Arts & Artists in America
Richard Kostelanetz 141 Wooster Street New York, NY10012- 3163, rkostelanetz@bigfoot.com Proposal for ARTS & ARTISTS IN AMERICA. This million-word project, probably in three or four volumes, would be a biographical and historical dictionary with extended entries on the most important subjects and most important artists in all fields--music, literature, visual art, performing arts--primarily in America from its beginnings. The introduction would identify characteristics of "The American Imagination" that makes American art generally different from European. The secondary theme is that these individuals and activities constitute the American canon and that knowledge of their achievements is essential literacy. The entries would be generally appreciative and at once introductory and scholarly, as we¹ve done before, concluding with short bibliography of both primary and secondary references. While this reference book is destined ultimately for libraries, we hope that the writing would be clean enough for the text to become a trade book, probably without the documentation, perhaps with a book club. Consider three lengths: 10,000 words apiece for subjects marked A; 5,000 words apiece for subjects marked B; 2,000 words apiece for subjects marked C. Since I did my graduate work in American history on artists in America, I have thought about these individuals for over three decades, I expect to write much of this book myself, sometimes in collaboration for Tony Coulter and Doug Puchowski, both of whom worked with me on the revised edition of my Dictionary of the Avant-Gardes (1999). Those subjects that others can do better would be assigned by me and delivered to me, who has edited anthologies of fresh criticism before. Names of possible contributors appear below after the letters designating projected length. (RK is myself.) Though individuals and subjects will be treated alphabetically, the book should also have chronological timelines. One departure is that all names mentioned in the book, but not given an individual entry, will receive at least two lines of identification is a biographical index, mostly by Douglas Puchowski. Among the artists deserving individual entries, consider the following: Adams, Ansel, a major photographer: C, A. D. Coleman Adams, Henry, historian of myth: C, RK Advertising Art, A Aircraft Design, C Alcott, Louisa Maym 19th-century novelist: C, Jane P. Bowers Album (Record) Cover Art, a design art rarely acknoweldged: B, T Coulter Allbee, Edward, late 20th-century playwright: C Allen, Fred, a comedian, one of the greatest radio artists: C, RK Allen, Woody, a filmmaker and short-story writer: C Allston, Washington, 19th-century painter: C Amazons (not just body-builders), aesthetically impressive superwomen: C American Academy of Arts & Letters: C: RK Amusement Parks: B, Anger, Kenneth, a prominent non-Hollywood filmmaker and author: C Animated Film: B, RK Anthiel, George, an eccentric composer and writer: C, Guy Livingston Arbus, Diane, a legendary photographer: C, Architecture: A The Armory Show: B, RK Armstrong, Louis, the principal innovator in mid-20th cent. jazz: B, Marc Tucker Arrowheads, C Art Deco: C Ashbery, John, a prominent poet from late 20th cent.: B, RK Ashcan School, which identifies early 20th cent. painters: C Astaire, Fred, the greatest film dancer: C, RK Audubon, John J., a painter born in Haiti drawings of American birds remain classic: C, Avis Berman Automobile Design, C Avery, Fred "Tex, " the cartoon animator: C, RK Ayler, Albert, innovative jazz master of the 1960s: C, RK Ballet (American): B, George Doris Babbitt, Milton, Princeton-based composer & teacher: C, RK Baez, Joan, folksinger: C, Richard Carlin Baird, Bill, puppeteer: C Baker, Josephine, African-American dancer and singer who became a French celebrity before WWII: C Balanchine, George, a Russian-born choreographer who long headed the