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Self Portrait stands as a truly perverse collection. Released in 1970 at a time when those on the radical left were hungering for their then-unimpeachable hero to reclaim his role as the conscience of his generation, Bob Dylan instead delivered a pop-inflected collection largely made up of rather indifferently performed covers. Youth culture was at a boiling point and the one figure the vanguard of The Movement hoped would galvanize all those street-fighting men and women was . . . crooning "Blue Moon"? In hindsight, Self Portrait is, at best, pleasant. The uncharacteristically lush likes of "All The Tired Horses," "Wigwam," and "Copper Kettle" are mighty nice, in fact. But then the tepid covers of "The Boxer," "Early Mornin' Rain," and "Gotta Travel On," as well as perplexingly lifeless live versions of "Like a Rolling Stone" and "She Belongs to Me" drag the whole set down and leave one wondering what Dylan was thinking when he selected such a provocative title for such an unrevealing album. --Steven Stolder

A new version of a Phaidon classic published in 1937, this evocative and fascinating book, now issued as a paperback, presents 500 of the world's greatest self-portraits, arranged in a simple chronological sequence from ancient times to the late twentieth century. 'The mirror, above all - the mirror is our teacher,' wrote Leonardo da Vinci. Portraits are an endless source of fascination, responding as they do to the basic human impulse to look at faces and try to see into the character behind them. Self-portraits have the added fascination that comes from looking into the mirror and trying to study one's own face. Taking its inspiration from the classic Phaidon volume published in 1937 with the same title, this book presents an uninterrupted sequence of 500 self-portraits, in chronological order from ancient Egypt to the late twentieth century. The challenge of creating their own likeness has proved irresistible to artists, and included here are powerful and evocative works by many of the world's greatest painters and sculptors, including Durer, Rembrandt, Picasso and Andy Warhol. Each image is both a work of art and a study in psychology and self-perception.. Presented without commentary, these works speak for themselves - a compelling collection for every student of art and human nature.

Self-Portrait with Turtles is a book in the spirit of Walden and Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, but it is also unique, as David Carroll himself is. Driven by a passion for art and turtles, Carroll has lived a Walden-like life for decades, although he is married, with family. In Self -Portrait he tells the story of that remarkable life. He writes about his early encounters with turtles, which led to a lifelong fascination with them and their swampy habitats, and about the high school teacher who told him that, contrary to everything he had been taught before, art is the only thing that matters, the only thing that lasts. During his years at art school in Boston, he got to know the turtles of the Fenway, including one giant snapper he wrestled to shore and carried to his studio for a portrait session. After a brief career as a teacher, Carroll has spent decades scraping out a living as an artist and naturalist, raising three children on a shoestring with his artist wife. "We live like turtles," he has said; "we hunker down when times get hard." In a materialistic age, he and his family have gone their own way, living simply and self-sufficiently, showing that the secret of a good life is to devote yourself to what you love.

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Elisabeth Schwarzkopf had one of the great voices of the 20th century, not particularly powerful but beautiful and superbly trained. She used it with a high level of intelligence and an exemplary sense of the value of the words she was singing. That voice, its development and its strengths (many) and weaknesses (few) are the subject of this fine documentary, narrated by Schwarzkopf. It is not a complete biography, but the voice is well displayed in film clips from throughout her career, beginning with the Nazi years in Berlin where she sang La Bohème and Carmen in German.

Later, she is shown briefly in more characteristic roles--aristocratic women in Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro, and Der Rosenkavalier. Particularly gratifying is an uncut performance of "Porgi, Amor" from Figaro, But some of the best moments are devoted to lieder, the musical form for which she was born. She is shown testing the acoustics at Versailles before a recital there, performing with pianist Gerald Moore and conducting a master class in which she stresses the importance of the words. --Joe McLellan

Academy Award winning director Robert Snyder's MICHELANGELO: Self-Portrait" overflows with splendid color images of all of Michelangelo's major works. This is an "autobiography" drawn from Michelangelo's letters, diaries, poems, and testimony of his contemporary biographers, Condivi and Vasari. The film is poignantly higlighted with passages from Dante's "Devine Cpomedy," and the soaring music of Claudio Monteverdi's "Vespro della Beata Vergine" of 1610. It is a dramatic, gripping story told in his own words.

A renowned artist, author, and naturalist, David M. Carroll is exceptionally skilled at capturing nature on the page. In Self-Portrait with Turtles, he reflects on his own life, recounting the crucial moments that shaped his passions and abilities. Beginning with his first sighting of a wild turtle at age eight, Carroll describes his lifelong fascination with swamps and the creatures that inhabit them. He also traces his evolution as an artist, from the words of encouragement he received in high school to his college days in Boston to his life with his wife and family. Self-Portrait with Turtles is a remarkable memoir, a marvelous and exhilarating account of a life well lived.

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