93-523: John Robinson Jeffers (January 10, 1887 – January 20, 1962) was an American poet known for his work about the central California coast. Much of Jeffers' poetry was written in narrative and epic form. However, he is also known for his shorter verse and is considered an icon of the environmental movement . Influential and highly regarded in some circles, despite or because of his philosophy of "inhumanism", Jeffers believed that transcending conflict required human concerns to be de-emphasized in favor of
186-529: A San Francisco insurance magnate and arts patron. Bender helped Adams produce his first portfolio in his new style, Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras , which included his famous image Monolith, the Face of Half Dome , which was taken with his Korona view camera , using glass plates and a dark red filter (to heighten the tonal contrasts). On that excursion, he had only one plate left, and he "visualized"
279-454: A San Francisco photograph finisher. Adams contracted the Spanish flu during the 1918 flu pandemic , from which he needed several weeks to recuperate. He read a book about lepers and became obsessed with cleanliness; he was afraid to touch anything without immediately washing his hands afterwards. Over the objections of his doctor, he prevailed on his parents to take him back to Yosemite, and
372-721: A better vantage point over the immediate foreground and a better angle for expansive backgrounds. Most of his landscapes from that time forward were made from the roof of his car rather than from summits reached by rugged hiking, as in his earlier days. Adams was the recipient of three Guggenheim Fellowships during his career, the first being awarded in 1946 to photograph every national park. At that time, there were 28 national parks, and Adams photographed 27 of them, missing only Everglades National Park in Florida. This series of photographs produced memorable images of Old Faithful Geyser, Grand Teton , and Mount McKinley . In 1945, Adams
465-444: A candid portrait of O'Keeffe with Cox on the rim of Canyon de Chelly . Adams once remarked, "Some of my best photographs have been made in and on the rim of [that] canyon." Their works set in the desert Southwest are often published and exhibited together. During the rest of the 1930s, Adams took on many commercial assignments to supplement the income from the struggling Best's Studio. He depended on such assignments financially until
558-517: A career as a poet, they can be helpful as training, and for giving the student several years of time focused on their writing. Lyrical poets who write sacred poetry (" hymnographers ") differ from the usual image of poets in a number of ways. A hymnographer such as Isaac Watts who wrote 700 poems in his lifetime, may have their lyrics sung by millions of people every Sunday morning, but are not always included in anthologies of poetry . Because hymns are perceived of as " worship " rather than "poetry",
651-485: A chewer might carry a pouch of tobacco ... and, like Jeffers," writes Gerry Max in Horizon Chasers , "worshipped nature ... (taking) refuge (from the encroachments of civilization) in a sort of chthonian mysticism rife with Greek dramatic elements ..." Jeffers was an inspiration and friend to western U.S. photographers of the early 20th century, including Ansel Adams , Edward Weston , and Morley Baer . In fact,
744-597: A continuation of patronage of poets by royalty. Many poets, however, had other sources of income, including Italians like Dante Aligheri , Giovanni Boccaccio and Petrarch 's works in a pharmacist's guild and William Shakespeare 's work in the theater. In the Romantic period and onwards, many poets were independent writers who made their living through their work, often supplemented by income from other occupations or from family. This included poets such as William Wordsworth and Robert Burns . Poets such as Virgil in
837-711: A core principle in his photography. Adams's first portfolio was a success, earning nearly $ 3,900 with the sponsorship and promotion of Bender. Soon he received commercial assignments to photograph the wealthy patrons who bought his portfolio. He also began to understand how important it was that his carefully crafted photos were reproduced to best effect. At Bender's invitation, he joined the Roxburghe Club , an association devoted to fine printing and high standards in book arts. He learned much about printing techniques, inks, design, and layout, which he later applied to other projects. Adams married Virginia Best in 1928, after
930-468: A daughter who died a day after birth in 1913, and then twin sons, Donnan and Garth, in 1916. Una died of cancer in 1950. Jeffers died January 20, 1962; an obituary can be found in the New York Times from January 22, 1962. In the 1920s and 1930s, at the height of his popularity, Jeffers was famous for being a tough outdoorsman, living in relative solitude and writing of the difficulty and beauty of
