There are many “giants of music education,” maybe hundreds. It is perhaps impossible to know the many in every generation who teach music successfully—some who teach young children, others who teach the especially talented at prestigious institutions—conservatories, and schools of music. Others distinguish themselves with organizational work, setting the tone and process for others to follow—all important in their own way. We meet Lowell Mason, Luther Whiting Mason, Frances Elliott Clark, W. Otto Miessner, Edward Bailey Birge, Peter Dykema, James Lockhart Mursell, Mabelle Glenn, Thaddeus P. Giddings, Will Earhart, and Joseph E. Maddy.

This volume describes the lives and work of only a few. There are many others who deserve to have their stories told—Lowell Mason was the first, not an original thinker, but a great organizer, a gifted natural teacher, the George Washington of the music education profession.

Each music educator made his or her contribution in a unique way. What they had in common was undeniable energy and a steadfast purpose. The path was never easy, but they persevered.

We must not forget that they were all products of their time and place. Until the 1960s all popular art forms were denigrated by almost all music educators. Perhaps more surprising, however, was the almost universal disinclination to embrace American homegrown art unless it imitated the best of European art music.

Whether it be T. P Gidding who believed that the ability to read music was the sine qua non of music education, or Peter Dykema who believed that community singing would elevate the common musical taste, to James Mursell, whose intellectual brilliance appeared to make it most difficult for him to relate successfully on a personal level to the great commonality of the music education profession, all made their mark and were recognized by their contemporaries as being outstanding.

The music teachers of today and the music students who will be the music teachers of tomorrow need to know the profession’s previous giants. We stand on the shoulders of these men and women and hundreds like them.

Paper, 315 pages, 6×9
$27.95
Music/Education/History
ISBN 978-0944435-687
LC 2010907548

The College Success Book goes beyond the academic and intellectual behaviors usually associated with study skills programs.

This practical, “user friendly” book provides exercises and activities focusing on the whole student to help develop the behaviors and attitudes necessary for success in college.

The College Success Book takes an active approach that emphasizes the mechanics of learning and encourages students to take personal control over all aspects of the learning process. The “whole student” approach is unique to study skills instruction, and the holistic, wellness approach to academic success incorporates knowledge of the impact of factors such as diet, stress control, exercise, and sleep upon learning outcomes. User-friendly exercises in these areas are coupled with information and activities in academic skill areas (motivation, lecture note-taking, time management, reading effectiveness, control of learning environment, concentration, memory, test- taking, managing test anxiety, and writing skills) to provide a comprehensive and integrated guide to academic success.

The book is written with all students in mind, those with effective as well as those with poor study skills. The basic premise is that all students can profit from a review of their study behaviors. The book is practical and easy to use. Its expectations are realistic. The College Success Book provides students with a wide array of skills that will lead to success in college and beyond. Use of this book will enable students to increase productive skills and attitudes that can effectively guide them through the “information overload” that is characteristic of most college settings.

“A valuable resource for the serious student and for those who aspire to be serious students. I’ll be recommending The College Success Book to my clients. . . .” Dennis Heitzmann, Center for Counseling and Psychological Services, Pennsylvania State University

“The College Success Book emphasizes critical thinking, creativity, and continuous learning rather than relying solely on the techniques of gaining knowledge. . . well suited to the needs of students and the rigors of learning in post-secondary institutions.” Judy Chapman, Professor, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada

JAMES E. GROCCIA, Ph.D. is Director of the Counseling and Student Development Center at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He received his doctorate in Educational Psychology and Guidance from the University of Tennessee in 1979 and has been actively working with college students to help them improve their academic success skills. He is a Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor and is a member of the American Association for Counseling and Development and the American College Personnel Association.

Paper, 174 pages, 8 1/2×11
$18.95 $20.95
Education
ISBN 0-944435-15-7
LC 91-72925

    Bob Bishop explores the concepts of reality, both as perceived and scientific, and demonstrates how preconceived notions, grounded in local paradigms, can affect not only scientific and mechanical invention, but difficult societal issues as well. 

