3 comments about Chester W. Nimitz: Admiral of the Hills.

1. Chester Nimitz, remembered most for his victories at Midway and the Central Pacific, is portrayed in a commendable fashion in this well-written and well-researched book. Beginning from his birth, the book discusses the development of the Admiral and the formation of his ideologies and ideals as he rose through the ranks to the top of the naval hierarchy, all of which is indispensable for the student who truly wishes to understand the command of the United States in the WWII Pacific Theatre. The portrayal of the admiral in both a personal and professional military light is superb, and one cannot help but be captivated by the truths presented in this book about the commander who has long been overshadowed by MacArthur despite the fact that Nimitz himself may deserve more credit for the American victory than his flambuoyant counterpart in the army. The relationship described in the book between these two is especially admirable, and Driskill does quite a job demonstrating how the Pacific Campaign was actually commanded.

   I would highly recommend this book for anyone interested in WWII reading or modern naval history as this book doesn't present Nimitz as a ficticious hero of the seas like Nelson or Jones, but rather as a modern hero in the modernizing navy who held in his disciplined character the key to allied victory in the Pacific.




2. Driskill pays tribute to E.B. Potter's official biography of Admiral Nimitz in the credits section of his book. Unfortunately his shorter biography adds little of substance to Potter's. Potter shows his admiration for Nimitz by showing many small incidents of the man's humanity, tactical intelligence, and quiet perseverance that let the reader conclude on his own that Nimitz was a great man. Driskill tries to achieve the same goal in less space by glossing over details and just _telling_ readers that Nimitz was a great man. At several points he resorts to one of my pet peeves, narrative sentences ending in exclamation points. That is! Such a lame way! Of trying to make a story more dramatic! The best parts of Driskill's book are the passages where he talks about Nimitz's Texas boyhood and later visits to the state. There, he brings up vivid local detail that invokes the real Fredricksburg and surrounding Texas hill country. (The Museum of the Pacific War in Fredricksburg, built in the old Nimitz family hotel, is well worth a visit.) Driskill clearly had the best of intentions in writing this shorter account, but I'm afraid a reader would be better served by biting the bullet and launching into Potter's longer biography.



3. I suggest anyone serious about reading on Nimitz skip this and go to Potter's work. It appears to be primarily drawn from Potter... not sure what the author intended to accomplsih here. We could sure use a new Nimitz biography.

1 comments about Carrier Down: The Story of the Sinking of the U.S.S. Princeton (Cvl-23).

1. This book delves into the human element that makes up any warship. It starts from the Navy's conception of a class of light carriers, retrofitted from light crusiers, that would serve as a stop-gap measure until the larger Essex Class carriers could be brought on line. The resulting developement was a small, but fast, carrier that was staffed by battle experienced officers and men, many from the USS Hornet, that quickly gained the attention and admiration of the Navy's top brass. From the energy filled first hand accounts of dog fights, related by the participants themselves, to the heroric effort to save the ill fated ship during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the authors present never before printed insight into both the ship and the crew. The book dispells many previous inaccuracies concerning the source of the explosions that would dome not only the Princeton, but would also claim hundreds of victims that made up the crew of the USS Birmingham. These first hand accounts were collected over the years by interviewing the participants at veteran reunions and recollections of Mr. Bradshaw, himself a crew member of the USS Princeton. From the combat wizzardry of VF-27 (Catsmouth) to the daring deed of Ens. Burgess, the reader will truly enjoy this book. I give it a thumbs up all the way!

No comments about Thomas Eakins Rediscovered: Charles Bregler`s Thomas Eakins Collection at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

No comments about Thomas Eakins: His Life and Art.

3 comments about Thomas Eakins : The Absolute Male.

1. Unless you have more money than you know what to do with or you must have every book on Eakins do not waste you time on this book. It is supposed to be a survey of Eakins drawing, painting and photography of the male nude. There are three so called drawings, two white forms that are supposed to be knees, a scribbled thumbnail sketch for a painting that is not reproduced and one small drawing of a figure. There are only a few paintings, most of which we have seen reproduced better elsewhere. Most of the blurry photographs are not even identifies as by Eakins; in fact some include him in them so could not have been taken by him (although they may have been set up by him?).
   What a wasted opportunity to do a comprehensive survey of a great artist's work; an opportunity to compare the three media and how he used the photos and drawings to develop the major works. Even a good survey of the drawings and paintings would have been more interesting and useful.



