Book Description

A pair of gleaming rails embedded in a farmhouse driveway. A wooded cycling trail that traces an oddly level path through suburban hills. An abandoned high fill that briefly parallels the interstate. Today, little remains of the vast network of passenger and freight railroad lines that once crisscrossed much of eastern and midwestern America. But in 1946, the steam locomotive was king, the automobile was just beginning to emerge from wartime restrictions, passenger trains still made stops in nearly every town, and freight trains carried most of the nation's intercity commerce.

In A Railroad Atlas of the United States in 1946, Richard C. Carpenter provides a unique record of this not-so-distant time, when traveling out of town meant, for most Americans, taking the train. The first volume of this multivolume series covers the mid-Atlantic states and includes detailed maps of every passenger railroad line in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia. When completed, the series will provide a comprehensive atlas of the U.S. railroad system at its post-World War II high point -- a transportation network that many considered the finest railroad passenger system in the world.

Meticulously crafted and rich in detail, these hand-drawn color maps reveal with skilled precision -- at a scale of 1 inch to 4 miles (or 1:250,000) -- the various main and branch railroad passenger and freight lines that served thousands of American towns. The maps also include such features as long-since-demolished steam locomotive and manual signal tower installations, towns that functioned solely as places where crews changed over, track pans, coaling stations, and other rail-specific sites.

Currently, there exists no comprehensive, historic railroad atlas for the U.S. This volume, with its 202 full-scale and detail maps, is sure to remain the standard reference work for years to come, as will the others to follow in the series.

Customer Reviews (2)

An Outstanding Resource
This volume is an outstanding exmaple of a railroad atlas.It is pointed, clear, and communicates the status of the railroads of the Mid-Alantic states at a time when track mileage, though past its peak, was still extensive.It is easy to follow and an invaluable resource for the transportation historian, railfan, and model railroader.I cannot recommend it highly enough.

The Best Railroad Atlas, Ever
If you are interested in American railroads, geography, or cartography--and people who like any of these subjects tend to like them all--this beautifully produced, enlightening book could occupy a lot of your spare time from here on.

It consists of hand-drawn maps, made with breathtaking detail and a wonderful imagination for the presentation of data.(Fans of Tufte's "Visual Display of Quantitative Information" will admire what the author has managed to fit onto his pages.)The maps follow standard USGS quadrangles for reference, but they show only railroad lines, neatly identified by color, and a wealth of associated railroad features.So there are stations (indicating passenger service or freight only); towers; yards; sidings; viaducts; mileposts; tunnels; track pans, you name it--all as they existed in the richly rewarding year of 1946.To enable you to situate the railroads there are map coordinates, rivers (when a river reaches the edge of a page, an arrow indicates the direction of flow!), and state and county boundaries. That's it. (Plus first-rate indexes.) Sit down with this book, an old copy of the "Official Guide," and a modern road atlas, and you have entertainment and instruction for hours.

The maps in this volume cover just one region of the country--extending roughly from the southern tier of New York to the Virginia/NC border, and from West Virginia to the Hudson River and the Delmarva Peninsula.It is hard to imagine how a single author (who has apparently done a lot of other things with his life) could ever have found the time to cover even this much ground--the book is one of those rare products of obsessive genius from which the rest of us sometimes benefit--but his publisher implies that future volumes will cover the rest of the country.Long life to Richard C. Carpenter! ... Read more

Book Description

What informed and inspired the visual artists who depicted the Trojan War on vases, on walls, and in sculpture? Scholars have debated this question for years. Were Greek painters simply depicting the stories of Achilles and Odysseus as recounted in Homer's epics? Or did they work independently, following their own traditions without regard to the Iliad, the Odyssey, and other poetry of their time?

Steven Lowenstam offers here an alternative theoretical framework, arguing that Greek artists and poets interacted with each other freely, always aware of what the others were producing. As Trojan War myth was the common inheritance of all Greek storytellers, verbal and visual depictions of heroic myth were not created in isolation but were interdependent responses to a centuries-old tradition.