principal American ballet company: B Baldwin, James, an African-American novelist and essayist: C Ballads: B Ballroom Dancing: C Bambaataa, Afrika, a "rap" music pioneer: C Banjo, C: Richard Carlin Banjo Makers: C, Jim Bollman Barbershop Quartets: C Barlow, Joel, writer and diplomat in late 18th cent.: C Barnes, Djuna, avant-garde novelist who lived in Paris and Greenwich Village: C Barnum, P.T.: C, RK Barth, John, author of big novels in 1960s: B, RK Barthelme, Donald, influential writer in shorter forms, particularly in The New Yorker: C, RK Basie, Count, pianist and leader of big bands: C Beach, Amy, a woman composer from early 20th cent. whose work has won greater recognition posthumously: C Beach Boys, early West Coast rock group: C, Coulter Bearden, Romaire, African-American painter and collagist: C, Avis Berman Beats, am B: John Tytell Beefheart, Captain; C, T. Coulter Bellamy, Edward, whose Looking Backward (1888) is a monumental utopian novel: C Bellow, Saul, a Nobel-prize-winning novelist: C, RK Bellows, George Wesley, a painter credited with reviving the art of illustration in early 20th cent.: C, Avis Berman Benny, Jack, by common consent the greatest radio comedian: C, RK Berlin, Irving, the most successful writer of American popular songs (though Russian-born): B, Phil Furia Bernstein, Leonard: B-C, Joseph Darby Biederbecke, Bix:C, Phil Schaap Bierce, Ambrose, a storyteller and aphorist from the turn of the century: C, RK Bierstadt, Albert, a German-born painter commonly associated with the Hudson River School C: Billings, William: C, Carol Oja Bingham, George Caleb: C Blake, Eubie: C, David Jasen Bloch, Ernst: C, Bluegrass, C, Richard Carlin Blues, Country: B, Stephen Cait Blues, Urban: B, RK Boat Design: C, Book Cover Art, B Bop: C, Richard Carlin Borglum, Gutzon: C Bowles, Paul: C, RK Bradstreet, Ann: C Brady, Matthew, C: Brakhage, Stan, C Brant, Henry: C Brass Bands: C, Brautigan, Richard: C, T. Coulter Braxton, Anthony: C Breakdancing, C, Lee Ellen Friedland Brown, Charles Brockden: C Bruce, Lenny: C, Bryant, William Cullen: C Buck, Pearl: C Bukowski, Charles: C Burlesque: C Burroughs, William: C Cage, John: A, RK Capra, Frank: C Carr, Benjamin: C Carter, Elliott, B, RK Cartoons: B, Les Daniels Cash, Johnny: C, Colin Escott Cassat, Mary: C, Avis Berman Cather, Willa: C, Calder, Alexander (& his father): B, RK Chadwick, George Whitefield: C Chandler, Raymond: C Chaplin, Charles, B, Chapman, John Jay: C Children¹s Art: B, T. Coulter Children¹s Literature, B: Jonathan Cott Chopin, Kate: C Church Music, B Circus, B Classical Music, A, RK Clocks: C Coins, C Coleman, Ornette, a jazz master: C Coltrane, John, another jazz master: B, John Rocco Comedy, A, RK Comic Books: B, Computer-Assisted Art: B Conceptual Art, which is a 1970s term for artworks whose idea has more esthetic resonance than the realization; B, RK Conner, Bruce: C Cooper, James Fenimore: C Copland, Aaron, perhaps the most prominent 20th century composer: A Coppola, Francis Ford, Hollywood filmmaker more serious than most: C Cornell, Joseph: C, T. Coulter Costume Design: C Country Music: B Cowell, Henry, influential early 20th centyr composer: C, T. Coulter Crane, Stephen, Civil War novelist who died young: C, Eric Miles Williamson Crane, Hart: B, Samuel R. Delany Crawford (Seeger), Ruth, probably the most prominent woman composer of the early 20th cent.: C Crumb, R., the great "underground" cartoonist: C, T. Coulter Cummings, E. E., the greatest experimental poet: C, RK Cunningham, Merce, the premier older contemporary choreographer: B, David Vaughan Currier & Ives: C Dada (American), an art movement with origins in Europe: C, RK Daguerretype, a kind of early photography prominent in 19th cent.: C Davis, Miles, a jazz master: B De Kooning, Willem, the most influential painter in mid-century: B, RK De Mille, C. B., a pioneering Hollywood filmmaker: C Deren, Maya, the pioneering anti-Hollywood