Reviews
"It is wonderful reading. The editor's comments are interesting, but they also provide a counterpoint to Burchfield's writing, giving the whole a wonderful texture. "It's interesting in many ways: the beautiful images of nature and Burchfield's observations, the historical observations (sugar mapling in a barn, for example), the art world gossip, the insights into Burchfield's personality and painting, and the sense of the period. "One of the most interesting and significant things is the placing of Burchfield in the context and tradition of English romantic poetry. The discussions are very stimulating. It is certainly central to American Studies, and important to art history." -- Marlene Park, City University of New York "Burchfield was one of our country's important artists, and his writings will come as a surprise to most people. Here is a vast body of perceptive thought which will delight Americanists, artists, lepidopterists, historians, bird watchers, musicologists, and all readers who are interested in what it was like growing up before World War I and growing old after World War II. In his musing about other artists, serving on art juries, working for a living, observing nature, falling out of love with once favored composers, and coping with old age, Burchfield doesn't pull any punches. "The real surprise is the poetry of Burchfield's writing style. For example: (on describing the opening of flowers), they 'seemed as tho they were worshipping the bright sunshine'; (on the cry of the bluebird) 'The cry is a remote one and seems born out of the wind'; (on flowering weeds) they are the 'Huck Finns of humanity'; (on the war situation of 1941) 'we all feel the ghastliness of the present situation, but not all artists can express it'; and in 1958, 'Better to look into the face of the first hepatica than land on Mars!' " -- Kenneth C. Lindsay, Professor Emeritus of Art History, State University of New York at Binghamton "It is a pleasure to read Burchfield, to get inside the mind of this very private artist." -- Greta Berman, The Juilliard School
