“The most important work of fiction by an Afro-American since Native Son.” —Addison Gayle, Jr., The New York Times Book Review A searing chronicle of the life of a young ex-convict and heroin addict in 1960’s Harlem, an unsparing portrait of a man who couldn’t free himself from the horrors of addiction Blueschild Baby takes place during the summer of 1967—the summer of race riots all across the nation; the Summer of Love in the Haight Ashbury; the summer of Marines dying near Con Thien, across the world in Vietnam—but the novel illuminates the contours of a more private hell: the angry desperation of a heroin addict who returns to his home in Harlem after being in prison. First published in 1970, this frankly autobiographical novel was a revelation, a stunning depiction of a marginal figure, marked literally and figuratively by his drug addiction and navigating a predatory underground of junkies and hustlers—and named George Cain, like his author. Now with a new preface by acclaimed writer Leslie Jamison, this is an unvarnished conjuring of the tyranny of dependence: its desperation, its degradation, its rage and rebellion; the fragile, unsettled, occasional shards of hope it permits; the strange joys of being alive and young and lost and hooked and full of feverish determination anyway. “[A] powerful literary account of addiction.” —The New Yorker

Mathematics for Mechanical Engineers gives mechanical engineers convenient access to the essential problem solving tools that they use each day. It covers applications employed in many different facets of mechanical engineering, from basic through advanced, to ensure that you will easily find answers you need in this handy guide. For the engineer venturing out of familiar territory, the chapters cover fundamentals like physical constants, derivatives, integrals, Fourier transforms, Bessel functions, and Legendre functions. For the experts, it includes thorough sections on the more advanced topics of partial differential equations, approximation methods, and numerical methods, often used in applications. The guide reviews statistics for analyzing engineering data and making inferences, so professionals can extract useful information even with the presence of randomness and uncertainty. The convenient Mathematics for Mechanical Engineers is an indispensable summary of mathematics processes needed by engineers.

Separation of Variables for Partial Differential Equations: An Eigenfunction Approach includes many realistic applications beyond the usual model problems. The book concentrates on the method of separation of variables for partial differential equations, which remains an integral part of the training in applied mathematics. Beyond the usual model problems, the presentation includes a number of realistic applications that illustrate the power and usefulness of the ideas behind these techniques. This complete, self-contained book includes numerous exercises and error estimates, as well as a rigorous approximation and computational tool.

A black ex-convict and drug addict returns to his home in Harlem and experiences the agony of confronting his desperate present condition which contrasts with his promising youth