1023-476: A fascination for Irish literature and stone towers. In Una's special room on the second floor were kept many of her favorite items, photographs of Jeffers taken by the artist Edward Weston , plants and dried flowers from Shelley's grave, and a rosewood melodeon which she loved to play. The tower also included a secret interior staircase – a source of great fun for his young sons. During this time, Jeffers published volumes of long narrative blank verse that shook up
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#17328015811531116-824: A forestry student at the University of Washington in Seattle, a course of study that he abandoned after a semester, at which time he returned to Los Angeles. By 1912 the affair became a scandal, reaching the front page of the Los Angeles Times . Una spent some time in Europe to quiet things down, then the lovers lived together by Lake Washington to await the completion of Una's divorce. The two were married in 1913, then moved to La Jolla , California for six weeks, and finally Carmel, California in 1914, where Jeffers later constructed Tor House and Hawk Tower . The couple had
1209-549: A formidable presence in modern literature. Stanford University Press released a five volume compilation, The Collected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers (1988–2002). In an article titled "A Black Sheep Joins the Fold," written upon the release of the collection in 2001, Stanford Magazine commented that it was remarkable that, due to a number of circumstances, "there was never an authoritative, scholarly edition of California's premier bard" until this edition. His poem "The Beaks of Eagles"
1302-610: A gifted pianist. However, when he formed the Milanvi Trio with a violinist and a dancer, he proved a poor accompanist. It took seven more years for him to conclude that, at best, he might become only a concert pianist of limited range, an accompanist, or a piano teacher. Adams's first photographs were published in 1921, and Best's Studio began selling his Yosemite prints the next year. His early photos already showed careful composition and sensitivity to tonal balance. In letters and cards to family, he wrote of having dared to climb to
1395-442: A group show at the M. H. de Young Museum with Imogen Cunningham and Edward Weston , and they soon formed Group f/64 which espoused "pure or straight photography " over pictorialism ( f /64 being a very small aperture setting that gives great depth of field ). The group's manifesto stated: "Pure photography is defined as possessing no qualities of technique, composition or idea, derivative of any other art form." Imitating
1488-414: A large four-story stone tower on the site called "Hawk Tower". While he had not visited Ireland at this point in his life, it is possible that Hawk Tower is based on Francis Joseph Bigger 's 'Castle Séan' at Ardglass, County Down, which had also in turn influenced William Butler Yeats ' choice of a poet's tower, Thoor Ballylee . Construction on Tor House continued into the late 1950s and early 1960s, and
1581-422: A life of hiking, camping, and photographing; and the rest of the year he worked to improve his piano playing, perfecting his piano technique and musical expression. He also gave piano lessons for extra income that allowed him to purchase a grand piano suitable to his musical ambitions. Adams was still planning a career in music. He felt that his small hands limited his repertoire, but qualified judges considered him
1674-492: A member, to build and direct a state-of-the-art darkroom and laboratory in Washington, D.C. Around February 1942, Steichen asked Adams to join him in the navy. Adams agreed, but with two conditions: He wanted to be commissioned as an officer, and he would not be available until July 1. Steichen, who wanted the team assembled as quickly as possible, passed on Adams and had his other photographers ready by early April. Adams
1767-438: A note that Jeffers' views were not those of the publishing company. The book was negatively reviewed by several critics, including poets Yvor Winters and Kenneth Rexroth . By 1977 Jeffers' reservations seemed prescient and Liveright published The Double-Axe & Other Poems including Eleven Suppressed Poems , with an important introduction by William Everson , Jeffers' major posthumous advocate and poetic adherent. Throughout
1860-410: A pause from 1925 to 1926 during which he had brief relationships with various women. The newlyweds moved in with his parents to save expenses. The following year, they had a home built next door and connected it to the older house by a hallway. Between 1929 and 1942, Adams's work matured, and he became more established. The 1930s were a particularly experimental and productive time for him. He expanded
