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Tertiary history of the Grand Cañon District : with atlas

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    The Golden Lotus : a translation from the Chinese original of the novel, Chin pʻing mei

    Rare Books

    A saga of ruthless ambition, murder, and, famously, Chinese erotica, The Golden Lotus (also known as The Plum in the Golden Vase) has been called the fifth Great Classical Novel in Chinese Literature and one of the Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel. Admired in its own time for its literary qualities and biting indictment of the immorality and cruelty of its age, this Chinese classic has also been denigrated for its sexual frankness. It centers on Ximen Qing, a young, dissolute, and politically connected merchant, and his marriage to a fifth wife, Pan Jinlian, literally "Golden Lotus." In her desire to influence her husband and, through him, control the other wives, concubines, and entire household, she uses sex as her primary weapon. The Golden Lotus lays bare the rivalries within this wealthy family while chronicling its rise and fall.

    654409

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    The Kama sutra : the classic Hindu treatise on love and social conduct

    Rare Books

    The publication of Sir Richard Burton's translation of this celebrated classic of Indian literature is a literary event of the first importance. As important to an understanding of ancient Indian civilization as the works of Plato and Aristotle are to the West, the Kama Sutra has endured for 1700 years and may well be the only indisputable classic of the world's literature not yet to have appeared widely in English. Written with frankness and unassuming candor, the Kama Sutra remains one of the most readable and enjoyable of all the classics of antiquity. The Kama Sutra is a work of philosophy, psychology, sociology, Hindu dogma, scientific inquiry and sexology; its importance is so great that it has at the same time both affected Indian civilization and remained the indispensable key to an understanding of it. Long forbidden in America because of its supposedly erotic contents, the Kama Sutra will prove of great value to the student of the East--and a great delight to the sophisticated general reader.

    635919

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    Geologic Atlas of the United States / Mother Lode District Folio, California. Folio 63. (1900)

    Visual Materials

    A collection of photographs and maps compiled by American geologist and petroleum engineer Ralph Arnold (1875-1961), documenting his pioneering work in oil and mineral exploration, chiefly in the Western United States, Mexico and Venezuela, from 1900 to 1954. The collection centers on 64 photograph albums that span 50 years of Arnold's life and work. Photographs are accompanied by Arnold's typed captions identifying geological features; oil and mining activities; technical data; and dates and locations, i.e. often an oil or mining "district" or "field," such as "Sunset Field" (California). Subject matter includes geological and topographical features such as rock formations, faults and schisms, mountain structure, geothermal activity, and open land with potential drilling or mining spots. Earthquake faults are seen and described in many of Arnold's California investigations. There are also views of small and large-scale oil operations (by individuals and by organized companies); details of oil flow and reservoirs; asphalt; drilling equipment; workers and fields of oil wells. Arnold's work took him all over the Western United States, particularly California oil fields, but also Texas, Wyoming, Arizona, Alaska and other states. From 1911-1916 he was primarily in South America, and in the 1920s-1940s, mostly in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Mining operations are the focus of some albums, showing investigations for tin, gold and other minerals; mines and ore processing, all with detailed descriptions. Arnold also often photographed people: colleagues and business associates, oil lease owners on their properties; workers (particularly Black and Asian workers in Venezuela); and friends and family. Personal photographs are throughout the album, such as of his wife, Winninette, and their two daughters; Stokes family members (Winninette's family) in South Pasadena; and alumni of Pasadena High School and Stanford University. Arnold was an avid gardener and the albums contain detail views of cactus and tropical plants, and scenes of Arnold collecting wild orchids in Trinidad, Venezuela and Mexico. The maps date from 1880-1948 and include U.S.G.S. and geological maps, California oil fields and well locations; layouts of mines, and various tract maps showing oil company-owned land.

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