Rolf Gross

Writings and Travels


My First and Last Novel

Konrad and Alexandra (PDF)

1898-1998

A chronicle of the live of my grandparents playing in Georgia, Russia, Italy, and Germany,
2000
New edition Illustrated with contemporary photograps, 2011



Essays on Favorite Subjects


 

Reading Hieronymus Bosch Right to Left

1450 – 1516

 

New Approach to Bosch's Paintings

2005 - 2009


 

The Frescoes and Painters of
Tuscany

1240 – 1557

 

A Guide to the Frescoes of Tuscany and their Painters
2009


 

Icons and Churches of Russia

900 – 2000

 

Russia's spiritual Soul. One of my most beautitul Webpages.
Revised and updated Aug 2014

 

History of Romanesque Architecture

300-1300 AD


A chronological review of early Christian Architecture
New 2013

History of Gothic Architecture

1100-1600 AD


The Gothic illustrated with over 300 annotated pictures
New June 2014


 

History of Indian Architecture

5000 BC to 1900 AD


An illustrated account of the architecture of the Subcontinent
Revised 2014

 


History of Islamic Architecture

625 - 1857

. 

A profusely illustrated Essay on the Architecture of Islam, from Mecca to the Alhambra and the Mosques of India
Revised 2014


The Rise of Modern Man

150 000 – 500 BC

  

The Evolution of Homo Sapiens or Who Created the Paleolithic Cave Paintings? An adventure story in Paleanthropology.
New 2012


Man and His Gods

5000 BC – 1400 AD

 

By the end of the Neolithic the men took over from the Matriarchat and created a patriarchal society headed by a plethora of Gods.
New 2014

The Travels of Ibn Battuta

1325 – 1349

 


Excerpts from the “Rihla”, Battuta's travelogue illustrated with many photos from the internet
Revised 2014


Sven Hedin's “Through Asia”

1893 – 1897

 

Hedin's seminal first expedition into the Taklamakan Desert in which he narrowly escaped death illustrated with his drawings and photographs.
New 2012


Sir Aurel Stein's Three Expeditions into Chinese Turkestan

1900 – 1916

 

Marc-Aurel Stein, a polyglott recluse reaped the archeological fruits of Sven Hedin's daring. His greatest triumph though was the hidden library of Dunhuang. He succeeded to acquire hundreds of scrolls from a Daoist monk at the Buddhist caves.
New 2012


Dale Chihuly's Glass Creations

1977-2012


A cornucopia of the blown-glass pieces by the protean master
New 2013


Frank Gehry's Architecture

1962-2014

A survey of Fank Gehry's Buildings
New July 2014

 

The Paintings of Gerhard Richter

1962 – 2008

 

Selections from Richter's Work with Explanatory Notes, and Videos
(2010)


Contemporary Chinese Art

1997-2013

 

A Review of 32 Contemporary Chinese Painters, Sculptors, Photographers, and Installationists with Examples of their Work.
New 2013

.Special Exhibitions


 

Marina Tsvetaeva

PDF

1892 – 1941

 

The life and poems of the Russian poetess in a literal translation
(Russian-English)


The Erratic Life of Lafcadio Hearn


1850 -1904  



 

An illustrated biography of a peripatetic journalist who became one of the saints of modern Japan.

 


The Poetry of Andalucia

950–1300 AD

 

A collection of exceptional translations of Mozarab poems.


 

The Historical Photographs of
Dmitrii Ivanovich Ermakov

1846 – 1916

 

50 Photographs from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Tbilisi, Georgia


 

The People of Imperial Russia
Photos by Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky

1905 – 1916

 

The first color photos of Russia from the Collection of the US Library of Congress


The Renaissance Fair in Southern California

1973 -1981

 

A Mirror of California's Innocent Seventies and Eighties

 


....Travelogues and Travel Guides
......1953 – 2006



.....Novels and Writings in Kindle Format



....Unpublished Writings in PDF Format

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The author with his daughter Susanne

A biographical note to my readers

I was born Rolf Werner Friedrich Gross - the initials honor my two grandfathers, one a pastor, the other one a polyglot engineer - in Silesia, Germany in 1931. I live with my wife Barbara in California. We have two adult children, Susanne in Denver and Cornelius in Rome, Italy. All three often appear in my writings, e.g. Susanne on the author's photo.
Professionally, I am/was a physicist. In 1956 I came to the US to finish my PhD at Harvard. After 28 years in research I threw physics over my left shoulder, retired, and devoted myself to my many other interests, art history, gold-smithing, architecture, photography, traveling and - writing a novel. After four years learning how to write I self-published "Konrad and Alexandra" in 2000. It was not a success, and I have still to earn a return on my publishing expenses. I recommend the present version. It has been reedited and shortened. It is also much cheaper than the paperback.

Already during my years as a physicist I was lucky to be able to travel widely, teaching in the USSR, Georgia, Central Asia, and China. "Konrad and Alexandra" and the "The Return of the Monkey King" are based on these experiences. We fell in love with Greece. "Mount Athos-The Garden of the Virgin" and "Along the Way to Arcadia" are meditations on this country and its past. "The Snow Dancer", a second novel, explores my attraction to Buddhist Dzogchen, to which Cornelius introduced me. Dreams of visiting Tibet finally became reality in 1995. I organized a minor expedition for members of my family to the far West of the country. The diary of this strenuous trip, "Tibet, To the End of the World" will appear as a Kindle edition shortly

Fascinated with the paintings by Hieronymus Bosch, I wrote a biography of this enigmatic man, when in 2002 new research permitted dating all his paintings.

An alternative is to explore the entries on this website which show annotated photo-essays on my publications and many additonal subjects in large format. I would appreciate to hear your comments and criticism, good or bad, via e-mail (see below).




....Rolf W. F. Gross
....
Pacific Palisades, CA, July 2011
....personal e-mail