Books: Cape Cod's Bohemia, Walter Murch, "Before Whiteness"

Books

June 6, 2022 • View in browser

The Golden Era of Cape Cod’s Bohemia

John Taylor Williams’s The Shores of Bohemia traces the formation of postwar American culture with an intimate account of the legendary summer gatherings of artists, writers, and activists at Cape Cod. | Marcella Durand

With a title like The Shores of Bohemia: A Cape Cod Story, 1910-1960, a reader might expect that the author, John Taylor Williams, would specifically focus on Cape Cod and the many “bohemians” who lived and socialized there — as Williams writes, “those dedicated to radical political reform, a new exploration of personal relationships free from Victorian strictures, and the search for a new ‘American’ voice in writing, painting, architecture, and theater.”

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A Pathway Through Modern & Contemporary Armenian Art Dives Into an Often Overlooked History

This illustrated guide offers readers a broad and accessible introduction to the evolution of Armenian modern and contemporary art. Learn more.

Walter Murch Sought to “Paint the Air” Between His Eye and His Subject

Murch’s painted dust can be so tangible you feel compelled to wipe off the picture. | Carl Little

In his enthusiastic foreword, George Lucas claims, “I’m not an art critic, and I sure don’t want to sound like one.” Still, the Star Wars creator makes some worthy observations. “In an age where people are obsessed with sleek products,“ he writes, “it’s important to point out that Murch was not trying to capture the design of the object. He wanted to capture the character of the object.” In Walter Tandy Murch: Paintings and Drawings, 1925-1967, character is king.

A Time Before Whiteness

D. S. Marriott’s poems are a descent through the history of slavery, immigration, and the movement of refugees. | Mark Scroggins

The poems of Before Whiteness present a host of questions about contemporary race and class relations, personal and historical memory, in a complex and oblique idiom, aware always that poetic language itself is (in T. S. Eliot’s words from East Coker) “a raid on the inarticulate, / With shabby equipment always deteriorating.” There are no easy answers, no simple solutions.

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