
One of America's leading historians, McFeely has long been an interpreter of nineteenth-century American writing. A fascinating aspect of this narrative is how he brings the painter into the company of Thoreau, Melville, and Whitman, with whom Eakins formed a deep friendship...

Thomas Eakins, a native of Philadelphia, painted two worlds: one sure of its values -- the surgeons, inventors, musicians, and athletes of his time -- and another that reflected his own struggles with depression and sexual identity. In this evenhanded account of those struggles,...