Common as Air offers a stirring defense of our cultural commons, that vast store of art and ideas we have inherited from the past that continues to enrich our present. Suspicious of the current idea that all creative work is “intellectual property,” Lewis Hyde turns to America’s founding fathers—men like John Adams, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson—in search of other ways to value the fruits of human wit and imagination. What he discovers is a rich tradition in which knowledge was assumed to be a commonwealth, not a private preserve. For the founding fathers, democratic self-governance itself demanded open and easy access to ideas. So did the growth of creative communities, such as that of eighteenth-century science. And so did the flourishing of public persons, the very actors whose “civic virtue” brought the nation into being. In this lively, carefully argued, and well-documented book, Hyde brings the past to bear on present matters, shedding fresh light on everything from the Human Genome Project to Bob Dylan’s musical roots. Common as Air allows us to stand on the shoulders of America’s revolutionary giants and to see beyond today’s narrow debates over cultural ownership. What it reveals is nothing less than an inspiring vision of how to reclaim the commonwealth of art and ideas that we were meant to inherit.

Product Description: Common as Air offers a stirring defense of our cultural commons, that vast store of art and ideas we have inherited from the past that continues to enrich our present. Suspicious of the current idea that all creative work is “intellectual property,” Lewis Hyde turns to America’s founding fathers—men like John Adams, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson—in search of other ways to value the fruits of human wit and imagination...read more

A twenty-fifth anniversary edition of the classic study examines the concept of gifts in anthropological terms and uses this approach to analyze the situation of creative artists and their gifts to society, in a volume that features a new preface and afterword. Reprint. 25,000 first printing.

Product Description: Trickster Makes This World solidifies Lewis Hyde's reputation as, in Robert Bly's words, "the most subtle, thorough, and brilliant mythologist we now have." In it, Hyde now brings to life the playful and disruptive side of human imagination as it is embodied in trickster mythology...read more

Fully annotated and arranged in the order of their composition, presents thirteen of the author's essays, including 'Walking' and 'Civil Disobedience.'

Product Description: Lee Mingwei's simple yet elegant installations provide a stage for interpersonal exchange around ordinary human events or activities -- admiring an object, making conversation, or writing a letter to a friend or family member. His past installations such as "The Dining Project "and "The Letter-Writing Project" are explored along with a recent project developed while an artist in residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum called "The Living Room...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Poems deal with love, death, work, nature, grief, pleasure, human frailty, emotion, and experience

Gathers critical essays about Ginsberg's early works, major poems, essential themes, and public image

Examines the concept of gifts in anthropological terms and uses this approach to analyze the situation of creative artists and their gifts to society