From Our Editors
This is the first publication of this revealing autobiography of
one of America's great pioneering 20th century artists.
Marsden Hartley's Somehow a Past
languished in the manuscript collection at Yale's Beinecke Library,
until it finally saw transcription. What emerges is a keen
historical record and a compelling story of the life of a Modernist
painter and prolific writer. This fascinating book includes some
never before published photographs.
From the Publisher
Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) is best known as an American modernist
and pioneering artist of the early twentieth century. But he was
also a prolific writer who published dozens of essays and reviews
and several volumes of poetry and prose. The autobiographical
account of his life is the most revealing document he left about
his personal life and relationships-both for its disclosures and
omissions-but has never been published before. Somehow a
Past is compelling both as historical document and as personal
narrative. Hartley knew nearly every figure of the international
avant-garde in his day and unfolds his life largely through a chain
of personal encounters. His traffic with such major literary and
artistic figures as Alfred Stieglitz, Vasili Kandinski, Gertrude
Stein, Mabel Dodge, Eugene O''Neill, Robert McAlmon, and Charles
Demuth is recorded, as are his travels both domestic and foreign.