Rockwell Kent - Biography, Works

Artist, born in Tarrytown, New York, USA. He studied with William Merritt Chase in 1900, and became well known as a painter, book designer and illustrator, explorer, writer, sailor, and political activist. His output of wood engravings, lithographs, textiles, oils, and watercolours was inspired by the great outdoors, and he was involved in the organization of the 1910 Exhibition of Independent Artists. He was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize in Moscow in 1967.

Biography

Rockwell Kent was born June 21, 1882 in Tarrytown, New York (but spent the majority of his life in Au Sable Forks), and was well educated in art.

Kent did his first significant work at Monhegan Island, Maine and his work was first shown at the National Academy of Design in 1905. He also did a great deal of work illustrating working people, serving as an illustrator for The Masses, a popular left-wing magazine. Donnelley to produce an illustrated edition of Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before the Mast, Kent suggested Moby Dick instead. The success of the Rockwell Kent illustrated edition was a factor in its becoming recognized as the classic it is today. In 1960 Kent donated several hundred paintings and drawings to the Soviet Union, which responded by making him an honorary member of their academy of Fine Arts and awarding him the Lenin Peace Prize in 1967 (Kent donated the prize money to the people of North Vietnam).

Rockwell Kent died March 13, 1971. The New York Times described him as "...

Works

Written and illustrated by Rockwell Kent

Kent was a prolific writer. His more important works include:

Voyaging Southwards from the Strait of Magellan - About Kent's travels in Tierra del Fuego. Wilderness: A Journey of Quiet Adventure in Alaska - About the year Kent and his young son spent living on Fox Island in Resurrection Bay, Alaska. N by E - About Kent's disastrous attempt to sail from New York to Greenland. Salamina - About the year Kent spent living and working in Igdlorssuit, Greenland. It's Me, O Lord: The Autobiography of Rockwell Kent (1955) This is My Own - An autobiographical account of Kent's struggles with the US establishment from the 1930s through to the anti-communist witch-hunts of the 1950s.

Illustrated by Rockwell Kent

City Child - poetry by Selma Robinson The Mountains Wait - dust jacket only Seed - novel by Charles Norris - dust jacket only Zest - novel by Charles Norris - dust jacket only Candy - novel Moby Dick - novel by Herman Melville Leaves of Grass - poetry by Walt Whitman Erewhon - novel by Samuel Butler Candide - novel by Voltaire The Bridge at San Luis Rey - novel by Faust - by Goethe Paul Bunyan - novel by Esther Shephard Gisli's Saga - Mediaeval Icelandic saga Autumn Leaves - social commentary by P W Litchfield Canterbury Tales The Decameron - novel by Giovanni Boccaccio The Complete Works of Shakespeare