    The value of human life, our current judicial system, voting age, and abortion are just a few of our ideas that are based more on Aristotelian concepts rather than the principles of "fuzzy logic" that are argued by BOB BISHOP so persuasively. 

    The new science of fuzzy logic is gaining acceptance in the field of engineering but the American public at large is, for the most part, unaware of the subject. Mainstream fuzzy logic has had engineering-only applications, but now, thanks to Bishop's insightful analysis, the concept has a fresh approach that should inspire an even better understanding of our perceptions of reality.

Reviews

    "This is an extremely fascinating, thought-provoking book, that once started I could not put down until I had read it through. . .it makes one want to read it again and again. [The reader] will gain new insight into the way we perceive our views of the world . . . ."

Richard Hayman,
Principal "Pops" conductor
of the St. Louis and Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestras

    "Although the author is a physicist, he explains complicated concepts that are easily understood."

Conrad Dobler,
Former "Offensive Guard" St. Louis Cardinals,
Owner of Superior Healthcare Staffing, Inc.,
Kansas City, Missouri

About The Author

   BOB BISHOP (Mr. Logic) is the popular host of the "Thinking Machine" Show, broadcast weekly in California. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from the University of Wisconsin and a Master of Science degree in physics from UCLA. He has worked on the Gemini X and XI space programs and was a senior engineer at the Jet Propulsion Lab. Bishop created "Apple Vision." He served as a senior member of the technical staff of Apple Computer where he worked with co-founder Steve Wozniak in research and development. Bishop retired from Apple at age 37.

Cloth, 217 pages, 6×9
$21.95 $16.47
Science, Philosophy
ISBN 0-944435-44-0
LC 97-74302

    How We Communicate offers an integrated perspective exploring the history of communication and man's need to make contact with others. Practical information on face to face and other personal communication techniques, the telephone and business systems is examined. We communicate through our use of language, our clothing, our manner and bearing. We exchange information through our telephone and business systems. Our messages are the sum of these diverse channels — conveyed to the minds of our associates, friends and family. 

    Barrack investigates intriguing new frontiers and leads the reader far into the future. How we Communicate, a unique and insightful book, draws together the many aspects of the art of communication and the growing importance of what has become mankind's Most Vital Skill.

Reviews

    "Barrack presents a much broader definition of communication methods and effectiveness than traditional approaches offer making this an important contribution to understanding the new multi-disciplined approach to communication. . ."

Midwest Book Review

    ". . . an excellent synopsis of the linguistic properties of several modern and artificial languages . . . Barrack has a knack for narrative prose and a sense of humor. . . Business communication receives exemplary attention. . . . . it is to the author's credit that he treats precognition, telepathy, clairvoyance. . . and even prayer as legitimate fields of inquiry into the phenomenon of communication. . . recommended to a general readership and to the business community in particular. . . . "

Dr. Howard Kalwies,
Department of Communication,
Western Illinois University

    ". . . fascinating new book. . . intriguing. . . Barrack is able to transform complex ideas into accessible terms. . . a book filled with information valuable to people of all ages and interest. . . a well-crafted overview. . . ."

Book Break,
Chicago.

About The Author

    MARTIN K. BARRACK is a retired telecommunication specialist formerly based in Washington, D.C. He holds a B.A. in English Literature from Hunter College and an M.A. in political Science from the New School of Social Research. He has been a licensed amateur radio operator for more than twenty-five years and has testified as an expert in that field before the Federal Communications Commission. 

Cloth, 203 pages, 6×9
$18.95 $14.22
Communication/Sociology
ISBN 0-944435-02-5
LC 88-81231

    Capturing the Magic of Fiction Writing introduces the reader to a careful examination of prose fiction, its genres and categories. Classifications of novels including plotting, setting, characterization, and patterns are defined and explained. Creed analyzes supportive elements and techniques including style, development of flashbacks, dialogues, and much more.

