Art History Books

This is a MUST HAVE for anyone who grew up in Southern California. It is a marvelous trip down memory lane. The pictures are a treat and the information reminds me of all the good things of my childhood. I have given several for gifts and everyone has loved the book as much as I do.

You don't need a team of NASA scientists or H.G. Wells to go back in time.All you need evidently is $22.05.That is what this gem cost at the time of this writing.For the price of a large pizza with everything you get a treat for the mind and heart.I defy anyone over 40 to read this and not feel as if their soul has not been dipped in chocolate and coated with sprinkles.I know that this world would be a better place if their were more people like the Master of Mid-century memories....Charles Phoenix.

For any one hooked on The Atomic Age this book is a "sun - fun" trip through Southern California - when Southern California was younger and more innocent. The book is filled Interesting bits of history and fabulous photos of an era long gone. Charles Phoenix obviously did his homework and researched the material extensively. The wonderful trip down memory lane takes you through some of Southern California's most famous attractions, including a brand new Disney Land, Knott's Berry Farm, and an Ocean themed amusement park that once stood at the Santa Monica Pier. Also on the trip are malls, housing developments, zoos, and themed restaurants. You won't be disappointed with this truly delightful journey.

Our library just added this book to their collection and I began reading it out of curiousity. It's fabulous - filled with great pictures and chock full of unique facts. Reading it made me feel like I stepped back in time. Great coffee table or gift book.

This book is, well, fun for anyone with a Los Angeles childhood, like me. However, for anyone who loves kitsch and Californiana, this book is well worth the price. Sun, Fun and Fantasy" takes an indulgent, loving look at a time and place that's largely been torn down and paved over. The author gets more than five stars from me for his accuracy--I couldn't find one error, based on my memory, my extensive reading about California, and yes, my picture postcard collection!

My hope is that this author will produce follow-up volumes from the '60s and '70s.

A wonderful book of beautifully odd collections! Everything from dirt to cat whiskers to those inspection tags inside of your new clothes.

Highly recommended when you need to see the beauty of things you have yet to discover.

My sister and I think this is a GREAT book. We love how diverse and unique it is.
Does Mr. Smith have an e-mail adress?
Thanks!

If you like visual journal type of books like "Drawing From Life" you will probably enjoy this. It is a nice sized book with a great textural cover. It seems like a lot of thought was put into the printing of this book and the feel of the paper to the reader's touch.

Will you learn any art techniques from this? Nope...not that kind of book.

There are interesting visual experiments, a funny personal collection of name misspellings and several other text and/or visual anecdotes of every day life.

I liked "Drawing from Life" just a bit better because I felt more of a connection with the contributors since the commonality was the obvious journal. This book does not have that same connection for me but I still enjoy it simply as a lover of a visual feast.

I saw this book in the store and then left it behind in a mad fit at register lines that were too long. Two days later, I was back in the store--couldn't let it go.

I love this book. It fits somehow with Drawing from Life: The Journal as Art, and I wonder if the two books have the same editor? It's a collection of views into other people's minds, affirmation of things I've thought to do and never followed up on (had my own collection of cat whiskers until I moved).

I wish it had a little more background on HOW these artists managed their inventory--my experience suggests that for every "finished" and shared project, there are dozens in the wings, cluttering up the studio. But OK. Think Edward Tufte on Small Multiples--what an amazing amount of information is generated when information is collected and presented over time.

Did I say I love this book?

This is one to buy for yourself and buy for your friends. It's for anyone who needs to be reminded that when we think outside the box, we come up with wonderful ideas. Read the editorial reviews and believe them - this is a strange, weird, wild book. I've grabbed family members and friends and made them sit down with it. I've put it on the Staff Picks shelf at the book store where I work. Personal favorites: the drawn lines showing the movement on different subway lines in NYC, and the collection of different rock samples and soil samples belonging to a barber in the city. These strange collections are actually very moving, very haunting and human. After you look at this book, try looking up other books published by Princeton Architectural Press, which is bringing out some of the best books around - they also did PHOTOBOOTH by Babette Hines, and YOU ARE HERE by Katherine Harmon.

