{"product_id":"best-material-for-the-artist-in-the-world-9781622889488","title":"Best Material for the Artist in the World","description":"\u003cp\u003e This poetic biography tracks the life and career of landscape artist Albert Bierstadt, whose 19th-century representations of the American west earned him wealth and international acclaim. Relaying the story primarily through Bierstadt's voice, this imaginative collection also includes perspectives from the painter's family, friends, critics and patrons as it chronicles his youth in New Bedford, Massachusetts, his apprenticeship in Europe, his meteoric fame following western expeditions, and the emotional turbulence of diminished reputation due to changing cultural tastes. These narrative, lyric, and ekphrastic poems touch the momentum of the developing west, the devastation of native tribes and the great buffalo herds, as well as the resiliency of Bierstadt's art in times of environmental awareness and expansionist reappraisal. Neither defense nor homage, \u003ci\u003eThe Best Material for the Artist in the World\u003c\/i\u003e offers a balanced appreciation of an influential artist-explorer who gave us iconic, sometimes mythic views of our defining wilderness landscapes. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e KENNETH CHAMLEE is the author of \u003ci\u003eIf Not These Things\u003c\/i\u003e (Kelsay Books, 2022). His poems have appeared in \u003ci\u003eThe North Carolina Literary Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eCold Mountain Review, The Worcester Review, Ocean State Review, Weber: The Contemporary West, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Ekphrastic Review, \u003c\/i\u003eamong other places. He is Professor Emeritus of English at Brevard College in North Carolina and holds a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Stephen F. Austin University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50455135846674,"sku":"9781622889488","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_3dc7b839-a143-4793-801b-4ad211349e51.jpg?v=1729874110","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/best-material-for-the-artist-in-the-world-9781622889488","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}