As Witnessed by Images investigates visual depictions of Achillean and Odyssean myth from ca. 650-300 BCE and traces the many messages that the stories of Achilles and Odysseus inspired. Lowenstam identifies a variety of images and interpretations -- some regarded Achilles as a hero, others believed him to be a cruel bully -- that reflect and directly respond to the ancient heroic tradition from which the Iliad and Odyssey evolved.

Book Description

Whistle-stop posts along a picturesque cycling trail. An abandoned roundhouse in a new industrial park. A piece of "Black Diamond" anthracite coal lying in the grass. These are silent witnesses to the golden age of American railroading, 1946, when the steam locomotive's sonorous whistle could be heard from Pennsylvania to Vermont, from New York to Chicago.

The second installation of Richard C. Carpenter's highly acclaimed series covers an area criss-crossed by some of the oldest railroad lines in America. This volume includes over 191 beautiful, hand-drawn maps of rail systems in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. These masterpieces, accompanied by detailed sections on stations, track pans, tunnels, and viaducts, capture a time when rail was king in New England, before cars, trucks, and planes became dominant.

Customer Reviews (6)

A "must have" for railroad historians!
This book (hardcover), has to weigh a couple of pounds and is ALL maps. It shows the physical plant of Northeast railroading just after World War II. If you are fortunate enough to have a collection of individual railroad-issued maps you will know the routes that these railroads ran, but this book will show you just WHAT was along the routes. Items such as stations, interlocking plants, junctions etc are listed. As a practical aside, if you are reading an issue of a railroad magazine that highlights an area like Maybrook yard in New York, the maps in this book can help you follow the story accurately!. The ONLY thing this book has that keeps it from being a 5-star is that all of the maps are drawn in ink instead of some other reproduction process. For a map affectionado(sic)? like myself this is not a problem, but if someone is wanting a coffee-table picture book with maps, then this book is not for you. For everyone else, HIGHLY recommended!

A great deal of useful information
I must open by saying that the Railroad Atlas is in fact a comprehensive and valuable source of information; a "labor of love" in the strictest sense.If you have an interest in seeing how and where the various railroads ran and what stations and facilities were on them in the immediate post-war and pre-merger era, then this book is a must-have.

However, the prospective purchaser should be aware that the maps which form the heart of this atlas are not the slick and professionally produced products that we have been spoiled with in the recent years of the information age.They are obviously hand-drawn, and to be honest they look like something done on a kitchen table with a box of felt-tip markers.The basic map information was traced--carefully, but obviously by hand--from USGS topographic maps, and then the railroad information was added.

I am not trying to put off any prospective purchaser, and in fact I intend to purchase the remainder of the series.However, I think that you should be aware of the quality of the presentation in advance.As long as you don't expect something that looks like it was turned out by the draftsmen at Rand McNally you should be fine.

Maps chart each track and stops along the way and will prove invaluable to researchers
Volume 2 of the extensive rail reference atlas focuses on New York and New England in 1946 - and there are so many rail lines, the narrowed focus and separate volume are needed. The heart of A Railroad Atlas Of The United States In 1946 Volume 2 lines in color line maps on every page of rail lines. From New Hampshire and Maine to Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and New York, maps chart each track and stops along the way and will prove invaluable to researchers.

Wonder why you are stuck in traffic?
Carpenter is a man obsessed with railroads.His maps are a testamony to his obsession and an important document to what was once a great rail network in the US. I am waiting for Volume 3.

A Valuable Resource for Both Railfans and Model Railroaders
I give this book 5 stars, but I give the Amazon.com review function web page 1 star. I wrote a several paragraph review of this book, but this site apparently lost it before it was posted. I don't have time to regenerate it completely. Parts of a draft that I had saved, follows.

If you have ever been driving down a road, have noticed either existing or abandoned railroad roadbed along your route, and have wondered what railroad it once belonged to, then Richard Carpenter's new railroad atlas series may answer your question. Volume 2 continues the series that began with the first volume, covering the mid-Atlantic states.