Mark Robert Waldman has put together a real gem in THE SPIRIT OF WRITING, and it's my absolute pleasure to have been a small part of it. It's amazing to read classic essays on the subject of writing by such luminaries as Twain, Faulkner and Steinbeck and contemporary pieces by such diverse scribes at Stephen King and Erica Jong. I particularly loved reading Janet Fitch's "The Capes of Anais Nin," which takes us into her mind well before her WHITE OLEANDER was an Oprah Book Club selection. To read that she thought at one point that "there was a very distinct possibility I would never sell anything as long as I lived" and to realize the success that came her way is refreshing and reminds us all that being a writer is not for sissies! More folks will tell you to quit than will encourage the pursuit. But, if you love words as I do, you'll understand what Fitch was saying...and you'll keep THE SPIRIT OF WRITING nearby to forever inspire you!!

Lia Scott Price's story "Without Wings" is very redeeming. I also have my own monsters in a very different form. Her story is touching because it made me ponder about my own life. Thank you, Lia, for sharing.

I just finished reading Without Wings by Lia Scott Price and decided I had to write to say how much I enjoyed the story. While reading it, I felt the pain, the anguish, the pure and raw emotions from her characters. I am so greatly impressed. To finally stumble upon a writer with a gift for storytelling, I would just like to say congratulations on this, what I consider to be a masterpiece of a story. I hope to read more of her works! --A new found fan.

Mark Robert Waldman has compiled a treasure chest full of shining works to be savored by writers at any level.Contributors to the anthology, "The Spirit of Writing: Classic and Contemporary Essays Celebrating the Writing Life",are a who's who list in the world of writing. All the works are aimed at those that love the written word, including their own.

Essays and poems by the likes of Authors past and present, Mark Twain, Erica Jong, Stephen King, Julia Cameron, Janet Fitch, O.Henry, Joseph Conrad, Natalie Goldberg and Sylvia Plath, who all know a thing or two about writing, are among the works found in this very thorough anthology. Each author with their very different but most recognizable styles will have you turning the page as fast as you can.

Some of these works were written specifically for this book, others written long ago, just seem to fit the mold. They will hit home with writers of all levels, published or non-published, amateur or professional. Even if you journal, I think you will easily relate to these wonderful works.They will have you smiling and sighing, and at times even thinking, "why didn't I write that?!"

Waldman has filled this book with some excellent selections.The book is divided into four parts. "Living the Writing Life","Memories and Inspirations from the Past","Advice to Writers Young and Old", and "Bending the Muse and Breaking the Rules",have over 60 works to savor, with some fitting parting words from Faulkner and Steinbeck, both taken from their Nobel Prize Acceptance speeches.

It's a fabulous book for anyone who loves to write. Turn to it for inspiration, motivation, validation, and maybe a good laugh along the way. An absolute celebration of the writing life.

