Rufus Porter's Curious World

Rufus Porter's Curious World PDF Author: Laura Fecych Sprague
Publisher: Penn State University Press
ISBN: 9780271084954
Category : Inventions
Languages : en
Pages : 152

Get Book

Book Description
An examination of Rufus Porter, an enigmatic but astonishingly productive American artist, inventor, and publisher. Presents his life and work in the context of the cultural, social, and technological networks that shaped innovation and democracy during the antebellum era.

Rufus Porter's Curious World

Rufus Porter's Curious World PDF Author: Laura Fecych Sprague
Publisher: Penn State University Press
ISBN: 9780271084954
Category : Inventions
Languages : en
Pages : 152

Get Book

Book Description
An examination of Rufus Porter, an enigmatic but astonishingly productive American artist, inventor, and publisher. Presents his life and work in the context of the cultural, social, and technological networks that shaped innovation and democracy during the antebellum era.

Thomas Hart Benton

Thomas Hart Benton PDF Author: Justin Wolff
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0374199876
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 416

Get Book

Book Description
Born in Missouri at the end of the nineteenth century, Thomas Hart Benton would become the most notorious and celebrated painter America had ever seen. The first artist to make the cover of Time, he was a true original: an heir to both the rollicking populism of his father's political family and the quiet life of his Appalachian grandfather. In his twenties, he would find his calling in New York, where he was drawn to memories of his small-town youth—and to visions of the American scene. By the mid-1930s, Benton's heroic murals were featured in galleries, statehouses, universities, and museums, and magazines commissioned him to report on the stories of the day. Yet even as the nation learned his name, he was often scorned by critics and political commentators, many of whom found him too nationalistic and his art too regressive. Even Jackson Pollock, his once devoted former student, would turn away from him in dramatic fashion. A boxer in his youth, Benton was quick to fight back, but the widespread backlash had an impact—and foreshadowed many of the artistic debates that would dominate the coming decades. In this definitive biography, Justin Wolff places Benton in the context of his tumultuous historical moment—as well as in the landscapes and cultural circles that inspired him. Thomas Hart Benton—with compelling insights into Benton's art, his philosophy, and his family history—rescues a great American artist from myth and hearsay, and provides an indelibly moving portrait of an influential, controversial, and often misunderstood man.

The Travelers

The Travelers PDF Author: Regina Porter
Publisher: Hogarth
ISBN: 0525576207
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Get Book

Book Description
“American history comes to vivid, engaging life in this tale of two interconnected families (one white, one black) that spans from the 1950s to Barack Obama’s first year as president. . . . The complex, beautifully drawn characters are unique and indelible.”—Entertainment Weekly “An astoundingly audacious debut.”—O: The Oprah Magazine • “A gorgeous generational saga.”—New York Post NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY ESQUIRE • FINALIST FOR THE PEN/HEMINGWAY AWARD FOR DEBUT NOVEL Meet James Samuel Vincent, an affluent Manhattan attorney who shirks his modest Irish American background but hews to his father’s meandering ways. James muddles through a topsy-turvy relationship with his son, Rufus, which is further complicated when Rufus marries Claudia Christie. Claudia’s mother—Agnes Miller Christie—is a beautiful African American woman who survives a chance encounter on a Georgia road that propels her into a new life in the Bronx. Soon after, her husband, Eddie Christie, is called to duty on an air craft carrier in Vietnam, where Tom Stoppard’s play “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” becomes Eddie’s life anchor, as he grapples with mounting racial tensions on the ship and counts the days until he will see Agnes again. These unforgettable characters’ lives intersect with a cast of lovers and friends—the unapologetic black lesbian who finds her groove in 1970s Berlin; a moving man stranded in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, during a Thanksgiving storm; two half-brothers who meet as adults in a crayon factory; and a Coney Island waitress whose Prince Charming is too good to be true. With piercing humor, exacting dialogue, and a beautiful sense of place, Regina Porter’s debut is both an intimate family portrait and a sweeping exploration of what it means to be American today. Praise for The Travelers “[A] kaleidoscopic début . . . Porter deftly skips back and forth through the decades, sometimes summarizing a life in a few paragraphs, sometimes spending pages on one conversation. As one character observes, ‘We move in circles in this life.’” —The New Yorker “Porter’s electric debut is a sprawling saga that follows two interconnected American families. . . . Readers will certainly be drawn in by Porter’s sharp writing and kept hooked by the black-and-white photographs interspersed throughout the book, which give faces to the evocative voices.”—Booklist

Why Fish Don't Exist

Why Fish Don't Exist PDF Author: Lulu Miller
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501160346
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Get Book

Book Description
Nineteenth-century scientist David Starr Jordan built one of the most important fish specimen collections ever seen, until the 1906 San Francisco earthquake shattered his life's work.

