manuscripts

"Kenneth Rendell has traveled the world, tracking down, buying, and selling the most significant, iconic historical letters and documents from the Renaissance to the present day. Safeguarding History chronicles his adventures collecting and dealing in rare coins at age 11, searching for out-of-date coins in the Caribbean as a teenager, and then discovering the world of historical letters and documentsEU"once an insular, reclusive field, which he revolutionized over his 70-year career. RendellEU(tm)s passionate pursuit of original sources, and his belief in the power of holding history in your hands, brought him to evaluate collections as diverse as Richard NixonEU(tm)s White House papers and Watergate tapes, the archives of Martin Luther King and of Paramount Studios, and the personal World War II artifacts of General George S. Patton. RendellEU(tm)s reputation as a collector and dealer is matched only by his unrivaled expertise in the area of handwriting forgery detection. He unmasked the Hitler Diaries forgeries, debunked the fake Jack the Ripper diary and Elvis Presley music manuscripts, and exposed the Mormon 'White Salamander' forgeries, critical to solving the infamous Mormon murders. His excitement for collecting led to Rendell building libraries for notable collectors including Bill and Melinda Gates. His own collection of World War II artifacts, the most comprehensive in the world, led to his founding The International Museum of World War II. Safeguarding History is a human story. Kenneth Rendell writes with candor about his successes and failures, and what it took to overcome personal tragedy. He shares his passion for nature, extreme helicopter skiing, and windsurfing the big waves in HawaiiEU"counterbalances to his intense professional life." --publisher's website.

"With the stroke of a pen, twenty-three-year-old Ivy Radcliffe becomes Lady Hayworth, owner of a sprawling estate on the Yorkshire moors. Ivy has never heard of Blackwood Abbey, or of the ancient bloodline from which she's descended. With nothing to keep her in London since losing her brother in the Great War, she warily makes her way to her new home. The abbey is foreboding, the servants reserved and suspicious. But there is a treasure waiting behind locked doors: a magnificent library. Despite cryptic warnings from the staff, Ivy feels irresistibly drawn to its dusty shelves, where familiar works mingle with strange, esoteric texts. And she senses something else in the library too, a presence that seems to have a will of its own. Rumors swirl in the village about the abbey's previous owners, about ghosts and curses, and an enigmatic manuscript at the center of it all. And as events grow more sinister, it will be up to Ivy to uncover the library's mysteries in order to reclaim her own story--before it vanishes forever"--Provided by publisher.

"Twelve-year-old Astrid Xu stumbles upon an ancient Chinese scroll that she hopes is the key to curing her mother's depression, but when it transports her and her younger sister Marilla to a realm where Chinese legends are real, they suddenly find themselves caught in a war between good and evil"--OCLC.

Tasha does not believe that there is a curse on a new exhibit in the Egyptian gallery, but when a burst pipe floods the gallery, trapping the kittens and endangering the artifacts, she cannot help but wonder.

Illustrations and text describe how the Mixtecs create painted manuscripts, or codices, that reflect their way of life and document their history, science, land tenure, tribute, and sacred rituals.

"Crossings is an unforgettable and explosive genre-bending debut-a novel in three parts, designed to be read in two different directions, spanning a hundred and fifty years and seven lifetimes. On the brink of the Nazi occupation of Paris, a German-Jewish bookbinder stumbles across a manuscript called Crossings. It has three narratives, each as unlikely as the next. And the narratives can be read one of two ways: either straight through or according to an alternate chapter sequence"--Provided by publisher.

Special agent Paul Chavasse is sent to Germany to investigate when he receives intelligence that a British firm has been contacted about publishing the memoirs of Hitler's private secretary, Martin Bormann, who disappeared at the end of World War II.

Thirteen-year-old Max Tilt has found his great-great-great-grandfather Jules Verne's unfinished manuscript, "The Lost Treasures," and now together with the story of Verne's impossible recovery from a gunshot wound, Max and his cousin Alex think they can use the manuscript to discover the key to a cure for their seriously ill friend. It will take a race around the world to collect the magical healing elements, with adventure at every turn.

"Kitsune shapeshifter Yumeko has one task: to take her piece of the ancient and powerful Scroll of a Thousand Prayers to the Steel Feather temple in order to prevent the summoning of the Harbinger of Change, the great Kami Dragon who will grant one wish to whomever holds the scroll. But she has a new enemy now, more dangerous than any she has yet faced. The demon Hakaimono is free at last, and he has possessed the very person Yumeko trusted to protect her from the evil at her heels, Kage Tatsumi of the Shadow Clan. Hakaimono has only one goal: to break the curse of the sword and set himself free to rain chaos and destruction over the land forevermore. To do so, he will need the scroll. And Yumeko is the only one standing in his way"--Provided by publisher.

Describes how a group of Timbuktu librarians enacted a daring plan to smuggle the city's great collection of rare Islamic manuscripts away from the threat of destruction at the hands of Al Quaeda militants to the safety of southern Mali.