1953-518: A piano to practice on. A ranger introduced him to landscape painter Harry Best, who kept a studio home in Yosemite and lived there during the summers. Best allowed Adams to practice on his old square piano . Adams grew interested in Best's daughter Virginia and later married her. On her father's death in 1936, Virginia inherited the studio and continued to operate it until 1971. The studio is now known as
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#17328015811532046-436: A soft-focus lens, "capturing a glowing luminosity that captured the mood of a magical summer afternoon". For a short time Adams used hand-coloring, but declared in 1923 that he would do this no longer. By 1925 he had rejected pictorialism altogether for a more realistic approach that relied on sharp focus, heightened contrast, precise exposure, and darkroom craftsmanship. In 1927, Adams began working with Albert M. Bender ,
2139-675: A total of 225 small prints to the DOI, but held on to the 229 negatives. These include many famous images such as The Tetons and the Snake River . Although they were legally the property of the U.S. Government, he knew that the National Archives did not take proper care of photographic material, and used various subterfuges to evade queries. The ownership of one image in particular has attracted interest: Moonrise . Although Adams kept meticulous records of his travel and expenses, he
2232-487: A well established poet, was banished from Rome by the first Augustus for one of his poems. During the High Middle Ages , troubadors were an important class of poets. They came from a variety of backgrounds, often living and traveling in many different places and were looked upon as actors or musicians as much as poets. Some were under patronage, but many traveled extensively. The Renaissance period saw
2325-453: A well-known avant-garde composer, gave Adams some lessons. Over the next decade, three music teachers pushed him to develop technique and discipline, and he became determined to pursue a career as a classical pianist. Adams first visited Yosemite National Park in 1916 with his family. He wrote of his first view of the valley: "the splendor of Yosemite burst upon us and it was glorious.... One wonder after another descended upon us.... There
2418-488: A winter storm abated, leaving a fresh coat of snow. He gathered his recent work and had a solo show at Stieglitz's "An American Place" gallery in New York in 1936. The exhibition proved successful with both the critics and the buying public, and earned Adams strong praise from the revered Stieglitz. The following year, the negative for Clearing Winter Storm was almost destroyed when the darkroom in Yosemite caught fire. With
2511-481: Is described in often brutal and apocalyptic verse, and demonstrates a preference for the natural world over what he sees as the negative influence of civilization. Jeffers did not accept the idea that meter is a fundamental part of poetry, and, like Marianne Moore , claimed his verse was not composed in meter, but "rolling stresses." He believed meter was imposed on poetry by man and not a fundamental part of its nature. Many books followed Jeffers's initial success with
2604-582: Is mentioned in the 2004 film I Heart Huckabees by the character Albert Markovski played by Jason Schwartzman, when defending Jeffers as a nature writer against another character's claim that environmentalism is socialism. Markovski says "Henry David Thoreau, Robinson Jeffers, the National Geographic Society...all socialists?" A passage from Jeffers's poem "Ghost" was read in the Ghost Adventures episode "Tor House", where
2697-575: The Aeneid and John Milton in Paradise Lost invoked the aid of a Muse . Poets held an important position in pre-Islamic Arabic society with the poet or sha'ir filling the role of historian, soothsayer and propagandist. Words in praise of the tribe ( qit'ah ) and lampoons denigrating other tribes ( hija' ) seem to have been some of the most popular forms of early poetry. The sha'ir represented an individual tribe's prestige and importance in
2790-604: The American West . He helped found Group f/64 , an association of photographers advocating "pure" photography which favored sharp focus and the use of the full tonal range of a photograph . He and Fred Archer developed a system of image-making called the Zone System , a method of achieving a desired final print through a technical understanding of how the tonal range of an image is the result of choices made in exposure , negative development, and printing . Adams
