Franklin Kelly

Barbara Novak

Annette Blaugrund

The Artist As Architect

Thomas Cole

A short, brilliantly researched treatise on what it means to be American, looking at America's paramount artists and writers, by acclaimed art historian Barbara Novak. Lavishly illustrated with color and black & white photos.

Pairs, Parallels and Patterns in American Art and Literature

Voyages of the Self

Barbara Novak is one of America's premier art historians, the author of the seminal books American Painting of the Nineteenth Century and Nature and Culture, the latter of which was named one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by The New York Times and was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award. Now, with Voyages of the Self, this esteemed critic completes the trilogy begun with the two earlier works, offering once again an exhilarating exploration of American art and culture. In this book, Novak explores several inspired pairings of key writers and painters, drawing insightful parallels between such masters as John Singleton Copley and Jonathan Edwards, Winslow Homer and William James, Frederic Edwin Church and Walt Whitman, and Jackson Pollock and Charles Olson. Through these and other groupings, Novak tracks the varied meanings of the self in America, in which the most salient characteristics of each artist or writer is shown to draw from--and in turn influence--the larger map of American life. Two major threads weaving through the book are the American preoccupation with the "object" and our continuing return to pragmatism. Novak notes for instance how Copley's art mirrors the puritan denial of self found in Jonathan Edwards and how as colonial scientists they share an interest in sensation and observation. She sees Winslow Homer and William James as practitioners of a pragmatic self grounded in an immediate experience that looks for concrete results. Through such fruitful comparisons--whether between Copley and Edwards, or Lane and Emerson, or Ryder and Dickinson--Novak sheds unmatched light on our nation's artistic heritage. Wonderfully illustrated with dozens of black-and-white pictures and sixteen full-color plates, here is a stunning work that yields a wealth of insight into American art and culture--and concludes Novak's landmark trilogy.

Pairs, Parallels, and Patterns in American Art and Literature

Barbara Novak hits The Big Apple of the early sixties with her new book DOWN WITH LOVE, a pre-feminist manifesto on saying "no" to love and "yes" to career, empowerment... and sex. As Barbara's revolutionary tome rockets to the top of the best-seller charts, she becomes the target of ace journalist / ladies man / man-about-town Catcher "Catch" Block, who is determined to prove the book a lie. Catch's best friend (and boss), the neurotic and lovesick Peter McMannus tries to rein in his star writer, all the time haplessly pursuing the object of his affections: Vikki Hiller, Barbara’s feisty editor. Vikki plays tough in a man's world and her brilliant promotional ideas propel "Down With Love" to the top of the best-seller lists. Meanwhile, Vikki's boss, publishing magnate Theodore Banner, doesn't let his old-fashioned ideas about a woman's place get in the way of DOWN WITH LOVE's huge success. Mistaken identities, frantic roundelays, startling revelations -- and ever changing perceptions aboaut love and sex -- are just a few of the surprises in store for Barbara, Catch, Peter and Vikki as they collide in a wild, witty, deliciously zany whirlwind of romance and fun.

Down with Love

Sammlung Thyssen-Bornemisza

Simon De Pury

Elizabeth Garrity Ellis

A stunning view of one of the most important collections in the world. The Thyssen-Bornemisza is perhaps the definitive collection of 19th century American painting. In this fascinating catalog, Barbara Novak presents the works in the context of the culture in which they were created--with all the great artists represented: Bierstadt, Catlin, Cole, Copley, Homer, Inness, Sargent, and Whistler. 160 illustrations, 109 in full-color.

Nineteenth-century American Painting

Anna Bernstein, a graduate student at Harvard, falls deeply in love with Kurt Hahn, whose Native American and Nazi German heritage will clash with her Polish Jewish roots. Soon, she finds herself courting madness.

Barbara Novak

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