Series of the Month: A History of the American People

"Washington felt very keenly the sharp power of the hot criticism to which his course towards France had subjected him. It was a heady current to stem. Unmeasured abuse beat upon him. He seemed for a little the leader of a party, and of a minority party at that, instead of the leader of the nation. He was made to seem for a time nothing but a Federalist, the head of a party which meant to make the federal government the people’s master and then use its mastery to serve England, whom they hated, and to humiliate France, whom they loved."
                 —from Chapter III: “A Nation in the Making”


Cosimo is celebrating American patriotism with our March Series of the Month, A History of the American People, by Woodrow Wilson.

A History of the American People is a five-volume history of the United States and the American people, reflecting many of Wilson's policies and ideas that he later brought to his candidacy and presidency. Our series is a beautiful replica of the 1902 first edition featuring all the original halftone illustrations.




About the author: 

Before he served as the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921, before he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919, Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) was a lawyer and an academic: a university professor of history and politics, and president of Princeton University. It was during his tenure at Princeton that he penned this five-volume history of the United States, and it reflects many of the biases he later brought to national politics, from racial prejudice to anti-immigration attitudes. In Volume III, Wilson delves into the expansion of the United States in the early 19th century in the western frontiers, tells the story of the founding and development of the federal government in the first quarter century of its existence, and explores contentious tariff matters and other divisive issues that challenged the new nation in its early years. Appendices feature the full text of the 1783 Treaty of Peace with England, the 1787 ordinance for the government of the Northwest Territory, the 1787 Constitution of the United States, the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 and 1799, and the Virginia Resolutions of 1798.

Cosimo offers Wilson's impressive series by individual volume at various online bookstores or as a full set in hardcover or paperback, especially of interest to collectors, readers who like to expand their personal library or professional librarians. If you are interested in purchasing the full set, please contact us.

The hardcover retail list price for the series is $154.95, but now:our price: $119.99  (you save $35 or a 22 percent discount)
The paperback retail list price: $64.95, but now: our price: $49.99 (you save $15 or a 23 percent discount)

Happy International Women’s Day!

Today is International Women’s Day, a day that started nationally in the United States, but would gain enough clout and momentum to spread worldwide.

On February 28, 1909 the Socialist Party of America declared that the USA should observe Women’s Day. In 1910, an International Women’s conference was held and they reached the agreement that International Women’s Day should be observed annually. March 18, 1911 was the first International Women’s day. Observed by over 1 million people in several different countries, the day marked many demonstrations for the support and empowerment of women who have long contributed to the history and success of many nations without recognition. The demonstrations also demanded the right to vote and hold office. The day spread over the next fifty years and in 1977 when the United Nations General Assembly invited member states to proclaim March 8 as the UN Day for Women's Rights and International Peace, the day became official with a widespread observance. 

International Women’s Day is a recognizable and significant moment in the Women’s rights movement. Striving for equality in regards to voting was discussed and hotly debated in the early 1900s, a great survey of which is described in Eugene A. Hecker's 1914 title, "A Short History of Womens Rights" or, for those who may want to travel back in time a bit, Mary Wollstonecraft's book, "A Vindication of the Rights of Women" will give readers a fantastic historical background from the 1700s.


It is because of these women of the past who fought (and those women who still fight today) for equality and rights, that we can have such amazing authors as we do today. For example, Phebe A. Hanaford, who wrote about female poets, scientist, preachers, and educators in her book, "Daughters of America or Women of the Century", or Margaret E. Burton', who defied longstanding cultural traditions and stereotypes and wrote about her struggles in "Notable Women of Modern China", and more recently, Michaela Walsh, who wrote "Founding a Movement: Womens World Banking, 1975-1990" and was the president of Women's World Banking.