2883-1060: The Arabian Peninsula , and mock battles in poetry or zajal would stand in lieu of real wars. 'Ukaz, a market town not far from Mecca , would play host to a regular poetry festival where the craft of the sha'irs would be exhibited. Poets of earlier times were often well read and highly educated people while others were to a large extent self-educated. A few poets such as John Gower and John Milton were able to write poetry in more than one language. Some Portuguese poets, as Francisco de Sá de Miranda , wrote not only in Portuguese but also in Spanish. Jan Kochanowski wrote in Polish and in Latin, France Prešeren and Karel Hynek Mácha wrote some poems in German, although they were poets of Slovenian and Czech respectively. Adam Mickiewicz ,
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2976-724: The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona . Adams was born in the Fillmore District of San Francisco , the only child of Charles Hitchcock Adams and Olive Bray. He was named after his uncle, Ansel Easton. His mother's family came from Baltimore , where his maternal grandfather had a successful freight-hauling business but lost his wealth investing in failed mining and real estate ventures in Nevada. The Adams family came from New England, having migrated from
3069-491: The Ghost Adventures crew investigated Jeffers's house to see if Jeffers's spirit would appear 50 years later after his death as was said in his poem. In A Secular Age , a critique of Western secularization , philosopher Charles Taylor presents Jeffers as an important literary example of "immanent anti-humanism " alongside figures such as Friedrich Nietzsche and Cormac McCarthy . Invoking (often at length)
3162-566: The Panama–Pacific International Exposition in 1915, his father insisted that he spend part of each day studying the exhibits as part of his education. He eventually resumed, and completed, his formal education by attending the Mrs. Kate M. Wilkins Private School, graduating from the eighth grade on June 8, 1917. During his later years, he displayed his diploma in the guest bathroom of his home. His father raised him to follow
3255-723: The Presidio Army Base . The home had a "splendid view" of the Golden Gate and the Marin Headlands . Adams was a hyperactive child and prone to frequent sickness and hypochondria . He had few friends, but his family home and surroundings on the heights facing the Golden Gate provided ample childhood activities. He had little patience for games or sports; but he enjoyed the beauty of nature from an early age, collecting bugs and exploring Lobos Creek all
3348-469: The literature that (since the advent of writing systems) they have produced. The civilization of Sumer figures prominently in the history of early poetry, and The Epic of Gilgamesh , a widely read epic poem, was written in the Third Dynasty of Ur c. 2100 BC; copies of the poem continued to be published and written until c. 600 to 150 BC. However, as it arises from an oral tradition ,
3441-561: The "Mural Project" with commissions for the U.S. Potash Company and Standard Oil, with some days reserved for personal work. While in New Mexico for the project, Adams photographed a scene of the Moon rising above a modest village with snow-covered mountains in the background, under a dominating black sky. The photograph is one of his most famous and is named Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico . Adams's description in his later books of how it
3534-543: The 1970s. Some of his clients included Kodak, Fortune magazine, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, AT&T, and the American Trust Company. He photographed Timothy L. Pflueger 's new Patent Leather Bar for the St. Francis Hotel in 1939. The same year, he was named an editor of U.S. Camera & Travel , the most popular photography magazine at that time. In 1940, Adams created A Pageant of Photography ,
3627-729: The Ansel Adams Gallery and remains owned by the Adams family. At age 17, Adams joined the Sierra Club, a group dedicated to protecting the wild places of the earth, and he was hired as the summer caretaker of the Sierra Club visitor facility in Yosemite Valley, the LeConte Memorial Lodge , from 1920 to 1923. He remained a member throughout his lifetime and served as a director, as did his wife. He
3720-670: The Art Center School of Los Angeles, now known as the Art Center College of Design . In 1941, Adams contracted with the National Park Service to make photographs of National Parks, Indian reservations, and other locations managed by the department, for use as mural-sized prints to decorate the department's new building. The contract was for 180 days. Adams set off on a road trip with his friend Cedric and his son Michael, intending to combine work on
3813-609: The National Park system, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980. Adams was a key advisor in the founding and establishment of the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, an important landmark in securing photography's institutional legitimacy. He helped to stage that department's first photography exhibition, helped found the photography magazine Aperture , and co-founded