Craft in America

Craft in America PDF Author: Jo Lauria
Publisher: Potter Style
ISBN: 0307346471
Category : Decorative arts
Languages : en
Pages : 323

Get Book

Book Description
Illustrated with 200 stunning photographs and encompassing objects from furniture and ceramics to jewelry and metal, this definitive work from Jo Lauria and Steve Fenton showcases some of the greatest pieces of American crafts of the last two centuries. Potter Craft

When Audrey Met Alice

When Audrey Met Alice PDF Author: Rebecca Behrens
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
ISBN: 1402286430
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Get Book

Book Description
"Outrageous and riveting.'" -School Library Journal Living in the White House is like being permanently grounded. Only with better security. First Daughter Audrey Rhodes can't wait for the party she has planned. The decorations are all set and the pizza is on its way. But the Secret Service must be out to ruin her life, because they cancel at the last minute, squashing Audrey's chances for making any new friends. What good is having your own bowling alley if you don't have anyone to play with? Audrey is ready to give up and spend the next four years totally friendless--until she discovers Alice Roosevelt's hidden diary. The former First Daughter's outrageous antics give Audrey a ton of ideas for having fun...and get her into more trouble than she can handle. "The combination of humor, history, light romance and social consciousness make Rebecca Behrens' debut novel a winner." -BookPage "Rebecca Behrens combines charming and quirky characters from two different centuries, creating a believable, engaging story that tugs at the heart and tickles the funny bone." -Nikki Loftin, award-winning author of The Sinister Sweetness of Splendid Academy "Outrageous and riveting. ...this book aims to inspire and stir young girls to unearth their inner Alice Roosevelt and to 'eat up the world.'" -School Library Journal

Ancient, Curious, and Famous Wills

Ancient, Curious, and Famous Wills PDF Author: Virgil M. Harris
Publisher: DigiCat
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 529

Get Book

Book Description
DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Ancient, Curious, and Famous Wills" by Virgil M. Harris. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

My Antonia

My Antonia PDF Author: Willa Cather
Publisher: Gildan Media LLC aka G&D Media
ISBN: 1722525045
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Get Book

Book Description
A haunting tribute to the heroic pioneers who shaped the American Midwest This powerful novel by Willa Cather is considered to be one of her finest works and placed Cather in the forefront of women novelists. It tells the stories of several immigrant families who start new lives in America in rural Nebraska. This powerful tribute to the quiet heroism of those whose struggles and triumphs shaped the American Midwest highlights the role of women pioneers, in particular. Written in the style of a memoir penned by Antonia’s tutor and friend, the book depicts one of the most memorable heroines in American literature, the spirited eldest daughter of a Czech immigrant family, whose calm, quite strength and robust spirit helped her survive the hardships and loneliness of life on the Nebraska prairie. The two form an enduring bond and through his chronicle, we watch Antonia shape the land while dealing with poverty, treachery, and tragedy. “No romantic novel ever written in America...is one half so beautiful as My Ántonia.” -H. L. Mencken Willa Cather (1873–1947) was an American writer best known for her novels of the Plains and for One of Ours, a novel set in World War I, for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1923. She was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1943 and received the gold medal for fiction from the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1944, an award given once a decade for an author's total accomplishments. By the time of her death she had written twelve novels, five books of short stories, and a collection of poetry.

Hannibal for Dinner

Hannibal for Dinner PDF Author: Kyle A. Moody
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476666423
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Get Book

Book Description
NBC's Hannibal only lasted for three seasons but became a critical darling and quickly inspired a ravenous fanbase. Bryan Fuller's adaptation of Hannibal Lecter's adventures created a new set of fans and a cult audience through its stunning visuals, playful characters, and mythical tableaus of violence that doubled as works of art. The show became a nexus point for viewers that explored consumption, queerness, beauty, crime, and the meaning of love through a lens of blood and gore. Much like the show, this collection is a love letter to America's favorite cannibal, celebrating the multiple ways that Hannibal expanded the mythology, food culture, fandom, artistic achievements, and religious symbolism of the work of Thomas Harris. Primarily focusing on Hannibal, this book combines interviews and academic essays that examine the franchise, its evolution, creatively bold risks, and the art of creating a TV show that consumed the hearts and minds of its audience.

A Select Collection of Valuable and Curious Arts, and Interesting Experiments

A Select Collection of Valuable and Curious Arts, and Interesting Experiments PDF Author: Rufus Porter
Publisher: Franklin Classics
ISBN: 9780342468959
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 142

Get Book

Book Description
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.