Description:

Kent Rockwell 1882 - 1971 Painter and illustrator Rockwell Kent writes about the books that inspired him including "the first book that was to have a lasting influence on my whole life and my subsequent practice of art... Tolstoi's Š—…What Is Art?'Š—... because it proclaimed for art a purpose that proved to be to me a lasting revelation of the truth..." Typed Letter Signed "Rockwell Kent," 1 page, 8.5" x 11". On his personal stationery, Ausable Forks, New York, March 1, 1968. To Miss Evelyn B. Byrne, Bronx, New York. With original postmarked envelope. Fine condition.

In full, "Though interested by the nature of the anthology you are working on, my teenage being now so many decades in the past I find it difficult to mention specific books. Having in my infancy been taught German my first important book was Š—…Strewelpeter' ["Der Struwwelpeter," a German children's book of ten illustrated rhymed stories by Heinrich Hoffmann], followed by Š—…Robinson Crusoe' in German. Then I read, avidly, books by the now forgotten Oliver Optic (they had been my father's as a child), Henty [added by Kent in his hand], and Howard Pyle's Š—…Robin Hood.' From that sort of thing I soon graduated to Walter Scott, a whole set of the Waverly Novels being, I believe, the first books that, with my scant savings, I was able to buy. I read and loved them all.

"Meanwhile, I got to reading poetry in Palgraves's Golden Treasury. Then, in my late teenage I read the first book that was to have a lasting influence on my whole life and my subsequent practice of art. It was Tolstoi's Š—…What Is Art?' About this time I read Carlyle's translation of Goethe's Š—…Wilhelm Meister' and loved it so much that I have subsequently read it over and over many times. Your question as to Š—…why' I loved certain books strikes me as being like asking a youngster, or a grown-up, why he fell in love - - though I will hazard to say in general that I found one book or another akin to me - - poetry and Š—…Wilhelm Meister' because they moved me deeply, and Tolstoi's Š—…What Is Art' because it proclaimed for art a purpose that proved to be to me a lasting revelation of the truth.

"Possibly I was still in my teens when I read Š—… Thoreau's Š—…Walden'. At any rate, that has always been to me a book of vast importance. Faithfully yours, Rockwell Kent"

From 1966 to 1970, Evelyn Byrne ran a program at New York City's Elizabeth Barrett Browning Junior High School where she asked major literary and artistic figures of the time to write back with their recollections of what books inspired them while they were teenagers. An assortment of their responses were published in the book Attacks of Taste, printed in 1971 by Gotham Book Mart.

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