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3906-593: The Pacific , from 1925 to 1950. Charles Adams's business suffered large financial losses after the death of his father in the aftermath of the Panic of 1907 . Some of the loss was due to his uncle Ansel Easton and Cedric Wright 's father George secretly having sold their shares of the company, "knowingly providing the controlling interest" to the Hawaiian Sugar Trust for a large amount of money. By 1912,
3999-485: The Sierra Club's efforts to secure the designation of Kings Canyon as a national park. This book and his testimony before Congress played a vital role in the success of that effort, and Congress designated Kings Canyon as a national park in 1940. In 1935, Adams created many new photographs of the Sierra Nevada; and one of his most famous, Clearing Winter Storm , depicted the entire Yosemite Valley , just as
4092-555: The best viewpoints and to brave the worst elements. During the mid-1920s, the fashion in photography was pictorialism , which strove to imitate paintings with soft focus, diffused light, and other techniques. Adams experimented with such techniques, as well as the bromoil process , which involved brushing an oily ink onto the paper. An example is Lodgepole Pines, Lyell Fork of the Merced River , Yosemite National Park (originally named Tamarack Pine ), taken in 1921. Adams used
4185-521: The boundless whole. This led him to oppose U.S. participation in World War II, a stance that was controversial after the U.S. entered the war. Jeffers was born January 10, 1887, in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh), the son of Reverend Dr. William Hamilton Jeffers, a Presbyterian minister and scholar of ancient languages and Biblical history, and Annie Robinson Tuttle. His brother
4278-455: The cheapest in the room, a $ 260 coffin that seemed the least he could purchase without doing the job himself. The undertaker remarked, "Have you no respect for the dead?" Adams replied, "One more crack like that and I will take Mama elsewhere." Adams became interested in playing the piano at age 12 after hearing his 16-year-old neighbor Henry Cowell play on the Adams' piano, and he taught himself to play and read music. Cowell, who later became
4371-635: The creator ( thinker , songwriter , writer , or author ) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or written ), or they may also perform their art to an audience . The work of a poet is essentially one of communication, expressing ideas either in a literal sense (such as communicating about a specific event or place) or metaphorically . Poets have existed since prehistory , in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary greatly in different cultures and periods. Throughout each civilization and language, poets have used various styles that have changed over time, resulting in countless poets as diverse as
4464-486: The effect of the blackened sky before risking the last image. He later said, "I had been able to realize a desired image: not the way the subject appeared in reality but how it felt to me and how it must appear in the finished print." One biographer calls Monolith Adams's most significant photograph because the "extreme manipulation of tonal values" was a departure from all previous photography. Adams's concept of visualization, which he first defined in print in 1934, became
4557-479: The elegant book of Baer's photographs juxtaposed with Jeffers's poetry, combines the creative talents of those two residents of the Big Sur coast. Although Jeffers was largely marginalized in the mainstream academic community for decades, several important contemporary literary critics, including Albert Gelpi of Stanford University, and poet, critic and NEA chairman Dana Gioia , have consistently cited Jeffers as
4650-548: The epic form, including an adaptation of Euripides ' Medea , which became a hit Broadway play starring Dame Judith Anderson . George Sterling and Jeffers were good friends. Fellow poets Edgar Lee Masters and, longer, Benjamin De Casseres , were correspondents. Jeffers encountered D.H. Lawrence in Mabel Dodge Luhan 's circle at Taos; reports of how well they got along vary. In Carmel, Jeffers became
4743-650: The example of photographer Alfred Stieglitz , Adams opened his own art and photography gallery in San Francisco in 1933. He also began to publish essays in photography magazines and wrote his first instructional book, Making a Photograph , in 1935. During the summers, Adams often participated in Sierra Club High Trips outings, as a paid photographer for the group; and the rest of the year a core group of Club members socialized regularly in San Francisco and Berkeley. In 1933, his first child Michael
