LEAVING TOWN ALIVE [Hardcover]

John Frohnmayer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 26, 1993

The former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts reveals how the controversy over the infamous Mapplethorpe exhibition eventually led to his downfall and how the experience transformed him into a free-speech radical. National ad/promo. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Appointed chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts in 1989 amid the uproar over Robert Mapplethorpe's photography, Frohnmayer entered the fray as a First Amendment moderate. By the time he was fired in February 1992, he had become a free-speech radical. In this cogent, detailed account of his stormy tenure, he eloquently defends the principle of artistic freedom as vital to democracy and warns against "cultural terrorists" who seek to emasculate the NEA with content restrictions. Criticizing ex-President Bush for lack of support for the arts, he faults moderates for ceding the moral high ground to the far right. Frohnmayer observes that art dealing with gender, religion or sexual frankness has sparked controversy through the ages. To reinforce his support for artistic diversity, he quotes an intolerant, narrow artist, Adolf Hitler, who in 1935 said, "Art must be the handmaiden of sublimity and beauty, and thus promote whatever is natural and healthy. If art does not do this, then any money spent on it is squandered." Photos. Author tour.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

With candor and wit, Frohmayer recalls the events of his stormy two and a half years as the fifth chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA). A former head of the Oregon Arts Commission, seasoned trial lawyer and accomplished singer Frohnmayer sought the chairmanship because he believed in the arts in America. Here he reveals his own errors in judgment, painting a disturbing picture of the politics of art during the Bush administration. Forced into the impossible position of dodging criticisms "from the right for his permissiveness and from the left for seeming to espouse conservative prohibitions," he saw his attempts at the NEA finally fail. Reminding us that "contemporary art deals with contemporary issues, and therein lies the rub," he has become a free-speech radical at the hands of these modern cultural terrorists. Recommended for academic libraries and large public libraries with an interest in art, cultural politics, and issues of censorship. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/92.
- Vicki Gadberry, Mars Hill Coll. Lib., N.C.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 360 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin; 1st edition (April 26, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395655714
• ISBN-13: 978-0395655719
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,638,591 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars still relevant, August 8, 2000

By 

Cameron Craig (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: LEAVING TOWN ALIVE (Hardcover)

Almost ten years after John Frohnmayer was canned as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, this book means as much or more than it ever did. This is not so much an autobiography than it is a manifesto of how rabid we should be about protecting out first amendment rights. It shows the politicization of art, and of free speach, and of how more and more we are having those rights eroded away in the name of our own safety. Frohnmayer details the struggles that he went through to try to keep the NEA alive when it could very well have fallen apart... he details the mistakes he made, and the fight that he fought. It was refreshing to hear the accounts of someone who believes something strongly, and yet admits candidly when he made mistakes, and how we can learn from them. He describes how he went into that job as a first amendment moderate, and came out a first amendment radical. And after reading it (beginning as a first amendment radical), I came out a first amendment extremist. This is a must read for anyone who cares a tiny bit for his or her rights in this country.