A vivid historical imagining of life in the early United States
"One of the richest books ever to come my way."--Annie Proulx,
Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Shipping News
"This is a wonderful book. . . . An extraordinary
achievement."--Edmund de Waal, New York Times bestselling author of
The Hare with Amber Eyes
Set amid the glimmering lakes and disappearing forests of the early
United States, The Forest imagines how a wide variety of Americans
experienced their lives. Part truth, part fiction, and featuring both
real and invented characters, the book follows painters, poets, enslaved
people, farmers, and artisans living and working in a world still made
largely of wood. Some of the historical characters--such as Thomas Cole,
Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Fanny Kemble, Edgar Allan Poe, and
Nat Turner--are well-known, while others are not. But all are creators
of private and grand designs.
The Forest unfolds in brief stories. Each episode reveals an intricate
lost world. Characters cross paths or go their own ways, each striving
for something different but together forming a pattern of life. For
Alexander Nemerov, the forest is a description of American society, the
dense and discontinuous woods of nation, the foliating thoughts of
different people, each with their separate shade and sun. Through vivid
descriptions of the people, sights, smells, and sounds of Jacksonian
America, illustrated with paintings, prints, and photographs, The
Forest brings American history to life on a human scale.
Published in association with the Center for Advanced Study in the
Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
