UNITED STATES AUTHOR · BIBLE · COMMENTARIES
Roland E. Murphy
Roland Gerhard Fryer Jr. (born June 4, 1977) is an American economist and professor at Harvard University. Fryer joined the faculty of Harvard University and rapidly rose through the academic ranks; in 2007, at age 30, he became one of the youngest professors (economists Jeffrey Sachs and Lawrence H. Summers both received tenure at 28), and the youngest African American, ever to be awarded tenure at Harvard. He has received numerous awards, including a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship in 2011 and the John Bates Clark Medal in 2015 -- the field of economics' highest award second only to the Nobel Prize. Fryer has led research on social issues including social image and segregation, race and ethnicity, and the U.S. racial achievement gap.
Dr. Darwin wants the best for his children.
— from The Tree of Life, 2003
Most acclaimed
The Song of songs
This elliptical story of nineteenth-century shtetl Europe is narrated by Shimek whose older brother drowned, leaving an orphaned daughter. This baby niece - Buzie - who is raised as Shimek's sister, becomes at first an audience for his magical tales; then his companion on journeys through Edenic woods and fields; and, at last, the love of his life. This love, first frustrated by Shimek's inability to speak his heart, is finally and ironically shattered on a fine point of Jewish tradition: Though an uncle may marry his niece, Shimek and Buzie have been raised as brother and sister. Shimek's tribute from the Biblical Song of Songs - "my sister, my bride" - becomes a mocking taboo. . Told in four parts, gorgeously written and translated, framed by the periodic cycle of the natural world, and magically decorated with a dozen specially commissioned paintings, this edition of The Song of Songs brings to compassionate life two of the most memorable star-crossed lovers in modern literature.
The book of Exodus
1890
"Bob Marley is one of our most important and influential artists. Recorded in London after an assassination attempt on his life sent Marley into exile from Jamaica, Exodus is the most lasting testament to his social conscience. Named by Time magazine as 'Album of the Century, ' Exodus is reggae superstar Bob Marley's masterpiece of spiritual exploration. Vivien Goldman was the first journalist to introduce mass white audiences to the Rasta sounds of Bob Marley. Throughout the late 1970s, Goldman was a fly on the wall as she watched reggae grow and evolve, and charted the careers of many of its superstars, especially Bob Marley. So close was Vivien to Bob and the Wailers that she was a guest at his Kingston home just days before gunmen came in a rush to kill 'The Skip.' Now, in The Book of Exodus, Goldman chronicles the making of this album, from its conception in Jamaica to the raucous but intense all-night studio sessions in London. But The Book of Exodus is so much more than a making-of-a-record story. This remarkable book takes us through the history of Jamaican music, Marley's own personal journey from the Trench Town ghetto to his status as global superstar, as well as Marley's deep spiritual practice of Rastafari and the roots of this religion. Goldman also traces the biblical themes of the Exodus story, and its practical relevance to us today, through various other art forms, leading up to and culminating with Exodus"--Publisher's description.