WAGNERISM: ART AND POLITICS IN THE SHADOW OF MUSIC

New York City, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2020. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2020. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 770 pages. Exhaustive book-length study on subject. One of the most important books on modern and contemporary Western culture ever published in our time. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions, of which there are several. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only that sold out shortly after publication. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Alex Ross' "Wagnerism: Art And Politics In The Shadow of Music". Intentionally or not, his most disquieting, controversial book. "Reveals how Richard Wagner became the proving ground for modern art and politics, an aesthetic war zone where the Western world wrestled with its capacity for beauty and violence. For better or worse, Wagner is the most widely influential figure in the history of music. Around 1900, the phenomenon known as Wagnerism saturated European and American culture. A mighty procession of artists, including Virginia Woolf, Thomas Mann, Paul Cezanne, Isadora Duncan, and Luis Bunuel, felt his impact. Anarchists, occultists, feminists, and gay-rights pioneers saw him as a kindred spirit. Then Adolf Hitler incorporated Wagner into the soundtrack of Nazi Germany, and the composer came to be defined by his ferocious anti-Semitism. A pandemonium of geniuses, madmen, charlatans, and prophets do battle over Wagner's many-sided legacy. Ross ranges thrillingly across artistic disciplines, from the architecture of Louis Sullivan to the novels of Philip K. Dick, from the Zionist writings of Theodor Herzl to the civil-rights essays of W. E. B. Du Bois, from 'O Pioneers! ' To 'Apocalypse Now'. An artist who might have rivaled Shakespeare in universal reach is undone by an ideology of hate. Still, his shadow lingers over twenty-first century culture. A work of passionate discovery, urging us toward a more honest idea of how art acts in the world" (Publisher's blurb). An absolute "must-have" title for Alex Ross collectors. This title is a contemporary classic. As far as we know, this is the only copy of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: ALL other copies available online have serious flaws (because they were avidly read) or are in multiple subsequent printings. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A scarce copy thus. Lavishly illustrated with plates. Winner of the MacArthur Genius Grant in 2008. One of the finest American writers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER ALEX ROSS TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0374285934.