Enjoy the read....Laurie

"Writers love language. They play with words, rolling them around on the page, arranging and rearranging them until they come alive. The meanings are stretched and changed, and if the writer is successful, he or she will lure the reader into that mysterious world where fiction and reality blur."
These words were penned by Mark Waldman, who edited this amazing collection of literary gems. Written by award-winning writers and poets, and several as-yet-unknown new talents, these authors open their hearts to the reader, sharing the most intimate adventures of their lives, moments that are frequently filled with vulnerability, pain, and ecstasy. The Spirit of Writing exemplifies the writer's life in a way that inspires us to write and read, and then to write some more. In many of the stories, you will witness how a writer's life unfolds. You'll roam through childhood memories, nostalgic and sometimes trajic, discovering what inspired them to write. These authors write lyrically, playing with subtle nuances of tone. And for those who want to write better, there are mountains of literary advice.
Humor also abounds in this delightful collection of essays. From Mark Twain's hilariously brutal attack upon poets to the wild and sexy muse of Henry Miller, I laughed my way through the pitfalls and pratfalls that plague a writer's life (in Hamilton's essay, she literally gives birth to a six pound book). Even the classic essays by mixed pathos with humor, as in Joseph Conrad's monologue with his pen that drives him mad. And imagine what the poet Peter Joris must suffer through when the letters and words keep falling off his page (Joris' story is one of a half-dozen experimental pieces that demonstrate the cutting edge of creative writing today).
One story, "Clawing at Stones," touched me deeply. It was written by Sindiwe Magona, a well-known black author who calls herself "a migrant worker," a South African woman who lives in the Bronx and works for the United Nations. "I am convinced," she writes, "that it is only by probing both the joys and woundings of time that we might be blessed and empowered to affect the future." She talks about the dangers that women of color face, especially if they write about the atrocities they see. Through such memoirs, we begin to understand the darker forces that guides a writer's pen. Several other stories in this anthology, like Lia Scott Price's "Without Wings," also illuminate the suffering that have driven many women to write.
Perhaps we are all "clawing at stones" and "fighting without wings," living with our stories inside. And with the memoirs that this unique anthology holds, perhaps it will inspire more people to write. About the truth, the pain, and joy that fills our lives.

as another reviewer pointed out on this book: Stamp!: Tips, Techniques, and Projects for Stamp Lovers(2004)-this book Stamp Art-was entirely reprinted in that book. While this is a great book for stamp artists, I did want to forewarn anyone, like me, who owns many craft books that this book has been reprinted so double check before you order it that you don't already own it.

Other than that-Sharilyn Miller puts out a great rubber stamping book-full of easy to follow instructions and full color photos. Recommended.

This book was a wealth of information on everything we stampers want to know and learn about. There are tons of projects and techniques to keep you busy for a very long time. And in the back there is a helpful section of terms and resources. If you have a limited amount of dollars to spend on books about stamping then I would suggest that this book should be a "must have" for your stamping library. It was worth every penny I paid for it.

The current trend (2005) in rubber stamping seems to be collage with an emphasis on the scrapbooking or altered books. This book gives you inspiration to take any of your paper obsessions a step farther.
The beautiful color photos, coupled with clear instructions help you imitate the design given or use that as a starting point for your own creation.

This book is a must have is you are involved in the paper arts.

I've been playing around with rubber stamps and card making for awhile and have a few great books in my collection - this is definitely one of them! I've never been to a rubber stamping class or anything, just have been learning techniques from books and this one definitely has great instructions. The steps are clear, materials required are listed out, and there are lots of pictures. The samples are beautiful which make it that much more fun. The different techniques range from faux finishes to marbled surfaces to masking/layering/stenciling to reverse stamping to deep thermal embossing etc etc. There are also some neat projects like making little books. I've tried most of the techniques - all have been easy to do with the help of the steps and explainations. What a great craft this is!!

This is a wonderful book for stampers of all levels. It starts out by describing the basic materials & techniques used in stamping. Then it both demonstrates & explains step-by-step each of 15 techniques by various artists.

Some of my favorite projects include faux postage stamps, stamped booklets, miniature books, stamp carving & reverse stamping. An easy, less messy approach to marbling surfaces was indispensable to me.

The 3 galleries focusing on artistic stamping, altered surfaces, & mixed media effects are of great inspiration. Another gallery section shows a wide variety of techniques made with just one stamp, such as cranes or grapevines.

The glossary, extensive resource list & directory of artists are great bonuses. If you're looking for fresh stamping ideas focusing on non-cute, artistic stamping this is the book for you.

Yup . . . there's a good reason for why this book has a perfect rating thus far (at the time I write this). It's just a very very good book. Well written, insightful, colourful, compelling. The parallels it draws between the Star Wars universe and mythology are wonderful.