2. THOMAS EAKINS: THE ABSOLUTE MALE is a beautifully assembled volume of the photographs and paintings of America's premiere artist. The concept behind this very fine volume is to emphasize the importance of the strong-willed pioneer of figurative art in a time when the country was in the throws of Victorianism in art (have things changed in over a century?). In his short but fine essay John Esten simply outlines the chronology of Eakins career and then lets the works speak for themselves. Eakins trained both in America and in Paris, in the latter with the artist Gerome who insisted on classical perfection in his depictions of the human figure. This attitude rankled Eakins who believed that anything less than the observed representation of the body made it ugly. "I see no impropriety in looking at the most beautiful of Nature's works, the naked figure." And with that he absorbed all the good in the classes in Paris (which included the first use of photography in providing reference for drawing and painting) and returned to America where he resumed his sportsman activities, all the while using his observing eye to reclaim the beauty of the human form in action. His photographs are now considered some of the finest wroks of their kind. He worked with the famous Muybridge, adopting his technique of serial photography to study the nude male form. When he returned to teaching at the Philadelphia Academy he insisted on allowing fully nude models to pose for the students. His defiance of the mores of the day in requiring that the women students be given equality in this aspect of his Life Studies courses resulted in his dismissal as a teacher, but added to his importance as a mentor.

   This excellent book includes Eakins many photographs of the nude male, posed and at play and sport. Where applicable the photograph used as a reference is displayed adjacent to the subsequent canvas. Here is the most singularly bold and creative presentation to the age-old, cloaked secret that artists should not use photographs as reference if they say they 'draw only from the figure'. If ever there existed an homage to the marriage of the photograph with painting it is here. This is a very fine book, worth placing in all libraries both private and public.




3. This is a beautifully produced little volume of Eakins's photographs and paintings of nude males (the phrase "absolute male" is a journalistic euphemism for male art class models stripped of their posing straps). The text is thin and doesn't really say anthing new. The paintings are also likely to be familiar to anyone who has studied Eakins and have been frequently reproduced in more comprehensive catalogs. Even the photographs, called "Naked Series" because they show a single nude model from multiple angles, have been reproduced previously. Dating from the 1880s these may interest the student of early photography. While author John Esten seems to consider these to be works of art in their own right, they clearly served primarily as reference material for Eakins. This is most obvious in the swimming pictures and in one painting called "The Wrestlers" which--muscle for muscle, sinew for sinew--is based on a photograph he took of fellow art students in Paris in 1899 (pages 68 and 69).

   The book includes a 2-page chronology of Eakins's life and a bibliography. The latter is a very short list; it only cites 19 works, two of which are books of poetry (Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" makes sense, but I fail to see the relevance of "The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake".) Very relevant but not cited is Helen Cooper's excellent 1996 book "Thomas Eakins: The Rowing Pictures" (ISBN 0-300-06939-1). If your primary interest is a book of beautifully reproduced images, these shortcomings will not bother you.

1 comments about Thomas Eakins: Art, Medicine, and Sexuality in Nineteenth-Century Philadelphia.

1. This is a terrific biography of a complicated and provocative artist. While not ignoring the many scandals that make the life of Thomas Eakins so interesting, Amy Werbel puts the focus of her book where it properly belongs: on the work of this wonderful artist, and on the intellectual training and traditions that contributed to it. In an entertaining and clear fashion, she deftly illustrates how Eakins's own medical study shaped his art and his unsentimental portrait style. Werbel's prose is a delight to read, and offers a compelling look at one of the nation's greatest painters. This is a gorgeous book and is highly recommended.

5 comments about The Revenge of Thomas Eakins.

1. I highly recommend this well-written, balanced biography of Thomas Eakins. It would be a perfect choice for readers with any level of familiarity with Eakins' paintings. I agree with the other reviewers that the book does an excellent job of placing Eakins' work in its historical context. Eakins emerges as a fascinating personality, and a guy who would have been great to know. In my opinion, Kirkpatrick deals honestly with the controversial aspects of Eakins' character, but without dwelling on them ad nauseum.
   
   I thought that the descriptions of the paintings themselves were especially effective. The book communicated exactly the information I wanted to read about for paintings like The Gross Clinic and Max Schmitt in a Single Scull: the main points of the design, the background and tecnhical details, the dramatic impact, and the pyschological levels. I have read very few biographies of artists that were this helpful.
   
   The book is generously and beautifully illustrated. There are 42 color plates, and each of those paintings is described in detail in the text. There are also a number of drawings, sketches, maps, and photographs (some taken by Eakins, and others of Eakins and his family and friends). The photos in particular (such as the one of Eakins, himself nude, carrying a nude female toward the camera) underscore the independent and controversial aspects of Eakins' character.
   
   This was a very enjoyable read, and a tribute to a great artist.



2. I find all of Kirkpatrick's books to be great reads. They combine impeccable scholarship with elegant style and profound insight. As I am interested in art, I found this one to be especially powerful -- the first major biography of Eakins that brings this enigmatic man into focus for me. Kirkpatrick has filled in the puzzling gaps in Eakins's life and brought new and unexpected meaning to Eakins's artistic and personal struggles against the conservative art establishment in Philadelphia that denied him recognition in his lifetime.