filmmaker: C, Dectective Fiction/Mysteries; B Dickinson, Emily, the principal 19th cent woman poet: C, Rochelle Ratner Disney, Walt, the most successful film animator: B, RK Dolls (Barbie, et al), C: The Doors: C, John Rocco Dos Passos, John, : C, RK Dozens, a folk poetic form popular among African-Americans: C, Roger Abrahams Drama: A, Jonathan Kalb Dreiser, Theodore, a naturalistic novelist from the beginnings of the 20th Cent.: C, RK Documentary Film: B, RK Dueling, a dangerous choreographic art: C Duncan, Isadora: C, Richard Carlin Dunlap, William, playwright & painter in early 19th century: C Dunne, Finley Peter, a 19th century political humorist: C Dylan, Bob: C, Richard Carlin Eakins, Thomas, among the great painters at the turn of the century: C, Avis Berman Eames, Charles & Rae, adventurous designers and filmmakers who customarily signed both their names to their work: B Earl, Ralph, 18th century painter: C Edwards, Jonathan, colonial preacher whose also wrote: C Electronic Music: B, Tony Coulter Eliot, T.S., an influential poet from St. Louis who went to live in England: B, RK Ellington, Duke, the master of jazz big bands: B, James Edward Hasse Ellison, Ralph, an African-American novelist whose single novel Invisible Man is remembered among the greatest: B, RK Emerson, Ralph Waldo:, B, Environmental Art: C Etiquette/Table Manners: C, Elizabeth Aldrich Essays: B, RK Evans, Oliver, C Evans, Walker: C, William Stott Expatriates: B Exploitation Cinema/Midnight Movies: B Fashion: B Faulkner, William: B, RK Feldman, Morton: C Fiction, A, Jerome Klinkowitz Fields, W. C.: C Film: A, Andrew Sarris Fitzgerald, F. Scott: B Flags: C, Fleischer, Max & Dave: C Folk (Music): B, Richard Carlin Footware: C, Ford, John: C Foreman, Richard: C Foster, Stephen: C: Franklin, Ben, C: French, Daniel Chester: C, Frost, Robert: B Fuller, Buckminster: B, RK Fuller, Loie: C, RK Fuller, Margaret: C Gardens: B, Magdalena Salvesen Gass, William: C. NOT R.K. Gershwin, George: B Gilman, Charlotte Perkins: C Ginsberg, Allen: B, John Tytell Glass, Philip: C, RK Goldberg, Rube: C Gottschalf, Louis Moreau: C Graham, Martha: B, Don McDonagh Graphic Design: B, Steve Heller Grateful Dead, a rock group that performed widely for a long time: B. John Rocco Greenwich Village, a magnet for important artists in the early 20th cent.: C, RK Griffes, Charles Tomlinson: C, T Coulter Griffith, D. W.: C, RK Guthrie, Woody: C, Richard Carlin Gymnastics: C Hair Styles: C Harrison, Lou, a Calfirornia composer now in his 80s: C, RK Harte, Bret: C Hartley, Hal, ???: C Hassam, Childe, a prominent painter & etcher: C Hawthorne, Nathaniel: B Heinlein, Robert: C Hemingway, Ernest: B, RK Hendrix, Jimi: B, John Rocco Herrmann, Bernard: C, T. Coulter Hip Hop, C Holography: C, RK Holly, Buddy, a revolutionary pop musician who died youngllll: C Homer, Winslow: C, Avis Berman Hopkinson, Francis, a writer and musician in the 18th cent.: C Houdini, Harry, the most famous magician: C Hudson River School, C, RK Hughes, Langston: C, RK Hurston, Zora Neal: C Hymns: C Ice Skating: C: Igloo: C- Illustrations: C Industrial Design: B Interior Design: B Internet: B Irving, Washington: C, Kenneth Bernard Ives, Charles: A, RK King, B. B.: C, RK Klein, Calvin, C Kline, Franz, C Knitting: C Koch, Kenneth: C, RK Kovacs, Ernie: C, RK James, Henry: B, John Tytell Jazz, A: Jeffers, Robinson: C, RK Johns, Jasper: C, RK Johnson, James Weldon: C, RK Johnson, Robert: C, Richard Carlin Johnson, Sara East, C, RK Jones, Chuck: C, RK Joplin, Scott: B, David Jasen Journalism: B Jump Rope (including Double Dutch), C Kachina Masks, C Keaton, Buster: C Kerouac, Jack: B, John Tytell Kinetic Art, B, RK King, B. B., blues singer: C, RK Kubrick, Stanley, filmmakerB, RK Lanier, Sydney, 19th-cent. poet: C Languages Other Than English (Written in America), B, Charles Doria Lapidus, Morris, architect especially in Miami Beach: C, Las Vegas, a vibrant city that