Description: "The untold story of the artistic battle between James Abbot MacNeill Whistler and John Ruskin over Whistler's controversial, ground-breaking Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket. In November 1878, America's greatest painter sued England's greatest critic for a bad review. The painter won--but ruined himself in the process. The painter: James Abbot MacNeill Whistler, whose combination of incredible talent, unflagging energy, and relentless self-promotion had by that time brought him to the very edge of artistic preeminence. The critic: John Ruskin, Slade Professor of Art at Oxford University, whose four-decades' worth of prolific and highly respected literary output on aesthetics had made him England's unchallenged and seemingly unchallengeable arbiter of art."--
Brief description: Paul Thomas Murphy is the author of Shooting Victoria, a New York Times Notable Book, and Pretty Jane and the Viper of Kidbrooke Lane, a finalist for the Edgar Award for Fact Crime. He holds advanced degrees in Victorian Studies from Oxford and McGill Universities and the University of Colorado, where he taught both English and writing on interdisciplinary topics. He lives in Boulder, Colorado.
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