The work of a historian who understands how environments and events—on a personal or a national scale—shape and change us, this poetry compilation explores the moral and psychological consequences of actions against the vast canvas of history. An outstanding critic of modern poetry, Ward responds to it with attentive originality, incorporating verse into his prose with unexpected intensity. Drawing inspiration from his time at the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian, Ward offers a portrait of the United States that will appeal to those interested in contemporary poetry and American history.
David C. Ward is an historian at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution and co-curator (with Jonathan D. Katz) of the exhibition Hide/Seek. Difference and Desire in American Portraiture which was at the NPG last fall and winter. In addition to Hide/Seek, Ward has curated special exhibitions at the Portrait Gallery on Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln, among others. With graduate degrees from Warwick University (England) and Yale, he is the author of Charles Willson Peale. Art and Selfhood in the Early Republic (2004) and has co-edited four volumes of the papers of Charles Willson Peale and his family. In addition to his work at the Smithsonian, Ward is a poet and literary critic, whose first book of poems, called Internal Difference was published this month by Carcanet Press (Manchester, England). Ward's next exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery will be one called Voice and Form: Portraits of American Poets and one on Grant and Lee.