3. 
   When I picked up this very well done bio the little I knew about Eakins was the wonderful scull portraits, the shad fishing pictures and that a vague scandal surrounded his name. Now having read almost 500 pages, I want to know even more and there is a lot more to know.
   
   Kirkpatrick covers the whole life, giving balance to each stage. It is a full book. There is no "filler". The research and background knowledge of the author shine forth on every page. The author shows great restraint in sticking to the known facts, otherwise this would be a 1000+ page book!
   
   For instance, Eakins' fixation with the body, down to using mechanical contraptions on dead animals to demonstrate movement to students is factually presented. It is not sensationalized or psychoanalyzed. Similarly, whether Eakins was oblivious to or had discounted the consequences of asking so many females (again and again) to pose nude in this Victorian age is not discussed. The known instances of these invitations and the resulting alienation of those who said no, and the alienation of the friends and families of those that said yes are covered. With this background we learn the known facts of the tragedy of his niece Ella, and student Lillian, and about accusations regarding his sister Margaret. There are some documented opinions of family members, but the author stays with the known record.
   
   No wonder, the self portrait that adorns the cover shows a tortured man with barely restrained sadness and anger.
   
   It's ironic that the lack of appreciation for Eakin's works served to maintain the integrity of the collection for future generations. It's interesting that due to the nondescript Charles Bregler's collecting and acquiring memorabilia of his beloved teacher, today's researchers have a large collection of personal letters, photos and sketches to work with.
   
   This is a very readable book. It is rich in plates and photographs that illuminate the text. I am ready for another biography to take on the "whys" of this remarkable life.



4. I have read and enjoyed several of Kirkpatrick's other books (on very different subjects), and was eager to see how he would handle a subject as complicated and controversial as Thomas Eakins. Through his telling of the Eakins story, the reader becomes privy to moments of nearly cosmic dimension as well as deep emotion. It's utterly convincing, lucid and intelligent, highly informative and extremely compelling. His most moving book to date.



5. A common myth of all poor starving artists is that they will be discovered after they're dead and be venerated forever. In an age when you can get rich and famous by glueing broken crockery to canvas or stuffing a dead fish into a tank of formaldehyde, it is usually a case of a poor choice of publicists than undiscovered talent and the real loser is the poor fool who buys contemporary art for a high price only to watch the value crash when the artist moves on and his work starts to fall apart or rot.
   
   But there was a time when truly great artists did suffer. We all know about Van Gogh, but Thomas Eakins was also a classic example. Everyone loves his sports pictures and his two group portraits of heroic doctors lecturing their students (the Gross Clinic and the Agnew Clinic) even make a Christian Scientist envy those who have chosen the medical profession.
   
   But for my money, his portraits stake the primary claim to Eakins' greatness. His sitters usually refused to accept their portraits, some destroyed them, others refused to sit at all (Mr. Kirkpatrick quotes one lifelong friend of Eakins who always refused to sit for him because he was afraid that Eakins would uncover what he had spent his lifetime trying to conceal).
   
   And I'd imagine that viewing your Eakins-painted portrait for the first time must have been an eerie, almost supernatural event. Looking at his splendid portraits today, you KNOW the subjects, their hardships and triumphs, their hopes and fears. These are not prettified and bowdlerized pictures to hang on a wall, these are the real thing. It is as if Eakins stripped away the skin of his sitters to reveal the pure psyche underneath. They are beautiful and informative and moving. Fifteen minutes with an Eakins is more enlightening than a month in a room of Sargeants.
   
   Mr. Kirkpatrick's fine biography is one of the best on any subject. He manages to capture the man and his times and the man IN his times, in a way that few biographers can accomplish. He manages to make the story exciting, even as he takes the reader through an almost brushstroke by brushstroke description of Eakins' painting process.
   
   At first, my only reservation was the title. The point of it is to show how Eakins fame after death was his revenge for the tragedy of his career (a close and valued student conspiring to replace him, loss of reputation for insisting on painting things as they are, base and highly publicized accusations [about which Mr. Kirkpatrick carefully assembles the evidence for and against, describing the scandals as fairly and dispassionately as he can], rejection of his works, etc.), but the author discusses Eakins death only two pages before the end of the book, hardly enough time to develop the world's slow acceptance of Eakins' genius.
   
   But then I realized that the book itself is Eakins' revenge. Very few people of even the first rank ever have a biography written about them as fine as this one. This book will be read as the classic text for the next one hundred years and it should be read, merely for its quality, by everyone no matter how slim their interest in American painting.

No comments about A Drawing Manual by Thomas Eakins (Primary Sources in American).