Each standard map in this atlas corresponds to a U.S. Geological Survey 1:100,000 (30-minute quadrangle) topographic map. Carpenter used topographic evidence of both existing and long abandoned railroad rights-of-way, along with considerable other historical data. He then drew simple color line maps of those rights-of-way, leaving off most of the terrain features and all roads. But the maps do show all major political boundaries (state, county, and larger city). Large rivers are included, along with the direction of flow. And along the rail lines, all tunnels, stations, major bridges and viaducts, coaling stations, interlocking towers, and other railroad facilities are indicated, including their names. Interchanges, however, are not clearly noted, nor are numbers of tracks, sidings, or spurs. Rail lines that were recently abandoned, as of 1946, are shown as dotted lines. Where trackage is more concentrated, such as in major metropolitan areas, supplemental larger scale (greater magnification) maps are provided.

This atlas is not limited to Class I railroads, as there are over 150 different railroads that appear on its pages. I encountered the names of dozens of smaller lines that I had never heard of, though many were wholly owned or leased subsidiaries of the Class I lines, in 1946.

The author chose 1946 for several reasons. First, it was near the peak of the U.S. railroad system in terms of total mileage, that peak being over 254,000 route miles. Second, it was during a period of relative stability in the number of U.S. railroad companies; between 1920 and 1950, only five major railroad mergers and consolidations took place. Third, the author wanted to document the railroad network that provided the necessary means of transportation to support President Roosevelt's "arsenal of democracy."

I have bought volumes 1 and 2, and will probably continue with the entire series. ... Read more

Amazon.com
There may be a corner of the world where the name J.R.R. Tolkien is unknown, but you would be hard-pressed to find it. Since their publication, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings have been published in every major language of the world. And though he single-handedly gave a mythology to the English and was beloved by millions, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien remained refreshingly unchanged by his fame and fortune, living out his days simply and modestly among the familiar surroundings of Oxford College. Humphrey Carpenter, who was given unrestricted access to Tolkien's papers, brilliantly puts meat to the bones of the Tolkien legend in J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, offering a well-rounded portrayal of this quiet, bookish man who always saw himself first and foremost as a philologist, uncovering rather than creating the peoples, languages, and adventures of Middle-Earth.

Carpenter chronicles Tolkien's early life with a special sensitivity; after losing both parents, Tolkien and his brother Hilary were taken from their idyllic life in the English countryside to a poverty-ridden existence in dark and sooty Birmingham. There were bright points, however. A social and cheerful lad, Tolkien enjoyed rugby and was proud of his gift for languages. It was also at this time that he met Edith Bratt, who would later become his wife. Academic life--both as a student and professor--is where this biography shines. Friendship with other men played a huge part in Tolkien's life, and Carpenter deftly reveals the importance these relationships--his complex friendship with C.S. Lewis, membership in the Inklings and the T.C.B.S.--had on the development of his writing.

The only criticism one can make about this book is that Carpenter tends to gloss over Tolkien's contributions to comparative philology.True, there is a chapter devoted to Tolkien's academic pursuits, but it tends to skim too lightly over the surface for this reviewer's tastes. Philology is a terribly methodical science, and the author clearly did not want to alienate readers who were primarily interested in Tolkien as a storyteller. Still, it would be nice to understand why Tolkien was held in such high esteem by his fellow academics. As it stands, Tolkien comes off as a slightly eccentric etymologist.

Fans who want to delve even deeper into Tolkien's life should pick up a copy of Carpenter's The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. --P.M. Atterberry Book Description
The authorized biography of the creator of Middle-earth. In the decades since his death in September 1973, millions have read THE HOBBIT, THE LORD OF THE RINGS, and THE SILMARILLION and become fascinated about the very private man behind the books.

Born in South Africa in January 1892, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was orphaned in childhood and brought up in near-poverty. He served in the first World War, surviving the Battle of the Somme, where he lost many of the closest friends he'd ever had. After the war he returned to the academic life, achieving high repute as a scholar and university teacher, eventually becoming Merton Professor of English at Oxford where he was a close friend of C.S. Lewis and the other writers known as The Inklings.

