Books by Irwin Richman

These 580+ juicy images capture the fact that throughout history, artists and artisans have depicted vegetables in remarkable ways. Still lifes, photographs, amusing antique postcards, seed packet art--all sorts of vegetable illustrations have been created to arouse physical and aesthetic appetites, and they are displayed here together with interesting botanical and historical insights. This wealth of vegetable art includes paintings by American artists like Lily Martin Spencer, Ernest Lawson, and Charles Demuth; engravings and lithographs by major printmaking companies like Louis Prang and Company; botanical illustrations; and commercial images drawn from vintage catalogs and seed packets. Vegetables are represented in colorful glory, from the hundreds we appreciate daily--like tomatoes, potatoes, peas, and carrots--to less-familiar vegetables like sea kale, cardoon, and walking onions.

America's favorite flora are the homey ray flowers, a tribe featuring daisies, sunflowers, chrysanthemums, dahlias, coneflowers, and black-eyed Susans, combined with the elegant, multifaceted rose. Children pick ray flowers for their prepubescent crush or for their mom; when they get older, they graduate to the rose, a more sophisticated choice. Both high culture and pop culture embrace floral imagery; think of Annie Liebovitz's famous nude photograph of Bette Midler blanketed in long-stemmed American Beauties on the cover of Rolling Stone, or zombies featured in a Wars of the Roses comic book. Thousands of postcards and greeting cards are covered in a sea of roses and ray flowers. Meet Daisy Mae, see Daisy the dog, and view the presidential Rose Garden, as well as influential American and European works of art. These images are combined with the history and romance of our favorite flowers. A nonallergenic floral extravaganza!

Taking the name Pennsylvania Dutch from a corruption of their own word for themselves, "Deutsch," the first German settlers arrived in Pennsylvania in 1683. By the time of the American Revolution, their influence was such that Benjamin Franklin, among others, worried that German would become the commonwealth''s official language. The continuing influence of the Church peoples-the Amish and Mennonites and others who constitute the still-vibrant Dutch culture-can be seen today in icons of Americana from apple pie to log cabins.

"The greatest influences of German architecture on America are bipolar: Folk Architecture and Modern Academic Architecture. In between are the lower keyed stories of less dramatic contributions." From log houses, corner beer halls and restaurants, and modern theme parks to the Brooklyn bridge and the Seagram Building in New York, German-inspired architecture covers America and defines a cultural heritage. In this book, a fascinating text is peppered with over 300 historical and contemporary photographs that illustrate powerful as well as quaint German-style buildings throughout America. From the Hill Country of Texas to the skylines of the great American cities and famous bridges, everyday places and American icons alike are described in detail with charming anecdotes about people and uses that combine to create a culture that is all-American. This book features so many highly recognized places that you will wonder why the subject hasn't been presented before. It is fresh, stimulating, and entertaining; a delight to architects and all who have never before thought about the great legacy of German influence in America.

Every year between 1920 and 1970, almost one million of New York City's Jewish population summered in the Catskills. Hundreds of thousands still do. This title brings to life the attitudes of the renters and the owners, the differences between the social activities and swimming pools advertised and what people actually received.