Graven Images: New England Stonecarving and Its Symbols, 1650-1815 (New Preface in the 1999 Edition.)

Allen Ludwig

Book cover for Graven Images: New England Stonecarving and Its Symbols, 1650-1815 (New Preface in the 1999 Edition.)
Image for variant 9780819560407
Book cover for Graven Images: New England Stonecarving and Its Symbols, 1650-1815 (New Preface in the 1999 Edition.)
Image for variant 9780819560407

Graven Images: New England Stonecarving and Its Symbols, 1650-1815 (New Preface in the 1999 Edition.)

Graven Images: New England Stonecarving and Its Symbols, 1650-1815 (New Preface in the 1999 Edition.)

Allen Ludwig

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Description

The classic study of gravestone art

In Puritan New England, with its abiding concern for things not of this world and its distrust of forms and ceremonies, one art flourished: the symbolic art of mortuary monument stonecarvers. This carefully researched, beautifully illustrated work was the first to consider this art in depth as a meaningful aesthetic-spiritual expression. It is reissued for today's readers, with a new preface outlining changes in the field since the book appeared in 1966.

Critical Reviews

"'A big, superbly printed collection . . . To leaf through this book is to confront a vanished community trying to make sense of itself through art."--Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone

"'A big, superbly printed collection . . . To leaf through this book is to confront a vanished community trying to make sense of itself through art."--Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone

"Graven Images is a classic text in American Studies. It led a generation into the graveyards of New England to look with fresh eyes on a neglected American art form. Ludwig's insights are as original and inspiring today as they were in 1966, and this book still provides the best single source for images of New England gravestones, with its hundreds of beautiful photographs. ... Students, scholars, and anyone who brakes for old graveyards will welcome this indispensible book."--David Watters, former editor of Markers

"The classic exemplar of the method of looking at icons on gravestones and relating them to religious texts in an effort to reveal their meaning was perfected by Allan Ludwig in his Graven Images, first published in 1966...This edition provides the young scholar with a time-tested model of scholarship and analysis and the seasoned scholar with new reflections on old work."--Journal of American Folklore

Publishing Information

Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Pub date: 2000-02-28
Length: 532 pages

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