Then suddenly his life changed dramatically. One day while grading essay papers he found himself writing 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit' -- and worldwide renown awaited him.

Humphrey Carpenter was given unrestricted access to all Tolkien's papers, and interviewed his friends and family. From these sources he follows the long and painful process of creation that produced THE LORD OF THE RINGS and THE SILMARILLION and offers a wealth of information about the life and work of the twentieth century's most cherished author. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (36)

Great Biography despite a few missing pieces
This review is based upon the first edition which was written in 1977.

This biography is fair and gives a vivid detail of not only the life of Tolkien but also the times and events that shaped the man. I would have liked to have seen more into the light of his religion as well as the depth of his relationships particularly with Lewis,Dyson, and Williams.

I have to say that the ending had me near tears. It is hard to imagine that a man that has brought so much joy and creativity into the world that he would have died on a bed of loneliness. It was also sad for me to hear that the relationship between him and C.S. Lewis had fallen out and Lewis passed away before there could ever be any "rewrites" to make up for the past trespasses.

All in all this is one of the better biographies out and I will look forward to reading other biographies out there on Tolkien to give a solid comparison to this one.

A Surprisingly Pleasant Read
When I set about to read this book, I greatly feared that I'd be bored before I reached chapter two. Biographies have never seemed particularly appealing, especially those of authors. Yet I really wanted to learn a little more about Tolkien and the influences in his life that led to the creation of Middle Earth, so I prepared to suffer through. Carpenter, however, has a very conversational tone which made the read a pleasure. His use of actual letters, pictures and manuscripts, which the Tolkien family kindly gave him access to, was masterful. The text from those papers he chose to include was illuminating, but didn't weigh down the book as frequent quoting tends to do. Carpenter clearly had a sense of who Tolkien was, especially since he had the pleasure of speaking with the man himself.

Carpenter also understands that most people will be reading this book for a glimpse at the creation of Middle Earth, and gives ample focus to that throughout. But he never lets that detract from tackling the man as a whole, giving the reader a well rounded picture of the man behind the legend; from his childhood and relationship with his mother, to his Oxford days and friendship with C.S. Lewis, to his family life with wife and children. A marvelous read for any fan of Tolkien.

Very enjoyable book
I enjoyed this book very much. I learned a lot about Tolkien, but it wasn't like reading a text book.The book seemed balanced, not overly critical or sickenly flattering.

Spectacular Job
J.R.R. Tolkien is one of the world's most famous and well-known authors. He has and will continue to inspire the written works of others. His famous The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Silmarillion, and his other books about middle-earth have been read by millions everywhere in the world. His books have been translated into over one hundred languages and sold in many countries. Humphrey Carpenter is one of the many people who has always revered and been inspired by Tolkien. He visited Mr. Tolkien and asked him about his life. He wrote this book for others like him who wish to know about Mr. Tolkien's past experiences and what occurred to inspire him to write his fantastic novels.
J.R.R. Tolkien had a normal life. He wasn't rich or poor, and he didn't grow up in a powerful family. He grew up with his brother and his parents in South Africa.After his parents died, Tolkien fought in the First World War. During this time, Tolkien had to support his brother and his family. He had to take courage and stand up for what was right. This is much like the role and attitude of Atticus in To Kill a Mockingbird. Afterwards, Tolkien taught at Oxford, where he and other college professors, including C.S. Lewis, formed a group called "The Inklings." Mr. Tolkien started writing The Hobbit, and eventually, the Lord of the Rings trilogy. This book shows how Tolkien had a normal life; having hardships like everyone else does, as well as positive experiences.
Tolkien by Humphrey Carpenter is a great read for anyone who is considering a career in writing, as well as anyone who loves Mr. Tolkien's books. Humphrey Carpenter does a great job of outlining Mr. Tolkien's life and achievements. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and I believe that anyone can read this book. Mr. Carpenter used great vocabulary, and he had great development of his writing. I send my compliments to Mr. Carpenter for his spectacular job of writing this book.

J.R. R.
I love biographies.This author was one of the few whom actually was able to meet the man, if you have not read it, please do, you will love it. ... Read more