The 2014 theme of International Women's Day is Inspiring Change, and challenging the status quo for women's equality and vigilance inspiring positive change. Thousands of events occur to mark the economic, political and social achievements of women. Organizations, governments, charities, educational institutions, women's groups, corporations and the media celebrate this day world wide. For more information about International Women's Day and events near you, see their website.

March Book of the Month: A Journey through Governance

Cosimo's Book of the Month for March is a new release, a personal account from career civil servant William A. Morrill, who spent nearly twenty-five years working in the White House during a combined six presidencies. Morrill experienced some of the most iconic American moments firsthand and worked with several of the most well-known (if not well-loved) presidents of the modern era.

A Journey through Governance: A Public Servant's Experience under Six Presidents is a memoir revealing how the United States government works behind closed doors. Morrill, the quintessential public servant, takes the reader inside the White House fence and through Capitol corridors to meet presidents, senators, generals, and cabinet secretaries as they deal with one critical national issue after another.




Morrill's Government Involvement
Among the projects central to Morrill's time in federal government were helping to spearhead healthcare reform in the early 1970s, transforming the telecommunications industries, improving emissions standards under the Clean Air Act, and helping to figure out how many nuclear bombs were needed in the United States.

Morrill writes, "I want to share an insider's look at events and challenges that are more exciting and historically significant than readers may have guessed. But more important, I want to convey the necessity, even the nobility, of the work of those who serve in government." Morrill hopes his book will inspire others to follow his footsteps into lives of public service. For more information about this book, check out our press release. A Journey through Governance is currently available as a paperback book from multiple online vendors around the world and through the Espresso Book Machine, and will soon be available in eBook format. Praise for A Journey through Governance The book has received high praise from former government workers, including former secretary of labor, the Treasury, and State, George P. Shultz. Shultz writes, "Morrill brings vast and diverse experience to his views about a subject of critical importance: how we govern ourselves. Among the gems: 'How to Be an Effective Bureaucrat--A Dozen Tips.' Everyone, whether in government or not, can learn from this book." Alice M. Rivlin, founding director of the Congressional Budget Office and former director of the Office of Management and Budget said, "In this thoughtful book, Bill Morrill draws on his first-hand experiences with complex public decisions over a remarkable career in several presidential administrations. He writes with insider knowledge and respect for the hard work of doing the public's business amid conflicting pressures." Former secretary of the Treasury and former chairman and CEO of Alcoa Paul H, O'Neill commented that "This is a life story everyone will enjoy. For young people beginning or aspiring to a career in public service, the stories in this book will light your way--and show you how public service can give meaning to your life." About William A. Morrill William A. Morrill has had a long distinguished career of public service in federal and local government. He served in the administrations of six presidents, from Eisenhower to Carter: at the Pentagon on the Air Force Headquarters staff; in the Executive Office of the President under Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter; and as an assistant secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare under Presidents Ford and Carter. Morrill has remained engaged in public-service and public-policy matters in the private sector, including with the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Public Administration. After leaving government, he was president of Mathematica Policy Research, chief executive and chairman of Mathtech, and a senior fellow at ICF International. He can be found online on his website

Twelve Years is a 2014 Award(s) Winner!

Congrats to Twelve Years a Slave for stealing the show at the 2014 Oscars! 

This classic won the following awards:
Best Picture
Best Supporting Actress (where Lupidta Nyong'o gives one of the most inspirational speeches of the evening)
Best Adapted Screenplay (screenplay by John Ridley)

If you haven't already read the book (or seen the trailer), Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man living in the north with his family, is sold into slavery after being tricked into a (fake) job and kidnapped. He is taken away from his family and his home in New York where he has to endure a life (or lack thereof) of living on a cotton plantation while being harassed and abused.


Twelve Years is also the winner of the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Drama as well as  the Best Film award at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

The film's director, Steve McQueen, had this to say during his acceptance speech: “Everyone deserves not just to survive, but to live. This is the most important legacy from Solomon Northup. I dedicate this award to all people who have endured slavery. And the 21 million people who still suffer slavery today. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.”

