Excerpt from The Writing Table of the Twentieth Century: Being an Account of Heraldry, Art, Engraving Established Form for the Correspondent The opening of the twentieth century brings us face to face with several facts which some of us are rather too conservative, perhaps, to acknowledge with that magnanimity which is characteristic of the American. One of these facts is that we are industrially and socially a competent people, but we do not act as if we believed we were. I am aware of the fact that we do not often express this belief in general conversation, and it would be proper to admit that we are not, as a people, so overwhelmed with modesty that we habitually underestimate our own ability. We also fail to fully inform ourselves, at times, and, as a consequence, are not wise in our judgment; this is another fact we have to face. The "Oregon" surprised is by her splendid sail around the southern continent, but I doubt whether her builders were at all surprised. The suddenness of the "Merrimac" incident, the breathless advance upon Santiago, the almost instant destruction of the two Spanish fleets, these events astonished us as much as they did foreigners; but there was no need of it, we should have remembered the old "Monitor's" brave fight, and also remembered the resolute words of Captain Coffin, who, as he was towing the remarkable craft, in the midst of a threatening storm, to her fighting ground, replied to those who advised him to put into a near port for safety, - "I'll proceed if we all have to go to the bottom together." About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Key Writers on Art: The Twentieth Century offers a unique and authoritative guide to modern responses to art. Featuring 48 essays on the most important twentieth century writers and thinkers and written by an international panel of expert contributors, it introduces readers to key approaches and analytical tools used in the study of contemporary art. It discusses writers such as Adorno, Barthes, Benjamin, Freud, Greenberg, Heuser, Kristeva, Merleau-Ponty, Pollock, Read and Sontag.

Humorous, illustrated novel by the “father of science fiction illustration”.