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#17328015811534836-465: The family's standard of living had dropped sharply. Adams was dismissed from several private schools for being restless and inattentive, so when he was 12, his father decided to remove him from school. For the next two years he was educated by private tutors, his aunt Mary, and his father. Mary was a devotee of Robert G. Ingersoll , a 19th-century agnostic and women's suffrage advocate, so Ingersoll's teachings were important to his upbringing. During
4929-409: The fifties and afterward Jeffers figured as an important voice for the worth and rights of the natural world, as the environmental movement gathered strength. His long-time friend, the photographer Ansel Adams , was a close ally in this, as was Edward Weston . Jeffers coined the word "inhumanism": the belief that humankind is too self-centered and indifferent to the "astonishing beauty of things." In
5022-428: The first part of Tor House, a small, two-story cottage, Jeffers hired a local builder, Michael J. Murphy . He worked with Murphy, and in this short, informal apprenticeship, he learned the art of stonemasonry. He continued adding on to Tor House throughout his life, writing in the mornings and working on the house in the afternoons. Many of his poems reflect the influence of stone and building on his life. He later built
5115-602: The focal point for a small but devoted group of admirers. At the peak of his fame, he was one of the few poets to be featured on the cover of Time magazine. He was asked to read at the Library of Congress , and was posthumously put on a U.S. postage stamp . Jeffers' 1948 collection, The Double Axe and Other Poems (1948), included several poems critical of American involvement in the Second World War and his publisher, Random House , suppressed some poems and included
5208-500: The greatest poet of Polish language, wrote a Latin ode for emperor Napoleon III . Another example is Jerzy Pietrkiewicz , a Polish poet. When he moved to Great Britain, he ceased to write poetry in Polish, but started writing a novel in English. He also translated poetry into English. Many universities offer degrees in creative writing though these only came into existence in the 20th century. While these courses are not necessary for
5301-455: The help of Edward Weston and Charis Wilson (Weston's future wife), Adams put out the fire, but thousands of negatives, including hundreds that had never been printed, were lost. In 1937, Adams, O'Keeffe, and friends organized a month-long camping trip in Arizona, with Orville Cox, the head wrangler at Ghost Ranch , as their guide. Both artists created new work during this trip. Adams made
5394-400: The ideas of Ralph Waldo Emerson : to live a modest, moral life guided by a social responsibility to man and nature. Adams had a loving relationship with his father, but he had a distant relationship with his mother, who did not approve of his interest in photography. The day after her death in 1950, Ansel had a dispute with the undertaker when choosing the casket in which to bury her. He chose
5487-522: The largest and most important photography show in the West to date, attended by millions of visitors. With his wife, Adams completed a children's book and the very successful Illustrated Guide to Yosemite Valley during 1940 and 1941. He also taught photography by giving workshops in Detroit. Adams also began his first serious stint of teaching, which included the training of military photographers, in 1941 at
5580-672: The message, relevance, and solace of humanism. Humanism teaches us best why we suffer, but materialism teaches us how to suffer." His poems have been translated into many languages and published all over the world. Outside of the United States he is most popular in Japan and the Czech Republic. William Everson , Edward Abbey , Robert McDowell , Gary Snyder , and Mark Jarman are just a few recent authors who have been influenced by Jeffers. Charles Bukowski remarked that Jeffers
5673-410: The national literary scene. These poems, including Tamar and Roan Stallion , introduced Jeffers as a master of the epic form, reminiscent of ancient Greek poets. These poems were full of controversial subject matter such as incest, murder and parricide . Jeffers's short verse includes "Hurt Hawks," "The Purse-Seine" and " Shine, Perishing Republic ." His intense relationship with the physical world
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#17328015811535766-415: The north of Ireland during the early 19th century. His paternal grandfather founded a very prosperous lumber business that his father later managed. Later in life, Adams condemned the industry his grandfather worked in for cutting down many of the redwood forests . One of Adams's earliest memories was watching the smoke from the fires caused by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake . Then four years old, Adams
