Van Day Truex: The Man Who Defined Twentieth-Century Taste and Style

by Adam Lewis and Adam Lewis

Book Overview

Van Day Truex was born in Kansas, the artistically inclined son of a stern and intolerant shop manager. After the seemingly obligatory stint living with a sympathetic and worldly aunt in Wisconsin, he... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670030244
• ISBN13: 9780670030248
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 2.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 7.7" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Completes a significant gap in American design history

Lewis has obviously unearthed a treasure trove of very important material in the form of Truex' scrapbooks bringing to light an amazing tapestry of relationships bridging the worlds of fashion, product design, interior design, design education, and various cultural elites. It's refreshing to read a biography that is illustrated with the subject's own snapshots, original works, and previously published material that has been long unavailable. Parsons School of Design itself celebrated a centennial not long ago giving Truex no more than a few lines in its retelling of its story--the author has filled in a gaping hole in American design history for Parsons as well as Tiffany and Co. Contrary to another reader review, I am relieved not to be subjected to the "spice" that is strewn over so many other biographies. Lewis gives us as much personal information as is appropriate to the subject. This will be a requisite acquisition for many libraries, circulating and otherwise, I think.