WINSLOW HOMER
American
Passage
Truthful Witness to a Changing America
The definitive life of a man who forged American identity visually, in paint and illustration, with impact comparable to Walt Whitman and Mark Twain in poetry and prose — yet whose own story has remained largely untold.
Cross has done an admirable job of bringing to life this most American of painters. Finally, Winslow Homer's brilliant work and fascinating life are united in one volume.
In this sweeping and comprehensive consideration of Homer’s life and work, William R. Cross offers fresh insight into how his art was shaped and enabled by the changing politics, society, and technology of the world he sought to depict.
This rich biography of Winslow Homer is long overdue ... The many nuances of his life that this book reveals deepen our understanding of history, place, and innovation in the United States.
This intelligent and gracefully-written book is a multilayered pleasure to read. William R. Cross is a sensitive observer of every aspect of the man ... A triumph.
Full of insight, sensitively written, this superb biography tells the story of an artist who had the moral heart of an historian.
Meet Author William R. Cross
William R. Cross is an independent scholar and a consultant to art and history museums. He served as the curator of Homer at the Beach: A Marine Painter’s Journey, 1869–1880, a nationally renowned 2019 exhibition on the formation of Winslow Homer as a marine painter. He is the chairman of the advisory board of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture. Cross and his wife, Ellen, the parents of two grown sons, live on Cape Ann, north of Boston, Massachusetts.
William R. Cross is available for book readings and speaking engagements. Contact him to learn more.