5859-484: The poem " Carmel Point " Jeffers called on humans to "uncenter" themselves. In "The Double Axe" Jeffers explicitly described "inhumanism" as "a shifting of emphasis and significance from man to 'notman'; the rejection of human solipsism , and recognition of the trans-human magnificence... This manner of thought and feeling is neither misanthropic nor pessimist... It offers a reasonable detachment as rule of conduct, instead of love, hate and envy... it provides magnificence for
5952-516: The poems "At the Birth of an Age," "Invasion," "Rock and Hawk," "Tamar," and "The Women at Point Sur," Taylor sees Jeffers as encouraging human beings to embrace the beautiful cruelty of an indifferent universe. Poet Adrienne Rich quotes Jeffers's poem "Prelude" in her poem "Yom Kippur 1984". Poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry . Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be
6045-535: The poet is unknown. The Story of Sinuhe was a popular narrative poem from the Middle Kingdom of Egypt , written c. 1750 BC, about an ancient Egyptian man named Sinuhe , who flees his country and lives in a foreign land until his return, shortly before his death. The Story of Sinuhe was one of several popular narrative poems in Ancient Egyptian . Scholars have conjectured that Story of Sinuhe
6138-475: The prints were made during the 1970s, with their sale finally giving Adams financial independence from commercial projects. The total value of these original prints exceeds $ 25,000,000; the highest price paid for a single print of Moonrise reached $ 609,600 at a 2006 Sotheby's auction in New York. The Mural Project ended on June 30, 1942; and because of the World War, the murals were never created. Adams sent
6231-505: The religious instinct, and satisfies our need to admire greatness and rejoice in beauty." In The Loyalties of Robinson Jeffers , the first in-depth study of Jeffers not written by one of his circle, poet and critic J. Radcliffe Squires addresses the question of a reconciliation of the beauty of the world and potential beauty in mankind: "Jeffers has asked us to look squarely at the universe. He has told us that materialism has its message, its relevance, and its solace. These are different from
6324-471: The technical range of his works, emphasizing detailed close-ups as well as large forms, from mountains to factories. Bender took Adams on visits to Taos, New Mexico , where Adams met and made friends with the poet Robinson Jeffers , artists John Marin and Georgia O'Keeffe , and photographer Paul Strand . His talkative, high-spirited nature combined with his excellent piano playing made him popular among his artist friends. His first book, Taos Pueblo ,
6417-451: The term "artistic kenosis" is sometimes used to describe the hymnographer's success in "emptying out" the instinct to succeed as a poet. A singer in the pew might have several of Watts's stanzas memorized, without ever knowing his name or thinking of him as a poet. Ansel Adams Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of
6510-586: The visit cured him of his disease and compulsions. Adams avidly read photography magazines, attended camera club meetings, and went to photography and art exhibits. He explored the High Sierra during summer and winter with retired geologist and amateur ornithologist Francis Holman, whom he called "Uncle Frank". Holman taught him camping and climbing; however, their shared ignorance of safe climbing techniques such as belaying almost led to disaster on more than one occasion. While in Yosemite, Adams had need of
6603-562: The way to Baker Beach and the sea cliffs leading to Lands End , "San Francisco's wildest and rockiest coast, a place strewn with shipwrecks and rife with landslides." Adams's father had a three-inch telescope, and they enthusiastically shared the hobby of astronomy, visiting the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton together. His father later served as the paid secretary-treasurer of the Astronomical Society of
6696-469: The wild. He spent most of his life in Carmel, California, in a granite house that he built with his own hands which they named " Tor House ". Tor is a term for a craggy outcrop or lookout. Before Jeffers and Una purchased the land where Tor House would be built, they rented two cottages in Carmel, and enjoyed many afternoon walks and picnics at the "tors" near the site that would become Tor House. To build
6789-516: Was Hamilton Jeffers , a well-known astronomer who worked at Lick Observatory . Jeffers traveled through Europe during his youth and attended school in Germany, France, and Switzerland. An outstanding student, he was instructed in the classics and Greek and Latin language and literature. By age twelve, he was fluent in German and French as well as English. He earned his bachelor's degree from Occidental College at age 18. While attending college, he
