James Thomas Flexner

"Hayyim Nahman Bialik (1873-1934) is celebrated as one of the leading figures in modern Jewish literature. Although most famous for his Hebrew poems, Bialik was also a master of Hebrew prose. Often expressing a realism and social awareness associated with the Russia of his youth, Bialik's stories showcase his extraordinary gift for lyricism, his deft use of symbolism, and his sense of humor, captured in engaging vignettes of life in the Ukrainian countryside." "David Patterson and Ezra Spicehandler have combined their formidable literary talents to produce a new translation of six of Bialik's novellas." "The novellas in this collection are each accompanied by a brief introduction. In addition, the book contains a complete glossary, making Random Harvest the most accessible collection of Bialik's stories available."--BOOK JACKET.

For more than sixty years, James Thomas Flexner, one of America's most distinguished men of letters, has written with distinction about American history and American art. Praised by reviewers and scholars alike, his works have garnered the most prestigious awards, including the National Book Award, a Special Pulitzer Prize, and the esteemed Gold Medal for Eminence in Biography from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Despite this wide acceptance of his work, Flexner entitles the story of his life Maverick's Progress; one need only read through these pages to understand why. A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard, Flexner worked as a reporter for the New York Herald Tribune before taking up his career as a biographer. His first book, Doctors on Horseback, published in 1937, was an immediate success. In 1939, Flexner's America's Old Masters was hailed by a distinguished biographer as "the best book of its kind." In 1947, Flexner began what would become a three-volume study of America's artists, History of American Painting. Of the first volume, First Flowers of Our Wilderness, Allan Nevins wrote: "This book is indispensable to any student of our civilization." From art Flexner shifted his focus to the infamous American traitor Benedict Arnold, and from there to our illustrious Founding Father George Washington. Flexner explains his transition in subjects: "I had hardly realized, and in any case did not care, that according to established scholarly conceptions what I intended was heresy, presumption, and insanity. Heresy because a scholar was required to occupy a single field of study, hardly looking over the surrounding fences. Presumption because scholars should not invade each other's fields. Insanity because I lacked the formal training in any directions I intended to explore. But all of the fields would be integral parts of the same American landscape, and I was concerned with human nature displaying itself as it interwove with high achievement." Maverick's Progress offers a candid and penetrating look into the life and methods of a writer who has indeed been a maverick among biographers and historians - an individual who himself has been to the canon of American history an indispensable man.

This is Flexner's portrait of Gilbert Stuart, painter of George Washington and other founding fathers, who once shied away from a self-portrait he had begun to please his bride. Flexner presents us with a portrait such as the artist himself would have constructed it: frank, without flattery, profound, and soul-stirring. Born in poverty in Rhode Island, Stuart became through his art the intimate of the great of two continents. Yet he never abandoned his disdain for worldly rank, or his fascination with character. He made huge sums in England, but spent even more in dissipation. Prison yawned for him, and he fled his creditors. During the thirty-five American years he painted with brilliance, creating a unique portrait manner. His rank as an artist was never questioned, but his nerves would not quiet. He drank, fought with his wife, and tormented his children. He died as he had lived: famous and bankrupt.

In this work, the author, a biographer provides a portrait of the father of our nation, dashing forever the stereotype of a stolid, unemotional man, and revealing an astute and surprising portrait of a canny political genius who knew how to inspire people.

A biography of the eighteenth-century painter who was America's first major artist.

Recounts Washington's life served as commander of an amateur army during the American Revolution.

Profusely illustrated account of the life and career of 19th century American artist Winslow Homer, with background information on other artists of that time.

Covers American painting from 1825 to 1910.

In this entertaining and lucid book, James Thomas Flexner, the distinguished historian-writer, gives us the intriguing story in its entirety: as one critic said: "The story of the steamboats never needs be done again."