Journalist and author Kassia St. Clair turns her lifelong obsession with colors and their origins into a unique study of human civilization in this fascinating book. From acid yellow and kelly green to scarlet red and imperial purple, each story runs like a bright thread through history.

• Includes stories of 75 shades, dyes and hues.
• Color stories include Van Gogh's chrome-yellow sunflowers, Swedish scientist Carl Wilhelm Scheele's acid green and the myth of Dragon's Blood red.
• Hardcover, 320 pages.