I saw the exhibit in Washington, DC TWICE! It was so cool to see all the real space ships near this vision of another galaxy far, far away. The book is the perfect narrative to the exhibit and it is the ANSWER to not being able to get there if you live in another part of the world.

The images, text, and layout of this book take you on a journey like none before. A MUST HAVE BOOK to complete your collection of great STAR WARS merchandise.

I don't wish to repeat the words of others, but want to agree that it is an incredible book; that is not only fun to read as a Star Wars fan, but it is very informative and thought provoking. I truly learned a lot about mythology and its application in our world. Read it, and you will appreciate the genius of George Lucas.

If you love star wars, and would love to see it analyzed seriously, but without being to heavy and dry, this is perfect for you. It discusses the correlations between myth and Star Wars, influences from around the world, etc. Its facinating, and beautifully laid out.

This book attempts to explain Star Wars in the context of patterns found throughout the mythology and legends of various cultures. The success of the film, the book claims, is due in no small part to the fact that the film's story is a composite of all the things that make mythical stories endure as myths.

To my suprise, however, I found the book to be an excellent commentary on mythology itself - the book is almost as informative in pointing out elements that repeat themselves in mythical stories - the concept of the "hero's journey" - with Luke being our hero - mystical forests as a place of healing (Degobah), etc, as it is in relating these elements to the story of Star Wars.

This book was written to accompany an exhibit of the same name at the National Air & Space Museum in Washington DC, and I was fortunate enough to see the exhibit on tour in San Diego last year. While the exhibit itself was amazing, and filled with various props and spaceship models used in the film, this book is actually more informative than the exhibit and stands exceedingly well on its own.

I love the Star Wars films, though I am certainly no hard-core Star Wars buff. I feel that just about anyone who, like me, loves these films will get a lot of enjoyment from this book.

The book contains some details about mcQueen's life that only the writer knew , that give a hint about how mcQueen viewed life, danger, and speed.
but the photos are mainly advertising ones and not real life.
i would expect more on the life of mcqueen as a person and not only as an actor

A wonderful work of art that captures what made Steve so charismatic and appealing. It leaves you wishing you could see more from other periods in his life. This is a book I will treasure all my life. Thank you Amazon, I would have paid ten times as much for this book. God Rest His Soul.

According to his foreward to this book, the photographer William Claxton met Steve McQueen in 1962 when McQueen was starring with Natalie Woods in LOVE WITH THE PROPER STRANGER. The two men formed a friendship and apparently Mr. Claxton became Mr. McQueen's favorite and most requested photographer. This book of wonderful photographs, covering a couple of years in Mr. McQueen's life from 1962 to 1964, is a result of that brief friendship. Most of the pictures appear to be shot in available light and have a wonderful, informal spontaneity about them impossible to capture in formal portraiture. Both the photographer and subject are comnpletely without pretention.

Mr. Claxton caught Mr. McQueen smiling, clowning and pensive. There are photographs of McQueen in fast cars as well as on motorcycles. Many of the shots were done while Mr. McQueen was working on movies. There are also many pictures of him with family and friends. Most of the shots are in black and white with a few in color. Every time I look at them I find yet another photograph that I think is the best in the book. There is a haunting shot of McQueen with his young daughter where the child, sitting on the floor and resting on her arms, looks into Claxton's camera. We only see her father's legs and feet. (p. 79) Another great shot appears on page 73. McQueen is embracing the family cat. Finally, there's a shot of McQueen lying on a blanket in a large field. His profile is beautifully backlit. Both photographs selected for the front and back covers are fine, informal portraits as well.

This book made me remember how much I enjoyed Steve McQueen's movies and made me sad that he is no longer among us.

A great book, considering it is of a short period in Steve McQueen's life. This is him in his prime captured by a great photographer.

Very comprehensive. Show's a different side of the rough and tumble character known as Steve McQueen. Very entertaining.

