Red Brick, Black Mountain, White Clay: Reflections on Art, Family, and Survival

"Beautiful, haunted, evocative and so open to where memory takes you. I kept thinking that this is the book that I have waited for: where objects, and poetry intertwine. Just wonderful and completely sui generis." (Edmund de Waal, author of The Hare with Amber Eyes)

An unforgettable voyage across the reaches of America and the depths of memory, this generational memoir of one incredible family reveals America's unique craft tradition. In Red Brick, Black Mountain, White Clay, renowned critic Christopher Benfey shares stories--of his mother's upbringing in rural North Carolina among centuries-old folk potteries; of his father's escape from Nazi Europe; of his great-aunt and -uncle Josef and Anni Albers, famed Bauhaus artists exiled at Black Mountain College--unearthing an ancestry, and an aesthetic, that is quintessentially American. With the grace of a novelist and the eye of a historian, Benfey threads these stories together into a radiant and mesmerizing harmony.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books
Published: 02/26/2013
ISBN: 9780143122852
Pages: 291
Weight: 0.55lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.40w x 0.90d

Review Citations: New York Times Book Review 04/14/2013 pg. 24