Monday, September 3, 2018

Mailbox Labor Day Monday: Transcendental Concord

My friend Kirsten Rian wrote the concluding essay in a new, hauntingly beautiful book of art photography documenting the Transcendentalists of Concord, Massachusetts. She surprised me the other day with a copy of this lovely new book.



Transcendental Concord, photography by Lisa McCarty, texts by Kirsten Rian and Rebecca Norris Webb, published by Radius Books.

PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION: Transcendental Concord documents the spirit of Transcendentalism, the literary and philosophical movement that arose in the mid-19th century. While the circle of Transcendentalists in New England was wide, at its center was a core group that lived in Concord, Massachusetts. Bronson Alcott and daughter Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau lived within a few miles of each other for nearly 20 years, regularly meeting in each other’s homes and on the paths of Walden Woods to discuss their writings and beliefs. In the course of a year and in every season North-Carolina based photographer Lisa McCarty photographed the sites where these Transcendentalists lived and wrote in Concord. McCarty’s parallel reverence for the natural world is evident in her photographs which point to large and small variations in environment, season and light. McCarty uses long exposures and camera movement in order to capture these variations. Transcendental Concord pays homage to Transcendentalism not only in capturing a shared landscape, but in McCarty’s technique: her keen observation of natural phenomena and openness to experimentation and chance.

What books came into your house last week?



Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday, a weekly "show & tell" blog event where participants share the books they acquired the week before. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Mailbox Monday is graciously hosted by Leslie of Under My Apple Tree, Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, and Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf.

Happy Labor Day!


I wish my Labor Day looked like this! Instead, I'm on a cross country airplane, on my way to a week long conference in Orlando, Florida. There are plenty of nice things about Florida, but its convenience to my home in Portland, Oregon is not one of them.