Clayton Adams, the great-great-great-grandson of Solomon Northup, had this to say about the film: "I read the book twice. But the second time, I was really understanding that this was a part of my blood, and with that in mind, it truly brought me to tears at the end of the book."

Twelve Years was not the only book to movie adaptation recognized at this year's awards ceremony: 
Philomena (Philomena: A Mother, Her Son, and a Fifty-Year Search By Martin Sixsmith), Captain Phillips (A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea By Richard Phillips with Stephan Talty), The Invisible Woman (The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens by Claire Tomalin), The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien), The Book Thief (The Book Thief by Markus Frank Zusak), Frozen (The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen), The Wolf of Wall Street (The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort) American Hustle (The Sting Man: Inside Abscam by Robert W. Greene), and of course, The Great Gatsby (The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald) were all nominated.

Congrats to all of those who worked hard to bring Twelve Years a Slave to life on the big screen!

Cosimo is proud to have released both an affordable paperback and beautiful hardcover edition of Twelve Years a Slave at Barnes & Noble, as well as on Amazon (paperback and hardcover). For more information about the author and the book, please see our press release.

Abraham Lincoln's History by Hay and Nicolay in the News

After having posted last week about the biography of  Abraham Lincoln by Lord Charnwood in response to a review in The Wall Street Journal, this week Abraham Lincoln is again in the news in a new book review in The Economist, Both the President's Men. The Lincoln’s Boys: John Hay, John Nicolay, and the War for Lincoln’s Image by Joshua Zeitz

This review says the following:

"AMERICANS crave books about Abraham Lincoln. But finding fresh material on their 16th president is tough. So some writers are turning to his acolytes—the cabinet, the generals, the son. A new account, by Joshua Zeitz, focuses on Lincoln’s two secretaries, who had an insider’s view of a momentous presidency. John George Nicolay and John Hay shared a bedroom at the White House and served as Lincoln’s gatekeepers and letter-writers. The president called them “The Boys”. They called him, privately and devotedly, “The Tycoon” and “The Ancient”

The secretaries accompanied Lincoln from Illinois to Washington in 1861. Nicolay, born in Germany but mostly raised in America, was a former newspaperman who had once walked 35 miles to get a job. Hay was a Brown University graduate and would-be poet, aimless until he began working for Lincoln after the 1860 presidential campaign.............

“Lincoln’s Boys” is reinvigorated when Mr Zeitz returns to his core subject: the work Hay and Nicolay did with Lincoln’s legacy. Even while the civil war raged, they formed a plan to write their boss’s biography. After the assassination Lincoln’s eldest son, Robert, took control of thousands of administration papers. He gave the secretaries first crack (the papers would not be open to the public until 1947) and they promised Robert he could delete what he wished. Around 1874 Hay and Nicolay started their work. By 1890 they had produced a ten-volume biography......

(This) book proved fundamental to the shaping of Lincoln’s story. It came out at a time, Mr Zeitz writes, when Americans were conveniently forgetting that slavery had driven the Union apart. As for Lincoln himself, the public had been feeding eagerly on tabloidy reports of a past (and by this point long-deceased) love and a rocky marriage. Hay and Nicolay hammered hard on slavery, skimped on painful personal details and built a case for the wise and compassionate leader that Americans revere to this day.

“I believe he will fill a bigger place in history than he even dreams of himself,” Hay wrote to a friend in 1863. Thanks partly to his and Nicolay’s endeavours, he was to be proved right."

Cosimo offers this unique Hay's and Nicolay's 10-volume portrait in hardcover or paperback, especially of interest to Abraham Lincoln collectors, readers who like to expand their personal library or professional librarians.

The hardcover retail list price for the series is $449, but now:
our price: $359.99  (you save $90 - or a 20 percent discount - and free shipping)

The paperback retail list price: $279.99, but now: 
our price: $220.99 (you save $50  - or a 18 percent discount - and free shipping)

If you are interested in purchasing the full set, please contact us.