   Symbols, symbolic plants, and symbolic references, skimmed over or ignored in most books, are introduced, discussed, and defined with original passages and excerpts drawn from published sources. Relationships, descriptions, and dialogue are all generously discussed in addition to characterizations, atmosphere, conflict, theme, plotting, and sup-porting elements.

    Capturing the Magic was developed to provide a practical guide for aspiring writers and teachers to ease the transition from analyzing the basic story to discovering and applying the essential tools of the writer's craft. 

Review

    "This book will take you on an enjoyable, clearly-marked pathway to effective fiction writing that is enriched throughout with excellent examples from great writers and great writing. . .[there is] great clarity with which the author provides the down-to-earth advice, [and] realistic guidelines for you to follow in becoming a knowledgeable and conscious artist. Those examples alone make this book worth-while. . . . "

Dr. Tom Parks,
Associate Professor of Education and Director,
Office of Extension and Public Relations,
Clemson University

About The Author

    JACK CREED began his professional writing career in 1948 when he became a correspondent for the Augusta Chronicle. He attended Augusta Junior College and graduated from the University of South Carolina with a degree in Secondary Education. He taught English in Columbia, South Carolina, and later taught history, social studies, and worked with deprived children in southern Louisiana. Returning to South Carolina to teach English, he participated in the program Project Succeed. Creed served as a state consultant for high school teachers of English and Composition for under-achievers and developed a text, A Writing Workshop. He is currently writing another book, and serves as a volunteer reading teacher for adults. 

Cloth, 300 pages, 6×9
$24.95 $18.72
English, Writing
ISBN 0-944435-10-6
LC 90-80208
Selection-Writers Digest
Book Club

    Charles Hamilton recognizes a faked signature and believes it to be easily identified, and so will the reader of this book — once he knows what to look for. This is information of immense value to the collector and historian. Well-executed forgeries and fakes have fooled dealers and collectors for more than a century. This thoroughly documented book, containing hundreds of examples that show how to identify the best that the most skillful forgers have produced, will provide the expert and the amateur with tools for self-protection. Great Forgers and Famous Fakes is also a chronicle of the careers of America's most adroit and colorful manuscript forgers, telling who they were and how they swindled their victims. 

    The fascinating stories of forgers and their works include: 
-the poet who forged hundreds of Robert Frost manuscripts
-the multimillionaire industrialist and founder of RCA who got his start as a forger — and years later got fooled by his own fake
-the American Nazi who forged John Howard Payne's "Home, Sweet Home"
-a round-dozen forgers of Abe Lincoln's handwriting

    "There is a darkling romance in the crime of literary or historical forgery. To fabricate the handwriting and thoughts of another person requires much more than adroit penmanship."

    "No European forgers ever put quill to foolscap who could equal the ingenious fabricators of America."

About The Author

    CHARLES HAMILTON, world's foremost handwriting expert, forensic document examiner, and literary historian has made full use of his more than half a century in the manuscript field to detail the secrets of forgers and famous fakes using over 400 illustrations. Hamilton is the author of eighteen books, passed away in 1996. His recent books are William Shakespeare & John Fletcher, Cardenio or The Second Maiden's Tragedy, The Hitler Diaries, and In Search of Shakespeare.

Cloth, 310 pages, 8 1/2X11
$42.00 $31.50
History
ISBN 0-944435-40-8
LC 82043

    For three centuries lovers of Shakespeare have searched vainly for the Golden Fleece of literature — a lost play titled Cardenio, by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher. The lure of this missing play about Cardenio, a bizarre character in Cervantes's Don Quixote, has led lovers of Shakespeare on a chase through libraries and archives, into attics and ancient barns, and even abandoned privies.

    The manuscript of Cardenio is entirely in Shakespeare's Own hand — the handwriting is identical down to the very dots on the i's with the script in Shakespeare's holograph will — and in every other way the play fulfills the requirements of the lost Cardenio. It is undeniably a superb play, one that leading critics usually ascribe to such outstanding dramatists as Cyril Tourneur or Thomas Middleton. Written with John Fletcher in 1611 but likely not produced until 1612-13, Cardenio may have been the great dramatist's last tragedy and penultimate play. 

