Welcome Rain is an independent general trade publisher. Now in our sixteenth year, Welcome Rain consistently offers a forum for classics of literature alongside the works of promising and unjustly neglected talents--our backlist comprises more than 200 fine titles.
Several recent releases have won high praise, including LONDON: HIDDEN INTERIORS, the third in a series of books published in conjunction with English Heritage. This stunning collection of more than 1700 color photographs demonstrates the full richness and diversity of London's architectural heritage--especially the city's hidden interior spaces. It's often thought that much of London's beauty was obliterated by World War II, or sacrificed to mindless urban renewal or insensitive post-war planning and architecture. This is not the case. Here we find, often behind the closed doors of offices, institutions, clubs, and private homes, some of the most amazing architectural interiors on earth. Each of the 180 venues is described in the gorgeous prose of architectural historian and preservationist, Philip Davis. Photography by Derek Kendall.
Also atop our list is A COUPLE OF BLAGUARDS by Malachy and Frank McCourt. The legendary brothers were true "sennachies"--spellbinding storytellers in the Irish tradition. Anyone fortunate enough to have seen them perform their revue, A COUPLE OF BLAGUARDS, knows that the geniuses who brought us their bestselling memoirs ANGELA'S ASHES and A MONK SWIMMING were in full flower long before they were famous authors. This new edition of their tragicomic stage play presents tales from their Dickensian childhood in Limerick, told with the acid-laced humor, pathos, and expansive humanity for which their writing is known. The play continues to enjoy frequent revivals.
Originally published in 1942 in wartime Tokio (sic), Japan, ZEN IN ENGLISH LITERATURE AND ORIENTAL CLASSICS was immodestly pronounced by William Wilson, my college English professor, "the most beautiful book on English literature ever written." Doubtful this could be true, I bought a copy of the last trade edition (1960) and have never since laid the book down. Professor Blyth, who taught in Japan before and during the war, and then went on to become a leading roshi of Zen teachings, demonstrates brilliantly how the true spirit of Zen Buddhism infuses the great literatures of both East and West. In presenting his thesis that "all that is good in European literature and culture is simply and solely that which is in accordance with the Spirit of Zen," the author quotes extensively from Chinese and Japanese classics, from the whole range of English literature, and from German, French, Italian, and Spanish works. This critical tour de force, unavailable for far too many years, is now being restored to print by Welcome Rain.
Finally, SPIRITO, VENTO e ACQUA is the Italian-language version of SPIRIT, WIND & WATER: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE JACUZZI FAMILY by Remo Jacuzzi, the epic saga of the astonishingly enterprising Italian immigrant family--thirteen brothers and sisters and their many descendants whose inventions transformed America. Remo writes, "For me a Jacuzzi is a person, not a machine. A Jacuzzi is a member of my family. " While they are a household name mainly for their invention of hydrotherapy for home use, during the last century the family revolutionized the airplane industry and remade the lives of rural Americans with their deep-water, immersible injector water pumps. Along the way, they also created a steam-driven windmill system for defrosting crops, a silkworm farm, a wine-making empire (Cline Cellars), a line of PT boats, and dozens of other entrepreneurial ventures.
While the primary purpose of our website is to present new and noteworthy, forthcoming, and active titles in our backlist, we have also built a "Library" to house previously published Welcome Rain books that we are particularly fond of. Although these titles are no longer available directly from us, if you see something you fancy, copies are probably available from the Advanced Book Exchange (abebooks.com) or the Amazon Marketplace.
-- C. DeFanti