Series of the Month: A Library of the World's Best Literature

This month we like to highlight a unique series of world literature, A Library of the World’s Best Literature edited by Charles Dudley Warner.

Mark Twain was a pallbearer at his funeral, yet Charles Dudley Warner is a name largely forgotten by the literary world. An editor, journalist, and essayist, Warner was a Renaissance man who also worked at times as a lawyer, a farmer, and critic. He wrote nine travel books, published numerous essays on social and literary reform, and most famously co-wrote The Gilded Age with Twain. The co-written novel satirized the greed and political corruption present in post-Civil War America.

Many years later, while his friend Twain was traveling around the world for a lecture tour, Warner published a series known as A Library of the World’s Best Literature. With the help of an “Advisory Council” comprised mainly of professors and Deans of U.S. Universities, Warner collected and edited this 45-volume set of Classic and Modern world literature. This series would later include a comprehensive “literary dictionary”—a reference that provided the names and descriptions of authors referenced in the series, as well as suggestions of other enriching authors not included but still “representative of literary history.” As Warner stated in the Preface to this series, the collection’s goal was: 

“to encourage, stimulate, and assist the general reader, not only in the acquisition of knowledge and the widening of his mental horizon, but in the rational enjoyment of life.”

A Library of the World's Best Literature includes poetry, short stories, letters, and novel excerpts, with essays about the author or the subject of the text. There are also sections that discuss a series of works grouped by subject matter, era, or nationality. The collection lives up to its ‘worldy’ description, including everything from the work of his friend, Mark Twain, to Chronologies that detail the great authors of Polish, Swedish, German, and Swiss literature, to name a few. It’s a truly comprehensive series of World literature, covering centuries of great writing, and a helpful introduction to the breadth of literature available to interested readers.

Charles Dudley Warner was a literary figure in his own right, and it's a shame that his contributions are eclipsed by those of his friend. Today Twain is often credited with the famous quote "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it," while it is argued that Warner himself coined the phrase. (For a compelling examination of the quote's origin, click here).

February being Black History Month, we also like to celebrate Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin (excerpts of which can be found in Vol.XXXV of this series). Arguably one of the most widely known and popularly read books about American slavery, it became the bestselling novel of the 19th century. With its first publication in 1852, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and with it, Stowe, helped to ignite the social flames that led to Civil War less than a decade later.

Cosimo offers Warner's impressive series by individual volume at various online bookstores or as a full set in hardcover or paperback, especially of interest to collectors, readers who like to expand their personal library or professional librarians. If you are interested in purchasing the full set, please contact us.

The hardcover retail list price for the series is $1,609.54, but now:
our price: $1,289.99  (you save $320 or a 20 percent discount)

The paperback retail list price: $899.55, but now:
our price: $699.99 (you save $200 or a 22 percent discount)

Cosimo also offers Warner's In the Wilderness, Baddeck and That Sort of Thing, and On Horseback: A Tour in Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee.

Hans Brinker, the Dutch Olympic Skating Success & Misconceptions in the Media



Hans Brinker, The Silver Skates

The Dutch Olympic team is on its way to achieving one of its best Winter Olympics. Sofar, the Dutch have won seventeen medailles: five gold, five silver and seven bronze. What  is going on? The international media have started to notice.

The Wall Street Journal states in its article "In Sochi, the Dutch Are Dominating the Overall Olympic Medal Count":

" The Netherlands winning  the overall medal race.This is absurd. The Netherlands has about 15 million people. They are competitive in a single Winter Olympic sport. Sunday brought more domination, as the Dutch swept the podium in speedskating's women's 1,500 meters. The Netherlands had 17 medals at day's end on Sunday, one more than the U.S. and Russia; 16 of those 17 have come in long-track speedskating. (The other? Short-track speedskating.)...........

