rebuild a life around the void of Tony鈥檚 death.

A spare and profoundly moving memoir that joins the classics of the genre, Memorial Days is a portrait of a larger-than-life man and a timeless love between souls that exquisitely captures the joy, agony, and mystery of life.

On Democracy

鈥�I am a member of a party of one, and I live in an age of fear.鈥�

These words were written by E. B. White in 1947. Decades before our current political turmoil, White crafted eloquent yet practical political statements that continue to resonate. 鈥淭here鈥檚 only one kind of press that鈥檚 any good鈥斺�� he proclaimed, 鈥渁 press free from any taint of the government.鈥� He condemned the trend of defamation, arguing that 鈥渋n doubtful, doubting days, national morality tends to slip and slide toward a condition in which the test of a man鈥檚 honor is his zeal for discovering dishonor in others.鈥� And on the spread of fascism he lamented, 鈥渇ascism enjoys at the moment an almost perfect climate for growth鈥攁 world of fear and hunger.鈥�

This concise collection of essays, letters, and poems from one of this country鈥檚 most eminent literary voices offers much-needed historical context for our current state of the nation鈥攁nd hope for the future of our society. Speaking to Americans at a time of uncertainty, when democracy itself has come under threat, he reminds us, 鈥淎s long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman . . . the scene is not desolate.鈥�

Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi's Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging

Angela Buchdahl was born in Seoul, the daughter of a Korean Buddhist mother and Jewish American father. Profoundly spiritual from a young age, by sixteen she felt the first stirrings to become a rabbi. Despite the naysayers and periods of self-doubt鈥擶ould a mixed-race woman ever be seen as authentically Jewish or chosen to lead a congregation?鈥攕he stayed the course, which took her first to Yale, then to rabbinical school, and finally to the pulpit of one of the largest, most influential congregations in the world.

Today, Angela Buchdahl inspires Jews and non-Jews alike with her invigorating, joyful approach to worship and her belief in the power of faith, gratitude, and responsibility for one another, regardless of religion. She does not shy away from difficult topics, from racism within the Jewish community and the sexism she confronted when she aspired to the top job to rising antisemitism today. Buchdahl teaches how these challenges, which can make one feel like a stranger, can ultimately be the source of our greatest empathy and strength.

Angela Buchdahl has gone from outsider to officiant, from feeling estranged to feeling embraced鈥攁nd she's emerged with a deep conviction that we are all bound to a larger whole and mission. She has written a book that is both memoir and spiritual guide for everyday living, which is exactly what so many of us crave right now.

The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci

In 1577, the Jesuit Priest Matteo Ricci set out from Italy to bring Christian faith and Western thought to Ming dynasty China. To capture the complex emotional and religious drama of Ricci's extraordinary life, Jonathan Spence relates his subject's experiences with several images that Ricci himself created鈥攆our images derived from the events in the Bible and others from a book on the art of memory that Ricci wrote in Chinese and circulated among members of the Ming dynasty elite. A rich and compelling narrative about a fascinating life, The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci is also a significant work of global history, juxtaposing the world of Counter-Reformation Europe with that of Ming China.