Gender in the Book of Ben Sira is a semantic analysis and, also, an investigation of hermeneutical pathways for performing such an analysis. A comparison of possible Greek and Hebrew gender taxonomies precedes the extensive delineation of the target-category, gender. The delineation includes invisible influences in the Book of Ben Sira such as the author's choices of genre and his situation as a member of a colonized group within a Hellenistic empire. When the Book of Ben Sira's genre-constrained invectives against women and male fools are excluded, the remaining expectations for women and for men are mostly equivalent, in terms of a pious life lived according to Torah. However, Ben Sira says nothing about distinctions at the level of how "living according to Torah" would differ for the two groups. His book presents an Edenic ideal of marriage through allusions to Genesis 1 to 4, and a substantial overlap of erotic discourse for the female figures of Wisdom and the "intelligent wife" creates tropes similar to those of the Song of Songs. In addition, Ben Sira's colonial status affects what he says and how he says it; by writing in Hebrew, he could craft the Greek genres of encomium and invective to carry multiple levels of meaning that subvert Hellenistic/Greek claims to cultural superiority.

Mackintosh is a celebration of the extraordinary career of one of the most intriguing and influential artists of his time, Charles Rennie Mackintosh. This book follows his artistic development, from his early architectural and interior designs in Glasgow to his eventual withdrawal into landscape painting in the South of France. Mackintosh was a man of daring vision, who mastered the decorative arts, architecture, design and painting with spirited determination and self-belief. Known internationally as the father of the 'Glasgow Style', he became a driving force behind a new approach to modern architecture and design, as well as the forerunner of Art Deco and the Modern Movement.

Long before laughter was prescribed for illness, Anne Ellis wrote with unexpected humor of her extended bout with the "villain" asthma.

"Sunshine Preferred" sums up the attitude of a remarkable woman whose illness interrupted a busy life as politician and breadwinner for two children. In the 1920s she is shuffled from home in Colorado to sanitariums in sunny Arizona and New Mexico. Throughout the long ordeal, she showed her zest for life in writing vivid sketches of her doctors, nurses, and fellow patients.

Anne Ellis advises the reader: "Don't read this book unless you are a person who never has been ill, or who is now ill, or who is just recovering from illness, or who hopes never to be ill."

NELLIE ARNOTT'S WRITING ON ANGOLA, 1905-1913 recovers and interprets the public texts of a teacher serving at a mission station sponsored by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in Portuguese West Africa. Along with a collection of her magazine narratives, mission reports, and correspondence, NELLIE ARNOTT'S WRITING ON ANGOLA offers a critical analysis of Arnott's writing about her experiences in Africa, including interactions with local Umbundu Christians, and about her journey home to the U.S., when she spent time promoting the mission movement before marrying and settling in California. NELLIE ARNOTT'S WRITINGS ON ANGOLA sets Arnott's writing within the context of its historical moment, especially the particular situation of American Protestant women missionaries working in a Portuguese colony. This book responds to recent calls for scholarship exploring specific cases of cross-cultural exchange in colonial settings, with a recognition that no single pattern of relationships would hold in all such sites. Robbins and Pullen also position Arnott's diverse texts within the tradition of feminist scholarship drawing on multifaceted archives to recover women's under-studied publications from previous eras.Part I presents three approaches to interpreting Arnott's oeuvre: biographical (Chapter 1), historical (Chapter 2), and rhetorical (Chapter 3). Chapters 4, 5, and 6 (Part II) provide an annotated edition of Arnott's public texts, organized into three stages of authorial development, ranging from her initial journey to Africa, to her gradual professionalization as a mission teacher, to her travels home and fundraising while on furlough.ABOUT THE AUTHORS: SARAH ROBBINS is the Lorraine Sherley Professor of Literature at Texas Christian University and the author of MANAGING LITERACY, MOTHERING AMERICA (Pittsburgh Press, 2006), which won a Choice award from the American Library Association. She is also the author of THE CAMBRIDGE INTRODUCTION TO HARRIET BEECHER STOWE (Cambridge, 2007). ANN ELLIS PULLEN, is Professor of History, Emerita, at Kennesaw State University, where she chaired the Department of History and Philosophy and the Women's Studies Program. She has authored articles on the early twentieth-century interracial movement in the U.S. South in a variety of publications.

"Writing is a lot like sex. At first you do it because you like it. Then you do it for a few good friends. And if you're any good at it you do it for money." mae west