 The Dutch have chosen one of the few sports that a country of the Netherlands' size could dominate, since only about five nations are even competitive in speedskating. The U.S.—which was very competitive in speedskating until this year, when it became obsessed with its wardrobe—only has a couple thousand competitive skaters of any age. If the Winter Games are about being opportunistic, then the Dutch deserve the gold medal for opportunism. The Netherlands should enjoy this moment of Olympic supremacy, even if it doesn't last another 24 hours."

The International Business Times tries to explain the Dutch success in its article "Winter Olympics 2014: Speed Skating Continues To Be Dominated By The Netherlands, But Why?":

W.E.B. Du Bois and the Fight for Black Equality at the New York Historical Society

This February is a busy month with the Winter Olympics, world events continuing, President's Day and of course also celebrating Black History Month. If you happen to be in New York City tomorrow Wednesday, February 19, then join the conversation between two leading historians at New York Historical Society about the scholar and civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois and his fight for black equality.

From  New York Historical Society's website:


"An accomplished scholar and outspoken activist, W.E.B. Du Bois fought racism and discrimination from local institutions to the highest levels of government. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Levering Lewis, in conversation with Khalil Gibran Muhammad, discusses the life and work of one of the most prominent civil rights activists of the early 20th century, from his role as a founding member of the NAACP to his vehement protests against the 1915 release of The Birth of a Nation, a film supported by President Woodrow Wilson that glorified the Ku Klux Klan."

The event starts at 6:30pm, 170 Central Park West at 77th Street 212-485-9268212-485-9268.

Click here for Cosimo's editions of W.E.B. Du Bois, including the following and also
the two Pulitzer winning biographies of W.E.B. Du Bois by David Levering Lewis:

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The Best Book about Abraham Lincoln

In another example of the enduring value of classic books, Abraham Lincoln by Lord Charnwood published in 1916 just (!) received a review from essayist Joseph Epstein in The Wall Street Journal, calling this the best book about Abraham Lincoln.

Epstein writes:

"Born Godfrey Rathbone Benson (1864-1945), later a member of Parliament and an Oxford don, Lord Charnwood was something of an Americanophile, having also written a book on Theodore Roosevelt. He wrote his Lincoln biography in the middle of World War I, a time when the world seemed to be coming apart, as it had seemed to Americans during the Civil War some 60 years earlier. 

Lord Charnwood's Abraham Lincoln has a universal appeal, though it was originally written for an English audience. The English much admired Lincoln. True, at the time of the American Civil War, many aristocratic Englishmen sided with the South owing to the region's aristocratic pretensions, with Charles Darwin and Lord Tennyson being two notable exceptions. But workers in the English textile industry, feeling a kinship with the slaves of the South, sided with the North in the war, even though it was against their self-interest to do so. 

Lord Charnwood's main emphasis in Abraham Lincoln is on character analysis and political philosophy. His decision to place it there was a wise one, for it enlarges the biography's scope and lends it a Plutarchian gravity that helps give the book its standing as a masterpiece............"

  

Epstein continues:

"These words from the concluding paragraph of Lord Charnwood's masterly biography capture Abraham Lincoln better than any I know:

For he was a citizen of that far country where there is neither aristocrat nor democrat. No political theory stands out from his words or actions; but they show a most unusual sense of the possible dignity of common men and common things.… If he had a theory of democracy it was contained in this condensed note which he wrote, perhaps as an autograph, a year or two before his presidency: "As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy."

Great men and women do not always get the biographers they deserve. In Lord Charnwood, Abraham Lincoln found his.", so Epstein ends his review.

For an older, but equally glowing review of this book, see Lord Charnwood's Lincoln by Frank M. Colby in 1916 in the liberal magazine The New Republic.

 Available from Cosimo Classics:

Twelve Years a Slave WIns Best Film Award at BAFTAs

Twelve Years a Slave keeps getting in the news in positive ways: last Sunday, the movie won the best film award at the Baftas, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, seen as an indicator for the upcoming Oscars.

