John Walker

Introducing hardboiled PI Henry Gore, in this pitch--black noir novel set in 1950s revolutionary Cuba. World--weary American Henry Gore was born in the cold Midwest. But a lucky connection -- and a hundred peso bribe -- scores him a license to operate as a private investigator in Havana, a place where he can finally get warm. Soon, he's trailing after cheating husbands to finance his permanent vacation in the land of sun, cigars and compliant señoritas....

"When Constable Teddy Creque is assigned to the security detail at a grand reception on the little island of Tortola for Princess Portia and her husband Lord Sutherland, he's prepared for a British royal night out. He's less prepared for an evening of dreary small talk about bond prices and tax havens. But at least the event is going smoothly, he tells himself . . . That is, until it's cut dramatically short by a shot ringing out from the direction...

Praised for the nuance and sensitivity with which it approaches one of the most fraught conservation issues we face today, John Frederick Walker's Ivory's Ghosts tells the astonishing story of the power of ivory through the ages, and its impact on elephants. Long before gold and gemstones held allure, humans were drawn to the "jewels of the elephant"-its great tusks. Ivory came to be prized in every culture of the world-from ancient Egypt to nineteenth-century...

When art hits the headlines, it is usually because it has caused offence or is perceived by the media to have shock-value. Over the last fifty years many artists have been censored, vilified, accused of blasphemy and obscenity, threatened with violence, prosecuted and even imprisoned. Their work has been trashed by the media and physically attacked by the public. In Art & Outrage, John A. Walker covers the period from the late 1940s to the 1990s...

An essential overview as well as a theoretical critique for all students of design history. Walker studies the intellectual discipline of Design History and the issues that confront scholars writing histories of design. Taking his approach from a range of related fields, he discusses the problems of defining design and writing history. He considers the different methods that leading scholars have used in the absence of a theoretical framework,...

Can fine art survive in an age of mass media? If so, in what forms and to what purpose? And can radical art still play a critical role in today's divided world? These are the questions addressed in the Art in the Age of Mass Media, as John Walker examines the fascinating relationship between art and mass media, and the myriad interactions between high and low culture in a postmodern, culturally pluralistic world. Using a range of historic...

The vibrant fine arts and mass culture that the United Stated exported to Britain in the postwar period had a powerful and far-reaching impact on many British artists, art students and critics. In a fascinating social and cultural history covering the period from the 1940s to the 1990s, but with emphasis on the 1950s and 1960s, John A. Walker offers a scholarly but accessible account of America's Cold War cultural offensive and the role played by...

A history of the gallery from its inception in the 1930s accompanies more than one thousand reproductions of the nation's art treasures housed in the great museum.

Although his influence on the history of photography has been nothing short of profound, Paul Strand (1890-1976) remains a curiously shrouded and paradoxical figure. While passionately devoted to humanity, he was happiest in the isolation of the darkroom. A pioneer filmmaker, (Manhatta, Native Land, Heart of Spain, The Wave), he found the process of collaboration painful. Strand established himself in New York in the 1920s as a master of light and...

Inspector Alleyn has the upper crust contacts and manners, but like more modern detectives, he's a bona fide cop. Offers elegant country house settings, complex cases, and a detective who works for Scotland Yard. Agatha Troy is the Inspector's independent and insightful lady friend.