"In the field of film aesthetics, it is the first important American work, still important--The Art of the Moving Picture is astonishing."
--Stanley Kauffmann
Written in 1915, The Art of the Moving Picture by poet Vachel Lindsay is the first book to treat movies as art. Lindsay writes a brilliant analysis of the early silent films (including several now lost films). He is extraordinarily prescient about the future of moviemaking--particularly about the business, the prominence of technology, and the emergence of the director as the author of the film.

The Art of the Moving Picture is astonishing, as a work of analysis and vision. Over fifty years ago Lindsay saw the hunger that still obsesses the film enthusiast. Sculpture-in-motion, painting-in-motion, architecture-in-motion are nuggets out of which he refines subtle perceptions. Lindsay sees, in 1915, the revolution in human perception involved in the very existence of film. There is a clear prediction of McLuhan in "Edison is the new Gutenberg. He has invented the new printing." Lindsay sees, in 1915, the quintessence of the auteur theory of film criticism, formulated some...

Vachel Lindsay is known as the "Prairie Troubador" because of his Midwestern themes in his poetry. Lindsay grew up in Springfield, Illinois, which had a large influence on his poetry. He lived next door to the governor's mansion and wrote about the governor as well as Springfield's most famous citizen Abraham Lincoln. Several times Lindsay made walking treks across parts of the United States trading poetry for food. Some of the poems in this collection include, General William Booth Enters into Heaven, The Drunkards in the Street, The City That Will Not Repent, The Trap, Where is David, the...

"General William Booth enters into Heaven and other Poems" from Vachel Lindsay. American poet (1879-1931).

"The Art Of The Moving Picture" from Vachel Lindsay. American poet (1879-1931).

"The Chinese Nightingale and Other Poems" from Vachel Lindsay. American poet (1879-1931).

"The Congo and Other Poems" from Vachel Lindsay. American poet (1879-1931).

The Art of the Moving Picture possessed among many elements of beauty at least one peculiarity. It viewed art as a reality, and one of our most familiar and popular realities as an art. This should have made the book either a revelation or utter Greek to most of us, and those who read it probably dropped it easily into one or the other of the two categories.