3 comments about Thomas Eakins.

1. Anecdotes abound in reference to Thomas Eakins American painter, watercolorist, draftsman, photographer, and sculptor. He is remembered for relaxing after painting by working calculus problems, and shocking friends with stories of his nude models.

   A skilled portraitist he painted Walt Whitman. The poet said of his likeness, "I never knew of but one artist, and that's Tom Eakins, who could resist the temptation to see what they think ought to be rather than what is."

   Whitman's opinion aside, Eakins (1844 - 1916) is recognized as one of the premier American artists to appear following the Civil War. He traveled to Paris for training, and later chose to apply Beaux-Arts techniques to distinctly American subjects. His fondness for athletics is found in his noted scenes of sailing, fishing, and boxing.

   He is equally remembered for his then controversial paintings of surgeons at work, and remains a key figure in American art. This beautiful volume is apt affirmation of Eakins the artist.

   - Gail Cooke




2. I'm a rower in high school on the west coast, and you don't really hear much about rowing over here, since it's mostly an east coast sport. So when my history teacher started going over Thomas Eakins and showed a clip about him from a documentary with some examples of his rowing paintings, my attention was immediately captures. I decided to do my term paper on him, but I expected it to be a long and tedious process, judging from the book I got from the library (which looked plain, boring, and old), so I put it off 'till the last minute. I just picked up the book an hour ago for the first time and just got online to see if they had any copies of it ..., since it proved to be well-written and interesting (so you don't space out so much in the middle of paragraphs like I tend to), and because it led me to think about things that are important parts of learning and art and life, but nobody ever talks about. This book proved to be insightful and fascinating, and after only one chapter, I'm hooked on the subject! And to think I was dreading reading it!



3. This book is gorgeous! The essays provide a variety of perspectives on Eakins work. A must have for every fan of Eakins paintings.

5 comments about Architect's Essentials of Contract Negotiation (The Architect's Essentials of Professional Practice).

1. I am not an architect, but I loved this book. It clearly laid out steps real people can take to negotiate tough problems -- whether construction-related or not. The chapter on communication skills and the one on dispute resolution alone were worth the price of the book. In fact, I would say, as a senior manager of a growing business, that anyone who seeks to accomplish anything important in any business would benefit from the information this book contains. It should be required reading for all.



2. I teach architecture students a course on professional practice and have made Architect's Essentials of Contract Negotiation required reading. Of all the sources I've read on this topic, Ava Abramowitz offers the most accessible and well-reasoned explanations of what every design professional must understand about negotiation (and communication).

   Abramowitz's many years of experience as a counselor, teacher and mentor to architects has clearly given her insight into how architects think, and she uses this insight to great effect. My students enjoy reading this text (especially Chapters 3&4) because it connects to the way they see the world (and helps focus that vision) in language that rings true. Don't be fooled by the word "Contracts" in the title; this is a great book about architects and negotiation in general and one that I believe all architects should own.




3. Contract negotiations are often tedious and frustrating. This book was refreshingly useful because it laid out strategies for achieving desired negotitated results. The book's advice and approach can be applied with profit to any contract negotiations, but it's examples are based on negotiating the complicated agreements between Owners and Architects. I've used it with success to explain the Architect's needs and concerns to Owners and, just as frequently, I've used it when representing Owners to explain why a certain compromise and position in negotiations with Architects makes sense. It is a book with balanced advice on how to negotiate in general and how to do so in particular in the Owner/Architect context. It's many specific examples and suggested solutions to typical negotiation issues have saved me hours of time attempting to articulate to opposing counsel or my clients what the author has already compiled in this book.

   I've found its contents so useful that I've taught portions of seminars to Architects, Contractors and Owners using lessons and insights taken from the book. The attendees always have commented favorably on the concrete, practical advice they have learned from those portions of the seminar.

   This is a valuable book. If you're involved in any negotiations, especially construction, it is worth purchasing.




4. Did you know that negotiation can be taught? Most architects do not understand that the rest of the world NEGOTIATES. This book is absolutely ESSENTIAL to the business end of architecture, as well as to life. How do you handle a client who wants full ownership of documents? Do you know what liability that can open you and your firm up to?! Do your key employees know how to negotiate? What about negotiating design? Are all aspects of the design so important that you're willing to walk away from the job, the client and future work; or do you know how to negotiate a win-win situation? This book is for ANYONE in the firm who is in direct contact with the client or other representatives of the client. GET AND READ THIS BOOK! (It will even help with non-professional relationships.)



5. Ava Abramovitz has distilled her years of experience as attorney, advisor and mediator into a wonderfully readable book. Her insights and suggestions will benefit every architect who has strugged with uncertainty during contract negotiations. A wonderful addition to our professional library.