Description
From the Dust Jacket
John Worth is a painter with a genuine calling, and a real gift. But he seems in some sense subdued. His radical girlfriend has a ready diagnosis: she tells him that his work will never come to more than decoration if he does not infuse it with social meaning, political meaning. Because she is a substantial person he has to consider what she says, and it hurts – he’s just not the man for the job. Stubbornly, instinctively, Worth resists. His dealer’s advisor has glimpsed something in Worth’s paintings that has made him buy, quietly, a number of the works for himself. He pays a visit to the artist, and suggests that he do something violent, if only as an experiment. Battered by this time, he agrees to think about it. He paints a picture airless as a De Chirico, and filled with the symbols of destruction. His friend denounces what seems to her to be the pornography of violence with no human reference, a mere icon of death. Worth understands that the judgment touches not only the work but his character. He is angry and disheartened. His life becomes disordered, unhappy. But somehow, in his trouble and loneliness, he finds himself breaking new ground. He has always been workmanlike and steady. Now he works endlessly, with a pertinacity that looks like rage, as he begins to see his way. And as his art changes, his life is not spared the accidents of mortality. His girl leaves him, a good friend has a breakdown and kills himself. But within a year a big London exhibition of his work is arranged, the precocious climacteric of his life and art-best expressed in the violent shock of one large canvas, a modern Christ’s entry into a modern Jerusalem, bringing not peace but a sword.
Publishing Info
Entry Into Jerusalem by Stanley Middleton. From New Amsterdam Books in 1988. The ISBN is 0-941533-46-8. It measures about 8-3/4″ x 5-3/4″ and has 172 pages.
Condition
See scan above. Former library book with the usual markings and dust jacket protected inside plastic sleeve. The boards and pages are in very good condition. No personal names or markings noted. From clean, smoke-free home.
Shipping
Generally sent the same day payment arrives. Unless you request otherwise, I will wrap the book in plastic wrap to help protect it from the elements, create a custom-made cardboard box to ship it in, and send via Media Mail with Delivery Confirmation tracking. See the shipping page for the cost to send a two-pound Media Mail package. I can send at the two-pound rate if I use less packaging. Insurance is an additional cost as described. I am delighted to combine postage and insurance costs if you purchase more than one item. The second item may travel for free or just a few cents more — so it’s worth taking a look at my other items before you complete your order.
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