During the same weekend, American writer Rachel Kushner interviewed in The New York Times said she finds Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup the best book she recently read. She says: 

"An incredible document, amazingly told and structured. Tough, but riveting. The movie of it by Steve McQueen might be the most successful adaptation of a book ever undertaken; text and film complement each other wildly."

It is quite amazing to see the power of Hollywood in revitalizing an old book, like this 1853 classic, of which so few people appreciated its value till now.
Hardcover Paperback

Classic of the Month:Twelve Years a Slave

In honor of Black History Month, we are featuring an unique and influential work about slavery that has recently achieved renewed recognition because of the release of  major feature movie of the same name:Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup.

In 1841, free-born African American Solomon Northup was offered a job in his hometown of Saratoga Springs, New York. He followed his employers to the job site at Washington, D.C., where he was beaten, drugged, kidnapped, and sold into slavery, eventually ending up on a plantation in Louisiana owned by Edwin Epps. While there, in 1852, Northup befriended Canadian carpenter Samuel Bass, who was at the time doing work for Epps. Secretly, Bass was able to contact Northup's family, who informed New York governor Washington Hunt of his kidnapping. The state was able to use a law passed in 1840 that allowed the recovery of free black men who were sold into slavery to rescue Northup. Solomon was finally made free again on January 4, 1853. One of few slaves of his era ever to regain freedom, he devoted his time and energy to lecturing and educating others about abolitionism. Northup is without a doubt, a person worth celebrating.


Twelve Years a Slave was a bestseller in its time and remains one today. Northrup's work sold approximately 30,000 copies copies when it was first released, and has made the Top Ten of the New York Times Non-Fiction Bestseller list for 2013. A recent film adaptation by Steve McQueen, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, and Brad Pitt, has also earned the story the Golden Globe for Best Drama and nine Academy Award nominations including best picture, best actor in a leading and supporting role, best actress in a supporting role, and best director.

Cosimo is proud to have released both an affordable paperback and beautiful hardcover edition of Twelve Years a Slave at Barnes & Noble, as well as on Amazon (paperback and hardcover).

Book of the Month: The African Unconscious

In honor of Black History Month, we are featuring an unique and influential work on the origins of humanity and especially its African roots:The African Unconscious, Roots of Ancient Mysticism and Modern Psychology by Edward Bruce Bynum.

The African Unconscious, originally published at the turn of the 20th century, is an Afro-centric look at human history based on archaeology, genetics, and the biospiritual roots of religion and science. Author Edward Bruce Bynum offers a captivating and controversial viewpoint on the roots of our human existence, positing that all humans at their deepest core are variations on the African template, creating a shared identity and collective unconscious in all.





Praise for The African Unconscious:


"I read with awe this passionate, brilliant, epic work. It is one of the most exhaustive and revealing studies of Black and human origins I have ever seen." -Lee S. Sannella, M.D., author of The Kundalini Experience

"The African Unconscious is indeed a daring work, and a unique contribution to African diasporic studies. It is a must for all students of human psychology." -Rowland O. Abiodun, author of Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought

"The scope of the author's knowledge is simply awesome, and that, coupled with his engaging writing style, makes not for an 'easy' ready, but an adventuresome one.... For those who entertain notions of collective unconscious and deep structure racial messages, I cannot think of a better text that navigates such thinking." -William E. Cross, Jr., Ph.D., author of Shades of Black

For more information about Bynum, his books, articles, and work, visit his website. 

To watch talks and lectures he has given at the University of Massachusetts (where he is a clinical psychologist and the director of behavioral medicine) and around the U.S., visit YouTube.



The African Unconscious is available in paperback online at  Barnes & Noble, Amazon and leading online bookstores around the world. To purchase our eBook at a discounted rate, please visit reKiosk.