I have just received this book but have noticed that Pericles, Prince of Tyre has been left out - I wonder why? Haven't read the book yet; when I do, I'll add my opinion on it here.

This book does an excellent job of describing the plots, settings, and characters of the stories of all Shakespeare's plays. The author also provides good background detail of the time, relevant facts from Shakespeare's life, and some not-excessively-detailed analysis where appropriate. My one small complaint with the book is that the author is so deeply in love with the works and the very idea of Shakespeare that she rarely lets an opportunity pass to tell us how wonderful he is. (The level of fawning and gushing is sometimes reminiscent of listening to a fourteen year old girl talk about Justin Timberlake.) But apart from this minor complaint, I heartily recommend the book -- it's quite readable and the overall scholarship is outstanding.

I used this book successfully to help negotiate top grades in an Ivy League Shakespeare class more than 30 years ago, and I still use a copy to reorient myself and my family to Shakespeare's works. An invaluable guide to the essence of each play, including all significant aesthetic themes. Indispensable as a quick read before seeing a Shakespeare play that hasn't been read or seen for some time. I've come across no other book that is so helpful yet concise.

Margaret Chute's Stories of Shakespeare uses an novel technique. She writes treatments for 36 of the plays (those in the First Folio), a present tense chronology of the plot in simple, eloquent language. This book is useful for actors, students or the casual fan. The book also appreciates the beauty of Shakespeare's language by offering selected excerpts. Further, it recognises the humor, the history and the tragedy of the story and gives concise summaries so the reader can always follow the action. This is an excellent book.

Chute's book provides a basic summary for each of Shakespeare's plays. Her writing is as lyrical as it is complete for such a book, which makes it a handy, enjoyable reference. Her main goal is to make the stories digestible, and to that end, the essence of Shakespeare's plays emerges brilliantly, freeing the average reader of dusty Elizabethan language. Unlike other books that give choppy scene-by-scene summaries (though helpful in their own way) or brief plot highlights, Chute's summaries seamlessly tie the play's entire action, principle and otherwise.

The plays are grouped by comedies, tragedies, and histories, with comedies and tragedies in the likely order they were written and the histories arranged chronologically by reign. She includes an illuminating introduction that sheds light on Shakespeare's genius and innovation as well as how best to approach his work. An index of characters is also included. One of the many things I appreciated about this book is Chute's resistance to overemphasizing popular texts. With the exception of "Titus Andronicus," she devotes a fair amount of text to each play, though some do receive added attention.

Those looking for a more detailed or critical reading of Shakespeare's work would not benefit from Chute's book. There are numerous (non-academic) guides for those desiring more than a casual read and study of the Bard. ("Shakespeare for Dummies," "The Pocket Companion to Shakespeare," and "The Age of Shakespeare" are all books I've consulted for more background and a better understanding of the author and era.) In her introduction, however, she points out that the purpose of her book "is to give the reader a preliminary idea of each of the thirty-six plays by telling the stories and explaining in a general way the intentions and points of view of the characters." On occasion she gives critical analyses of characters and plays but in an informative and unobtrusive manner. This book is not Cliff's Notes or a substitute for the actual play, but it does make Shakespeare understandable.

This book helped me to fine tune writing. Being a Department of State employee and considering myself an already excellent writer, I was able to reassess my composition and cut out the unnecessary verbage and get down to the facts in concise sentences.

Shorter than many of Williams' other similar works, Style is a great little book that any writer should read many times. His points on concision and clarity are must read for anybody who wants to improve their writing.

