A sense of place: the artist and the American land (The Earth's wild places)

Originally published in 1972 by Friends of the Earth, A Sense of Place is a remarkable look at the American continent over the past four centuries. Award-winning artist Alan Gussow presents a powerful collection of paintings that range from the earliest depiction of America by a European (John White's Indians Fishing, c.1585), to contemporary masterpieces such as Reuben Tam's White Sea.For each picture-including works by Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, George Innes, Georgia O'Keeffe, Anne Poor, Albert Bierstadt, Wolf Kahn, and many others-the author provides a selection of the artist's own words that describe the painting and the scene that inspired it, along with a brief introduction to the artist and his or her work. An introduction by National Book Award and Pulitzer prize winning poet Richard Wilbur explores the complex relationship between artist and land, while a new preface by Gussow discusses the history and enduring importance of the book.Island Press/Shearwater Books is proud to bring forth a new edition of this stunning, long out-of-print volume.PRAISE FOR THE FIRST EDITION: "[A Sense of Place] is astonishingly successful; no careful reader should see art-or nature-in the same way again."-Time "[These] paintings, done in joy by [artists] swamped in the colors and forests of an Earth old, yet alive, convey a statement in spite of themselves on behalf of the land, the spectrum of light in the air and the full panoply of Creation." -Edward Hoagland, Life "Even the most ardent conservationist cannot match the eloquence of these paintings."-Anatole Broyard, The New York Times