Adam Van Doren – författare

Filled with wit and insight, this is a fascinating tour of Venice from an artist's perspective. The city of Venice has always provided an almost irresistible lure for both writers and artists. Henry James loved it, as did Ruskin, Browning, Pound, and Brodsky. For artists, it has been a compulsory magnet since the time of Bellini and Canaletto. By the 19th century there was hardly an artist of note - Whistler and Turner, Sargent and Prendergas - who was not seduced by the city's charms, history, and aesthetic heritage. For the depiction of Venice by artists, it's a high bar that's been set, but Adam Van Doren, grandson of the Pulitzer prize-winning poet Mark Van Doren, convincingly confronts the competition in this charming memoir, a verbal and visual account of his love affair with the city. His story is personal; like all other artists, he sees the city through his own eyes, but he is also well-informed historically, lacing his tour with information, opinion, and wit.

“An utter delight...it opens windows into the history of this country by showing how some of this country’s makers and shapers lived.”—Wall Street Journal.From Teddy Roosevelt’s estate, Sagamore Hill, on Long Island to Harry Truman’s humble home in Independence, Missouri, here are the homes—inside and out—of 15 American presidents through an artist's eyes. Adam Van Doren has a deep appreciation for architecture and the ways people shape their environments. About Mount Vernon: “Subtler touches, like the cupola, the faux rustication, and the red roof are all evidence of Washington’s refined sense of how to transform an ordinary farmhouse into a stately manor.” At Franklin Roosevelt’s Hyde Park home, Van Doren emphasizes its accommodations for F.D.R.’s wheelchair. From Monticello in Virginia to Wheatland, the Pennsylvania home of James Buchanan, to Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, Texas – plus the White House, where all but the first president lived – Van Doren records each home’s style and heritage. All giving the reader a fresh look at America’s presidents and their lives and times.