    This chilling drama by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher may have been suppressed by the poet's first editors in 1623 because it dealt with taboo subjects. Full of terrifying suspense and horror, it is a beautifully written play about love run amuck — seduction, swordplay, grave robbery, suicide, madness, murder-and featuring a beguiling ghost and the uncontrollable passion of a powerful king for the corpse of a beautiful woman.

Review

    "Charles Hamilton . . . is calling attention to one of the great achievements of the English dramatic imagination. The [Royal Shakespeare Company] or the National [Theater] should produce it. If they do, go see it; if they don't, go read it. . . ."

Welton Jones,
The San Diego Union-Tribune

About The Author

    CHARLES HAMILTON's experience as a handwriting expert extends over sixty years. Since the age of nine, Hamilton has searched for documents in Shakespeare's hand. His ambition was realized in 1983 when, as the first forensic document examiner ever to study Shakespeare's will, he discovered that the entire three-page will was in Shakespeare's hand. Later, Hamilton was amazed to discover that the handwriting in the play, popularly known as The Second Maiden's Tragedy, was identical, precisely matching in minute detail, to the script in Shakespeare's will. Hamilton is the author of eighteen books. His recent books are The Hitler Diaries and In Search of Shakespeare. 

Cloth, 310 pages, 7×10
$27.95 $20.97
English
ISBN 0-944435-24-6
LC 93-73354

    Envision a world without poverty or economic oppression — a place where humankind can attain its potential amidst the weightlessness of true freedom. Imagine the United States, and the rest of the world, without hunger or homelessness where educated societies enjoy all the fruits of their labor. In such a society it would not be necessary to hand over your hard-earned dollars to the government in payment of ever-increasing taxes. Such a vision is no doubt utopian, but Jacques Jaikaran introduces us to a radical economic reorganization of what is now a debt culture and proposes a monetary revolution the results of which would virtually eliminate debt as we know it.

    Debt Virus deals with the anatomy and physiology of money, the lifeblood of commerce and industry and hence the economy. Jaikaran points out a monetary error at the root of our cyclical economic problems and prescribes a cure that promises to benefit all mankind.

Reviews

    ". . . intriguing and penetrating as it questions the traditional role of money in our economy. [Jaikaran's book] challenges orthodox methods of money management in our economy and offers a convincing alternative to the status quo. . . provocative reading even for the layperson."

Dr. Ashton I. Veramallay,
Professor of Economics,
Indiana University East

   "There is no question in my mind but that the issue must be seriously considered by every American as well as people from other countries in this world. . . [Jaikaran] has observed a phenomenon that almost everyone else seems to be blind to."

Gerald M. McIntosh,
Executive Vice President,
Administaff

About The Author

    JACQUES JAIKARAN was born in Guyana where only elementary education was free. In order to pay to go to high school, he became a plantation laborer even before his teen years. Following high school he bought a one-way ticket from South America to England. He won a scholarship to medical school, continuing his studies in the United States where he ultimately became a plastic surgeon. While serving on a board of directors of a Texas bank, Jaikaran began to study the monetary systems of the United State and other countries. Jaikaran's urgent concerns for the future have led him to organize Global Monetary Consultants, Inc., an organization dedicated to the dissemination of information and political action toward his ideal of a debt-free society. 

Cloth, 247 pages, 6×9, $21.95 $16.47
ISBN 0-944435-13-0
LC 91-70030
Economics

     A lifetime of study and personal practice as well as many years of lecturing and teaching have provided easy-to-learn exercises that can be practiced in the workplace or at home. Freedom From Stress is both practical and powerful as it explores how to reduce your stress permanently.

     Researchers cite 60-90 percent of doctor visits are related to stress. Stress costs American businesses over $300 billion per year. Yet most stress-fighting techniques and “solutions” help only temporarily, or worse, often covering up the symptoms without addressing the underlying causes and effects. “Now, for the first time, this compelling program is available to everyone on CD and DVD as well as in book form.”