The longer version of Joseph Williams "Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace" has been justly praised for many years. But as a director of writing programs at NYU, Princeton, and Yale, I never felt right adopting that text: it was too expensive, and more than the average student needed. This "Basics" Style is the perfect solution. All the brilliance of the longer book at 1/3 the price, "Style" perfectly balances explanations of style rules with practical examples. The rules that Strunk and White encourage are good ones, and American prose would be leaner if their precepts were universal. The problem with that book is that the advice is not explained systematically. You can use their suggestions when you face similar cases, but only Williams' text breaks down topics like elegance, coherence, and cohesion in ways that will let you carry the ideas into every text you write. I would not recommend this book for the casual 10th grader; although it's clearly written, its ideas are somewhat advanced. But for professionals, college writers, and any teenager who takes writing seriously, "Style" is an indispensable tool, a book you'll use for the rest of your life. For learning to write good college papers, I also highly recommend his "Craft of Research."

I found an used copy of " The Basics of Clarity and Grace" at bookstore. After reading 3/4 of the book I ordered two more copies. One copy for my son who is a journalist major and the other for my eldest son who writes good comedy. I liked its size and its no nonesense approach.

I am a non native speaker, and even though my grammar is not too bad, my writing style has always been a source of frustration. At work, when comparing the texts I would write with the one of good native writers, I could see that theirs were better, but could not find why.
I bought this book based on the high reviews it got on amazon, and I was not disappointed. After reading a few pages, I scanned the research proposal I was writing at the time, and could already make significant improvements on it. The advices that the author give are sometimes quite simple, especially at the beginning of the book (for example : the main character should be the subjects of the verbs, which themselves should correspond to the main action). But surprisingly, I realized that I was rarely applying these simple rules of clarity. The author is never dogmatic, and insists that the only thing that matters is that the reader easily understands what we're writing. All throughout the book, numerous examples illustrate the concepts just introduced so that it is quite easy to test whether one has really got the point.

The occasional case of the mad artist -- gaunt, ragged and living solely in his own creative mind -- has dominated our view of how art is created. In fact, patronage was and is the medium in which most art is created. This beautifully printed book casts a clean scholarly light into this remarkable relationship of artist and patron. While doing so the authors also examine how the demands and desires of daily living and the strains and strengths of personal relationships -- spouses, lovers, friends -- play upon the same chords that the patron touches, for good or ill. All are amply documented by the authors and as with all biography the telling anecdote best reveals the character of the subject. The fact that for decades a fertile art community existed a thousand miles or more from patrons and markets raises the question of whether indeed something special for the art world was going on in Taos. Easily dismissed by many as regional artists in the past, the Taos artists are put in a context by the authors' examination of the skein of relationships stretching to Taos. I would think that the world of art scholarship on that basis alone needs to respond to this well-focused work by examining other colonies, schools and concentrations of artists in the history of our country, for the purpose of finding how those stories of patronage compare. On its face alone the art reproduced in this fascinating book makes the case for the importance of the Taos artists as American artists. But the patronage story raises this question: Why did big city people, living and creating the big story of its time -- industrial, urbanizing America -- choose to support the painters in the desert? It seems to be a paradox. Or is it? We await the next study in depth of artists and their patrons. "Taos Artists and Their Patrons" has set the height of the bar. I hope the authors of this book stay in the game for the next book.

While the literature on American art history has grown enormously during the last several decades, that devoted to patronage remains very scarce, usually directed toward single supporters such as Luman Reed and Mrs. Jack Gardner. Taos Artists and Their Patrons is probably the finest study to appear devoted to a single school of painting, that which arose in Taos in New Mexico at the end of the nineteenth century. The authors have thoroughly investigated all aspects of patronage--exhibitions, individual advocates, institutional support, and many other forms. At the same time, they have presented what must be the finest study of the work of the artists active in Taos, embellished by a wealth of marvellous images, beautifully reporduced. The book enjoys three major accomplishments: it is a definitive study of the nature of American art patronage; it is a thorough review of one of the most important regional schools of art in this country; and it's a fabulous read!

Excellent book showing a great deal of beautiful art from the Taos artists at the beginning of the century. The book does and excellent job of telling the history behind each painting. The book is also very inspirational to artists. I suggest this book to anyone interested in art, anyone who is an artist, or people interested in art history.

