Warner

1961 · 60952bd — Boston: Beacon Press 1961. First Edition. Royal octavo bleu cloth & gray boards hardcover gilt letters 235 pp. Very Good with light foxing age darkened spotting to page edges; in a Very Good mylar protected dust jacket with minor soiling. From dust jacket: This remarkable treasury of Civil War art and literature has an immediacy that springs from the artist’s insight into the emotions of individual men each in his own way responding to the terrors and anxieties of the great conflict. Here are 166 memorable reproductions six in full color of paintings watercolors drawings and sculpture which together with carefully researched quatations and narration provide a searching study of the Civil War in terms of human response and reveal with striking clarity the life of the period. The works of art were assembled for two exhibits -- the first at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. and the second at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Artistic significance was the prime criterion for the selection with works ranging from 28 by Winslow Homer to a variety of paintings and sketches by lesser-known artists who caught the feeling of the man and the moment with pencil or brush. The quotations that accompany the illustrations were chosen with equal care. Some are from the pens of actual eyewitneses to the action portrayed while others were selected for their appropriateness to the scene and because they captured the essence of the events shown. The rich variety includes a snatch of a poem by Walt Whitman a paragraph from Uncle Tom’s Cabin verses from songs of the period and the letters and reminiscences of soldier participants. In addition Mr. Williams adds important human interest details in his own narrative. Here forever captured is a poignant record in picture and word of how the war seemed to the awkward and unprepared country boy recruit to the overloaded infantryman miserable on the march to the soldier in action under deadly fire to the suffering and famished wounded in the prison camp and to many more in their moments of pain sorrow fear loneliness and even humor. The Civil War: The Artists’ Record is a profoundly meaningful contribution to an understanding of the war years an important record in the history of American art and by vitue of its handsome presentation a distinguished addition to any collection on the Civil War period. Beacon Press, (1961). First Edition. hardcover books