Marrin's Bookshop

Synopsis

Life, death and art in the second world war.

Item Description

8vo. 9.5 x 6.5 inches. xiii + [i] + 201 pp. Bound in original black cloth, gilt, in pictorial dust wrapper. Minor edge wear to boards, but otherwise a very good copy. Illustrated by 8 colour and by 36 black and white plates. Decorated by vignettes, including title page. During the Second World War, when the Blitz made civilians in London and elsewhere almost as vulnerable as those at the front, it could be argued that the greatest artistic achievements were by civilian artists. This book examines, from a historical and cultural perspective, the rich outpouring of art in Great Britain during the war years. It does this through a close study of the lives and wartime work of the visual artists Henry Moore, Paul Nash and Graham Sutherland, the documentary filmmaker Humphrey Jennings, and the composer Benjamin Britten. By Peter Stansky (b.1932), US historian, specialising in modern British history and William Abrahams (1919-98), novelist, poet and editor.