is incidentally a work of art, C, RK LaVoe, Hector: C, Julio Marzan Lewis, Sinclair: C, RK Living Theatre, avant-garde performance group: B, John Tytell Lincoln, Abraham (as a writer): C Lindsay, Vachel, poet: C, RK Literary Journals, B: RK Little Richard, pop singer: C Lloyd, Harold, filmmaker: C Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, poet: B Lovecraft, H.P., the greatest horror writer: C, S. T. Joshi Lowell, Amy, poet: C, Lowell, James Russell, poet: C Lowry, Raymond, designer: C Lynch, David, filmmaker: C MacDowell, Edward, composer: C, Machito (Frank Grillo), Cuban-American singer & bandleader: C Mail Art: C, RK Mailer, Norman, novelist & essayist: C Malamud, Bernard, novelist: C Man Ray, photographer & visual artist: C, RK Mapplethorpe, Robert, photographer: C Marching Bands (black college): C, Jacqui Malone The Marx Brothers: B, RK Mather, Cotton, Puritan writer: C, McCullers, Carson, fiction writer: C Melville, Herman: A, Mencken, H. L., artful essayist: B, R. W. Bradford Mencken, Adah, 19th cent. actress: C, Merrill, Stuart, 19th-cent. poet: C, Edward Foster Merry-Go-Rounds: C Merton, Thomas: C, RK Miller, Henry, memorist: C, RK Minstrel Shows: C Modern Dance (American): B, Don McDonagh Modern Music, a great arts journal: C, RK Moholy-Nagy, L., immigrant artist, writer, & educator: C, RK Monroe, Bill: C, R. Carlin Monk, Thelonious, jazz musician: C Morris, Errol: C Morris, Robert: C Morse, Samuel F. B.: C, Avis Berman Motherwell, Robert: C Museum of Modern Art: B, RK Musical Instruments, B, Richard Carlin Musical Theater: B, Kurt Ganzl Muybridge, Edwaerd: C, RK Nabokov, Vladimir: B, RK Nancarrow, Conlon: C, Tony Coulter Nash, Ogden: C, RK National Endowment for Arts: C Native-American Arts: A Needlepoint: C Neon: C New York City: A, RK Nikolais, Alwin: C, RK Noguchi, Isamu: C, M.D. Cohen O¹Hara, Frank: C, RK O¹Keeffe, Georgia: C, Avis Berman O¹Neill, Eugene: C, Jonathan Kalb Olmsted, Frederick Law: C Opera: B, Outsider Art: B Painting: A, Avis Berman Palés Matos, Luis: C Parker, Charlie: B, Phil Schaap Parker, Horatio: C Partch, Harry: C, T Coulter Patten, Charlie: C, Stephen Calt Peale, Charles Wilson, with other Peales: C, Avis Berman Performance: B, RK Perkins, Carl: C, Colin Escott Photography: B, Daile Kaplan Pinball Machines, C; D. Puchowski Plath, Sylvia: C, Rochelle Ratner Poe, Edgar Allan: B, RK Poetry: A, RK Polaroid (Instant Photography): C Polyartistry: B, RK Pollock, Jackson: B, B.H. Friedman Pop Art: B, RK Popular Music: A, Richard Carlin Pornography: B Porter, William Sidney (O. Henry): C Pound, Ezra: B, RK Powers, Hiram: C Public Art (including murals): B, Pulp Fiction: C Punk Rock: C, John Rocco Puppetry: C Presley, Elvis: B, Colin Escott Pryor, Richard: C, RK Psychedelia: B, T. Coulter Pynchon, Thomas: C Quilting: C Ra, Sun: C, John Rocco Radio: B, RK Rap: C Rauschenberg, Robert: C, RK Reich, Steve: C Reinhardt, Ad: C, RK Remington, Frederic: C Residents: C, T Coulter Rhoads, George: C, RK Rexroth, Kenneth: C, RK Riley, Terry: C Rivera, Ishmael, Puerto Rican composer/performer in mid-20th century: C, Julio Marzan Robinson, E. A., poet: C Rock & Roll: B, Roethke, Theodore, poet: C, RK Rogers, Will, comedian: C, Roosevelt, Theodore, president who was also an important writer: C Roth, Henry, novelist from 1930s: C Roth, Philip, novelist: C, RK Ruggles, Carl, composer: C, RK Ryder, Albert Pinkham, painter: B Saint-Gaudens, August, sculptor: C Salinger, J. D., novelist: C, Richard Carlin San Francisco Bay Bridge: C Sandburg, Carl, poet and popular historian: C, RK Sargent, John Singer, painter: C Saroyan, William, fiction writer & playwright: C, Edward Foster Satire: B Schoenberg, Arnold: C, RK Schultz, Charles, C Science Fiction: B, Sculpture: B, M.D. Cohen Seeger, Pete, folksinger & propagandist: C Sessions, Roger: C, RK Shahn, Ben, C, RK Shaker Arts: B Shape-Note Singing: C Shepard, Sam: C Simon, Paul: C Sinatra, Frank: C, John