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Although he is probably best known for the images he captured during the Civil War, Mathew Brady's range as a photographer was vast. Just how vast is shown in Mathew Brady and His World by Dorothy Meserve Kunhardt and Philip B. Kunhardt Jr. (Time-Life Books; 304 pages; $19.95). Using the massive collection of Brady material gathered by the late Frederick Hill Meserve, the editors assemble Brady's portraits of the great (including several haunting shots of a careworn Lincoln), of luminaries from the worlds of politics, literature and the theater, and of such strange creatures as Tom Thumb (an enchanting series documents the famous midget's wedding) and Siamese Twins Chang and Eng. Brady's crystalline landscape shots capture the building of monuments in Washington and New York. The introduction and running commentaries not only chronicle Brady's techniques and career—they also illustrate the rise of photography in America and its growth in the hands of a genius.
From the 7th through 12th centuries, medieval Spain, isolated on the Iberian peninsula, developed an artistic tradition distinct from the rest of Europe's. Visigoth and Muslim influences brought a pagan exoticism to Spain's Christian art, particularly in illuminated manuscripts. Early Spanish Manuscript Illumination by John Williams (Braziller; 119 pages; $19.95 hardcover, $9.95 paper) provides illuminations of its own, offering plates from such works as the Beatus Commentary on the Book of Revelation that dazzle the reader with apocalyptic visions of weeping angels and rapacious beasts, saints and sinners, heaven and hell.
Winston Churchill was to say later: "The only thing that really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril." With good reason. Under Karl Dönitz, one of the most brilliant strategists of World War II, Nazi wolf packs came horrifyingly close to severing Britain's lifelines in 1940 and again in 1943. The Battle of the Atlantic (Dial/James Wade; 342 pages; $14.95) is based largely on newly released documents from British, U.S. and German archives, as well as on eyewitness accounts. The fascinating history exhumes and examines the political squabbles and secret deals on land—and the herculean U.S. shipbuilding program that eventually scuttled Dönitz's undersea fleet. With more than 400 action photos.
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King Tut was an exception to the rule. He did take it with him. All of it. When the tomb was unsealed in 1922 after about 3,000 years, it disgorged a funerary trove unrivaled in history or the imagination: golden chairs and chests, pearly alabaster statuary and polychromatic bursts of gold, lapis lazuli, carnelian, jasper and obsidian jewelry: some of the most beautiful body ornaments ever designed. And, of course, there was also the famous quartzite sarcophagus with its nesting of golden inner coffins that protected the mummified remains of the frail king who died about 1325 B.C., before his 20th birthday.