A TREASURY OF AMERICAN PRINTS [Hardcover]

Thomas (editor) Craven (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1939

Treasury of American Prints, A by Craven, Thomas, ed.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1st edition (1939)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000OFZJG6
• Product Dimensions: 12.6 x 9.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,286,293 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book, November 19, 2008

By 

Theseus "theseus" (US of A) - See all my reviews

I pick it up, I start leafing through it, and I can't put it down. I want to own all of these images in the originals. I like this book.

In 1939 Craven edited this astonishing accumulation of American prints and lithographs.

This was a middle-brow affair: quality reproductions of 100 prints from premier American artists on attractive, linen-like, buff paper in a spiral binding in slipcase. The book explains that the binding was designed to allow purchasers to easily detach prints and frame them.

(So, heads up, collectors -- many copies have missing prints. One of the oddities of the 1st edition is that, while the plates themselves total 100, the List of Plates index appears to stop at 99; the last plate is out of alphabetical order -- Good's "Valse Brillante.")

There's not an abstract print to be found here. Outside of that, it is difficult to generalize about this rich collection of images. They are excecuted in many styles. They contain a balance between portrait, landscape, but mostly depict Americans in utterly American environments: on the road, in their homes, in cities, in the land. This was produced at the end of the Great Depression, after all, and there is an heroic yet unfiltered eye directed to the American spirit in much of this work.

Here's how Craven puts it in his introduction. He maintains that now American art has become, well, American art -- "a decisive victory over provincial ignorance, anemic imitation, cheap internationalism, and the postwar hang-over of esthetic snobbery [1920's decadence?]."

The following artists have at least one plate in this book: Peggy Bacon, Thomas Benton, Aaron Bohrod, Alexander Brook, Andrew Butler, Howard Cook, John Curry, Adolf Dehn, Wanda Gag, George Grosz, Edward Hopper, Kuniyoshi, Reginald Marsh, Boardman Robinson, John Sloan, Harry Wickey, Grant Wood, and Mahonri Young.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book, November 18, 2008

By 

Theseus "theseus" (US of A) - See all my reviews

I pick it up, I start leafing through it, and I can't put it down. I want to own all of these images in the originals. I like this book.

In 1939 Craven edited this astonishing accumulation of American prints and lithographs.

This was a middle-brow affair: quality reproductions of 100 prints from premier American artists on attractive, linen-like, buff paper in a spiral binding in slipcase. The book explains that the binding was designed to allow purchasers to easily detach prints and frame them.

(So, heads up, collectors -- many copies have missing prints. One of the oddities of the 1st edition is that, while the plates themselves total 100, the List of Plates index appears to stop at 99; the last plate is out of alphabetical order -- Good's "Valse Brillante.")

There's not an abstract print to be found here. Outside of that, it is difficult to generalize about this rich collection of images. They are excecuted in many styles. They contain a balance between portrait, landscape, but mostly depict Americans in utterly American environments: on the road, in their homes, in cities, in the land. This was produced at the end of the Great Depression, after all, and there is an heroic yet unfiltered eye directed to the American spirit in much of this work.

Here's how Craven puts it in his introduction. He maintains that now American art has become, well, American art -- "a decisive victory over provincial ignorance, anemic imitation, cheap internationalism, and the postwar hang-over of esthetic snobbery [1920's decadence?]."

The following artists have at least one plate in this book: Peggy Bacon, Thomas Benton, Aaron Bohrod, Alexander Brook, Andrew Butler, Howard Cook, John Curry, Adolf Dehn, Wanda Gag, George Grosz, Edward Hopper, Kuniyoshi, Reginald Marsh, Boardman Robinson, John Sloan, Harry Wickey, Grant Wood, and Mahonri Young.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book, November 18, 2008

By 

Theseus "theseus" (US of A) - See all my reviews

I pick it up, I start leafing through it, and I can't put it down. I want to own all of these images in the originals. I like this book.

In 1939 Craven edited this astonishing accumulation of American prints and lithographs.

This was a middle-brow affair: quality reproductions of 100 prints from premier American artists on attractive, linen-like, buff paper in a spiral binding in slipcase. The book explains that the binding was designed to allow purchasers to easily detach prints and frame them.

(So, heads up, collectors -- many copies have missing prints. One of the oddities of the 1st edition is that, while the plates themselves total 100, the List of Plates index appears to stop at 99; the last plate is out of alphabetical order -- Good's "Valse Brillante.")

There's not an abstract print to be found here. Outside of that, it is difficult to generalize about this rich collection of images. They are excecuted in many styles. They contain a balance between portrait, landscape, but mostly depict Americans in utterly American environments: on the road, in their homes, in cities, in the land. This was produced at the end of the Great Depression, after all, and there is an heroic yet unfiltered eye directed to the American spirit in much of this work.

Here's how Craven puts it in his introduction. He maintains that now American art has become, well, American art -- "a decisive victory over provincial ignorance, anemic imitation, cheap internationalism, and the postwar hang-over of esthetic snobbery [1920's decadence?]."

The following artists have at least one plate in this book: Peggy Bacon, Thomas Benton, Aaron Bohrod, Alexander Brook, Andrew Butler, Howard Cook, John Curry, Adolf Dehn, Wanda Gag, George Grosz, Edward Hopper, Kuniyoshi, Reginald Marsh, Boardman Robinson, John Sloan, Harry Wickey, Grant Wood, and Mahonri Young.