Rockwell Singer, Isaac Bashevis: C, Skyscrapers: B, Slam Dunk: C, RK Slim, Iceberg, blues singer: C, Richard Carlin Smith, Bessie: C Smith, David: B, M.D. Cohen Smth, Harry, filmmaker & archivist: C, R. Carlin SoHo: C, RK Soul Music: B, Rob Bowman Sound Poetry: B, RK Snyder, Gary, poet and publicist: C Square Dancing: C, Lee Ellen Friedland Spectacle, from the Boston Tea Party to Bread & Puppet Theater, C Spirituals: C Sports Stadiums: C Stage Design: C, Stained Glass: C, RK Steichen, Edward, photographer and photography curator: B, Stein, Gertrude, experimental writer: B, RK Steinback, John, novelist: C, Stevens, Wallace, poet: C, Ron Sukenick Stieglitz, Alfred, photographer: C, A. D. Coleman Stokowski, Leopold, orchestral conductor: C Stowe, Harriet Beecher: Jane P. Bowers Strayhorn, Billy, composer working with Duke Ellington: C Streb, Elizabeth, choreographer: C Stroheim, Eric von, filmmaker: C, Stuart, Gilbert, filmmaker: C, Avis Berman Styron, William, novelist: C, RK Sullivan, Louis H., architect: C, Sully, Thomas (especially if we illustrate): C Surrealism (American): C, RK Tanner, Henry: C Tap Dancing: C, RK Teepees: C- Television: A Theater: C Thomas, Theodore: C Thomson, Virgil, composer & music writer: C, RK Thoreau, Henry David, essayist: A, Kenneth Bernard Thurber, James: C Tiffany, Louis Comfort: C, RK Times Square: C, RK Toomer, Jean: C, RK Toys & Games: B Transcendentalism: C Trollope, Frances, 19th century travel writer: C Tuckerman, Frederick Goddard, poet: C, Edward Foster Turrell, James, visual artist: C, RK Tuskegee Institute Choir: C Twain, Mark, needs no introduction: A, RK Tyler, Royal, 19th cent. playwright: C Typography: C Underground Comics: B, Updike, John: C Valens, Ritchie, pop singer associated with Buddy Holly: C Van Vechten, Carl, novelist, arts critic, photographer: C Vaudeville: B Varèse, Edgar, composer: C, RK Velvet Underground, C, John Rocco Ventriloquism: C Video Games & Art: C Vidor, King, filmmaker: C Visual Poetry: B, RK Vollman, William, novelist new in the 1980s: C Walker, T. Bone, blues singer: C Warhol, Andy: B Waters, John: C Waters, Muddy: C Weber & Fields, C Weegee: C, RK Welles, Orson: B, RK West, Benjamin: C West, Mae: C West, Nathanael, a satirist whose influential works reflected surrealism: C, RK Wharton, Edith: B Whistler, James McNeill: C, Avis Berman White, E. B., essayist epitomizing The New Yorker where he worked for years: C, Whitman, Walt, a 19th cent. poet whose reputation gained over the years: B, Donald Hall Whittier, John Greenleaf: C Williams, Hank, a country-music singer: C, Richard Carlin Williams, Tennessee, the most prominent playwright of the 1940s & 1950s: C, Jonathan Kalb Williams, William Carlos, a poet, fictioner, and critic who worked fulltime as a neighborhood physician: C, Richard Carlin Wills, Bob: C Wilson, Edmund, the epitome of the modern man-of-letters: C Wilson, Robert, an incomparable extravagant theater director: C, RK Window Displays: C Winters, Jonathan, an influential comedian: C Wiseman, Frederick, a prolific documentary filmmaker: C, RK Word Games: C, David Morice WPA: C Wolfe, Thomas, author of several autobiographical novels in 1920s and 30s: C Wolfe, Tom, a contrarian essayist and social critic: C, RK Woolman, John, a Quaker minister who was a distinguished essayist in 18th cent.: C Wright, Frank Lloyd, the most visible architect of the early 20th century: B, Wright, Richard, African-American novelist once more influential: C, RK Wynette, Tammy, country-music singer: C, Richard Carlin Wyeth, Andrew, popular realistic painter: C Young, La Monte, avant-garde composer: C, RK Zappa, Frank, musically sophisticated rock bandleader: C, John Rocco Zines, which is a recent terms for special interest journals of limited circulation: C Zydeco, a folkpop music indigenous to New Orleans: C We welcome suggestions for other major American artists and subjects meriting similar treatment.