Choice 評論

This may be one of the most handsome books of the year. In one sense it is a specialized study and in another is is profoundly broad-ranging. Apart from making Latrobe's wonderful sketches and watercolors available to us, this book is about a vanished civilization, the heroic years at the birth of our nation. The editors present Latrobe as a Renaissance man who was simultaneously an architect, painter, surveyor, botanist, and a most careful and observing traveler. He is juxtaposed with the splendidly educated minds of the period who fused the European age of enlightenment with the possibilities of the ``New Eden.'' The volume is also about the art of the book at its best. The writing is lucid, the reproduction of high quality, and the ten years required to create this book are triumphantly justified. Recommended for any library that is concerned with art and civilization. For undergraduate and graduate students and general readers.-J. Frazer, Wesleyan University