Twelve Years a Slave Takes Top Golden Globe Award and Receives Nine Oscar Award Nominations

The quite amazing story about how an old, nearly forgotten book becomes a star-casted movie with Oscar potential continues to unfold when Twelve Years a Slave took the Golden Globe for Best Drama, organized by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. 

In the meanwhile, this movie has also received nine Academy Award nominations including best picture, best actor in a leading and supporting role, best actress in a supporting role, and best director. The Oscars will be presented on March 2, 2014.

Read this insightful interview in The Sydney Morning Herald with director Steve McQueen, who moved from Ghana to England, now lives in Amsterdam and was once called by his school teachers not to amount to anything and is now a Oscar contender. McQueen says this in his interview:

"It's no different," McQueen says. "Making a film is like writing a novel – you're telling a story – whereas art is more like poetry: fractured and compressed. It's a bigger process and of course, with film, more people are involved and it may take 10 months to make rather than the moment it takes to make a brushstroke. But when I think about it, it feels the same."


The interview continues:

' Of course the recognition is thrilling; McQueen said he was "exhilarated and ecstatic" about those nine Oscar nominations. But big films – and 12 Years a Slave, for all that it cost barely £10 million ($19 million) and was shot with one camera in 35 days, is a big film – also get picked apart in a big way. For a start, there is the film's brutality. The unwavering stare of McQueen's long takes levelled upon beatings and lynchings has proved too much for some audiences. But how could a film about slavery be anything but painfully violent?

McQueen says he simply followed Northup's book. "Reading it was like revelation after revelation," he says. "Everything is from the memoir; nothing is taken for granted and every behaviour is documented."

That's another objection: that 12 Years a Slave catalogues and condemns the sins of a past era, rather than addressing the muddier and more conflicted sins of the present. McQueen dismisses this with his customary abruptness. "The point is that it is happening now," he says. "I listened to a lady in Kenya who had been in the same circumstances: seduced by a work offer in Dubai, she went there, had her passport taken, was subjected to this terrible ordeal, locked up at night; she escaped in Los Angeles. The past is absolutely about the present for me."

Cosimo is proud to have released the original edition both in a jacketed hard cover and an affordable paperback both with a beautiful cover illustration from the original book. However many Oscars this movie may receive, it doesn't happen often that movie and book are both worth the experience. I wholeheartedly recommend watching the movie and reading the book.

The Cosimo editions are available from many leading online stores, such as Barnes & Noble in hardcover and paperback.

And Amazon - also in hardcover and paperback -:

Series of the Month: The Personal Power Books

As the New Year dawns, we continue to spend the month of January highlighting books that help the reader become the best version of themselves; as such, our Series of the Month is William Walker Atkinson's Personal Power Books, a 12-volume series co-written with Edward Beals, and designed to help the reader realize their full personal strength and best Self.

To Atkinson, Personal Power is "the ability of strength possessed by the human individual, by which he does, or may, accomplish desired results in an efficient manner, along the lines of physical, mental, and spiritual effort and endeavor." In other words, personal power is the attainment of control and understanding in all facets of your life. 

"You must become consciously aware of your essential and fundamental Self, before you will be able to employ the instruments at your hand. You must recognize your sovereignty, before you may mount your throne and rule your kingdom." 

-- William Walker Atkinson in Personal Power or Your Master Self

Like the author of our Classic of the Month, Wallace D. Wattles, Atkinson was a contributor to the New Thought movement, which argued that the divine is everywhere--including in the self, and that positive thinking can yield positive results in our daily lives. 

Each volume of this incredible set is devoted to a particular human power inherent in the Self and the means by which the reader can harness these powers to become a stronger, healthier, more successful person. The powers described include those of the subconscious, desire, and observation. 

The Personal Power Books are available in hardcover and paperback by individual volume via Amazon, and in digital format via Google Play. Contact us directly to purchase the full set at a special discounted price!