In the tradition of excellence demonstrated in his book "Victor Higgins, An American Master", Dean Porter, along with Teresa Ebie and Susan Campbell, has produced another visually and intellectually pleasing work.

Both artists and collectors will learn much by reading this book, for it proves that it is more than technical skill and artistic sensibility that contribute to an artist's financial and critical success.

Those who have instinctively turned to Europe and the Eastern American Artists when wanting to view fine works of art will be enlightened and surprised to learn that some of the finest works of art in this century have been produced not in Europe, but in the USA and in the Southwest in particular.

This is a beautiful and informative book for anyone interested in art, whether they be collectors or art historians or simply those who like to view magnificent works.

Dean Porter and his gifted associates have skillfully authored not only the best book ever written about the "Taos School of Art", but the most interesting and educational. Why is their book different? They departed from the standard biographical information generally available everywhere and continually repeated by other authors in every new book and took the time to bring into focus the collectors and art buyers who made it possible for the artists to make a living at their chosen profession. The many stories, glimpes, and setches of both the artists and collectors make this book most interesting and readable. There are also many new paintings never before shown in other books about this group of artist. There is also a art exhibit that compliments the book. This is a must read and must see for those who love and collect the "Taos School of Art". Like a fine red wine, you wish in your heart you could drink on forever.

McGinnis is a master of his craft, I mainly purchased this book not because I want to paint like him, but when I saw a piece he did for Enter the Dragon I had to commend his visual flair pertaining to movie posters.....the man is a master, and frankly, his Bond women are goddesses. This book conatins some great works of his, add it to your collection like I did.

I can't recommend this book strongly enough. Way back during an age when book illustrators were respected celebrities, Robert McGinnis would have been the toast of the town.

This book is a consumate showcase of an extremely talented artist. Every aspect of his career is covered and it lets the reader see that McGinnis had made a mark in not one, not two, but three different genres.

One: Paperback book art, in which he introduces an atomic age America to his very distinctive brand of woman: amazon tall, lean as a steel pipe and as majestic as a swan.

Two: The genre of movie poster art where he helps elevate James Bond from paperback book secret agent to one of the country's most recognizable pop icons.

And three: A return to his statuesque beauties in arguably the classiest collection of pin-up art the oil canvas has ever known.

As with many great American illustrators, Robert McGinnis settled into his later years by painting brilliant scenes of the wild and tamed West and those works are also given their own section in TAPESTRY.

A must-have for illustrators and art patrons if there ever was one.

This book has filled all my expectations. Before I bought it, I was looking a few paintings of McGinnis, but I was always sure about that this is a great publication. Excellent!

I'm in agreement with everyone else, that 1.) Robert Mcginnis is the best paperback book illustrator ever (perhaps rivaled only by Frank Frazetta); and 2.) This is the best collection of Mcginnis art available in book form. There's only one flaw in the whole thing: it never says what medium the artist uses (I found out it's egg tempera). If you love to gaze at beautiful paintings of every genre subject, or if you are yourself a painter or commercial artist, this belongs on your bookshelf. I've had it for years, and never tire of looking at it. A classic.

I had never even heard of Robert McGinnis until I was linked to this page by the editors' names (the Fenners) who I know from their affiliation with science fiction art. The reviews were so favorable that I decided to gamble on this book without any other familiarity with McGinnis. I usually lose on these impulsive gambles. Not this time. Suffice it to say this book is a total prize, it's just filled cover to cover with extreme beauty.

I am particularly impressed with this man's diversity of talent...he does great "pin up" type art of beautiful women, and then he does these embracing outdoor scenes which are almost within the genre of "Marlboro" commercials and then there are other pieces which are evocative of Norman Rockwell and Maxfield Parrish. Each painting is fantastic and to me represents a dinstinct aspect of the best phenomena in Earthly life. However, there is even a little sci-fi art in here, so not all his fantastic visions are necessarily Earth-bound!

I love unexpected treasure!