     The approach detailed in this book has been clinically proven not only to alleviate many symptoms of stress but to change the physiological and neural responses of those who practice the simple exercises. Dealing in depth with both the mental and physical components of stress, this program has taught and significantly helped thousands of people throughout corporate America. Now, for the first time, this compelling program is available to everyone.

Reviews

      “I highly recommend this training. It's an excellent investment in our people — something that improves their performance on the job, and in life.”

Toni Smith,
Human Resources Manager,
Dionex

     “The response to your program has been so enthusiastic, our company president asked to join in on last week's session.”

Lisa Vere,
Training Director,
Rosendin Electric

About The Author

      DAVID and KAREN GAMOW are two of America's foremost corporate stress management and meditation trainers. They are founders of Clarity Seminars, based in the Silicon Valley in California. Their popular and highly-rated trainings are used by many Fortune 500 companies and government agencies including:

• Hitachi
• Nokia
• Westin Hotels
• U.S. Army
• Yahoo!
• Ernst & Young
• Oral-B
• San Jose Police Department
• Hilton Hotels
• Stanford School of Medicine

Cloth, 208 pages, 6×9
$22.95 $17.22
Self-Help
ISBN 978-0-944435-60-1
LC 20069237752 CD package and booklet $15.95
DVD and booklet $29.95

More Reviews

“This was the most useful and excellent course I have ever taken in my life.”
Meredith Brown, Nurse, Seton Medical Center

“I heard remarkable reports of the benefits attendees experienced. They are very enthusiastic about incorporating the techniques they learned into their everyday work life.”
Cori Bossenberry, Director, Human Resource Group, Stanford University School of Medicine

“A+. This program provided tremendous new insight in how to recognize and eliminate stress. I know my life will improve when I practice the techniques I learned today.”
Mark McDonald, former President, Hitachi Instruments

“If ever there was a way to improve your life, make work more productive and meaningful, and make you feel good about yourself and your world, you could find no better than this course!”
Chris W., U.S. Army

“One of the best seminars I have ever attended. It has made a huge difference in my life, and had a tremendous positive impact on my performance in a highly stressful work environment.”
Becky S., Manager, Sun Microsystems

“We have seen an immediate benefit from your seminar. People who have completed your training have seen and felt a difference in their professional and personal lives.”
Tony Deblauwe, Director of Human Resources, Nokia Northern California

“I have never seen such a positive response to a program. Many people afterwards said things like: the best seminar I have ever attended — powerful — life-changing. Honestly, the testimonials don't begin to describe the power and effectiveness of your work.”
Kaylene Riggs, Director of Sales
Tenaya Lodge at Yosemite

“Our staff members are under tremendous pressure from the heightened security needs we face since 9/11, and it has taken a toll on our people. Your program is a life-saver.”
Mary Jo Snell, Human Resources Training Manager
Denver International Airport

“Thank you for your excellent presentation. Yours was the most popular program of the thirty sessions offered at our annual Leadership Conference.”
Colonel Chris Green, U.S. Army

    America has faced and met the challenge of September 11, 2001. Its citizens have banded together in thought and ideals with strength and resolution. Americans were moved from rivers of tears to resolve, standing together to protect our way of life.

    In a democracy the protection of human life comes above all else. The impossible sadness and disbelief at the events of September 11 have inspired the best from the people of the United States of America — caring, compassion, and the giving of aid to their fellow men and women whose losses are unimaginable.

    Let Freedom Ring is a collection of important quotes, words that represent the feelings and beliefs of the nation.

    Pride and patriotism have always been in our hearts. America has shared its love of country and has become a stronger nation from the mending hearts of its citizens. They reach out and stand ready to help neighbors and to help families who have lost loved ones. The people of America are united as never before.

Cloth, 101 pages, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2
$13.95 $10.47
Patriotic, Quotations
LC 2002-190250
ISBN 0944435-51-3