From the Fountainhead to the Future: And Other Essays on Art and Excellence

After having read the excellent reviews already submitted it is difficult to find more words to properly prise this book. Whether you are an art lover or are simply interested in the state of our culture, Ms. York provides a series of superb essays to help you find your way. The thing that impresses me the most about her writing is the passion. It is clear, understandable and very passionate. Not the blind rant of a demagogue, but a reasoned, mature, thoughtful passion that arises from deep study and careful analysis. Its a book worth reading over and over!

The best thing about Alexandra York's atitude towards art is her constant focus on all art as a profound personal value to her. The essays in this book are not detached, unemotional discussions--they make it clear that Alexandra cares about art--and she explains why she does, and why and how you can as well. My personal favorite of all the essays is the last in the book--"Sharing the Miracle"--in which she describes a trip to a sculpture foundry to witness the actual process by which finished works are bronzed. If reading this book can help anyone attain the exalted state of passion for art that Alexandra demonstrates in this one essay, then this book will have more than served its purpose and achieved its goal. Way to go, Alexandra! Keep your fountainhead flowing!

Over the past several years, Alexandra York has written many cogent articles on art and culture. She defends beauty and representational art beautifully and forcefully in her passionate, but gentle style. She neither bludgeons the reader nor insults him. With the force of her conviction, she gently persuades - and that is a great virtue in a culture dominated by ad hominem attacks. Now, she has collected her best essays in her new book, _From the Fountainhead to the Future_.I cheered while reading that we should consider Homer the *real* spiritual forefather of the West, and thus we should change our calendars to the year *3000*. She correctly identifies ancient Greece as the intellectual foundation of the West.If you are looking for a rational defense of what art can and should be and what kind of culture would make such art possible, _From the Fountainhead to the Future_ is an excellent companion to Ayn Rand's seminal work on the philosophy of art.

Ms. York does not simply explain why art is important. She also explains why art is important to YOU. She motivates you, the reader, to both appreciate and understand what various works of art are "saying" to you. Her style is enlightened but in no way pretentious. Also, as an added bonus, she offers many excellent insights on psychology and society. She is one of the very few intellectuals I know of, for example, to say: "I suggest to you that the nation's schools could not have failed, as they have, unless mothers and fathers failed first by abdicating their parental responsibility as guardians of their children's inner development." Excellent and courageous point -- brilliantly articulated, and backed up with extensive examples. The book is full of insights like this one. I highly recommend it.