6882-664: Was a life-long advocate for environmental conservation , and his photographic practice was deeply entwined with this advocacy. At age 14, he was given his first camera during his first visit to Yosemite National Park . He developed his early photographic work as a member of the Sierra Club . He was later contracted with the United States Department of the Interior to make photographs of national parks. For his work and his persistent advocacy, which helped expand
6975-492: Was actually written by an Ancient Egyptian man named Sinuhe, describing his life in the poem; therefore, Sinuhe is conjectured to be a real person. In Ancient Rome , professional poets were generally sponsored by patrons , including nobility and military officials. For instance, Gaius Cilnius Maecenas , friend to Caesar Augustus , was an important patron for the Augustan poets, including both Horace and Virgil . Ovid ,
7068-510: Was an avid outdoorsman and active in the school's literary societies. After he graduated from Occidental, Jeffers went to the University of Southern California (USC) to study at first literature, and then medicine. He met Una Call Kuster in 1906; she was three years older than he, a graduate student, and the wife of a Los Angeles attorney, Edward G. (Ted) Kuster . Jeffers and Una Kuster became lovers; Ted Kuster discovered their affair in 1910. Jeffers dropped out of USC medical school and enrolled as
7161-468: Was asked to form the first fine art photography department at the California School of Fine Arts . Adams invited Dorothea Lange , Imogen Cunningham, and Edward Weston to be guest lecturers, and Minor White to be the principal instructor. The photography department produced numerous notable photographers, including Philip Hyde , Benjamen Chinn , and Bill Heick . In 1952 Adams was one of
7254-417: Was born, followed by Anne two years later. During the 1930s, Adams began to deploy his photographs in the cause of wilderness preservation. He was inspired partly by the increasing incursion into Yosemite Valley of commercial development, including a pool hall, bowling alley, golf course, shops, and automobile traffic. He created the limited-edition book Sierra Nevada: The John Muir Trail in 1938, as part of
7347-483: Was completed by his eldest son. The completed residence was used as a family home until his descendants decided to turn it over to the Tor House Foundation, formed by Ansel Adams , for historic preservation. The romantic Gothic tower was named after a hawk that appeared while Jeffers was working on the structure, and which disappeared the day it was completed. The tower was a gift for his wife Una, who had
7440-694: Was distressed by the Japanese American internment that occurred after the Pearl Harbor attack. He requested permission to visit the Manzanar War Relocation Center in the Owens Valley , at the base of Mount Williamson . The resulting photo-essay first appeared in a Museum of Modern Art exhibit, and later was published as Born Free and Equal : The Story of Loyal Japanese-Americans . Upon its release, "[the book]
7533-535: Was first elected to the Sierra Club's board of directors in 1934 and served on the board for 37 years. Adams participated in the club's annual High Trips , later becoming assistant manager and official photographer for the trips. He is credited with several first ascents in the Sierra Nevada. During his twenties, most of his friends had musical associations, particularly violinist and amateur photographer Cedric Wright , who became his best friend as well as his philosophical and cultural mentor. Their shared philosophy
7626-407: Was from Edward Carpenter 's Towards Democracy , a literary work which endorsed the pursuit of beauty in life and art. For several years, Adams carried a pocket edition with him while at Yosemite; and it became his personal philosophy as well. He later stated, "I believe in beauty. I believe in stones and water, air and soil, people and their future and their fate." During summer, Adams would enjoy
7719-538: Was his favorite poet. Polish poet Czesław Miłosz also took an interest in Jeffers's poetry and worked as a translator for several volumes of his poems. Jeffers also exchanged some letters with his Czech translator and popularizer, the poet Kamil Bednář . Writer Paul Mooney (1904–1939), son of American Indian authority James Mooney (1861–1921) and collaborator of travel writer Richard Halliburton (1900–1939), "was known always to carry with him (a volume of Jeffers) as
7812-480: Was in U.S. Camera 1943 annual, after being selected by the "photo judge" for U.S. Camera , Edward Steichen . This gave Moonrise an audience before its first formal exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1944. Over nearly 40 years, Adams re-interpreted the image, his most popular by far, using the latest darkroom equipment at his disposal, making over 1,369 unique prints, mostly in 16" by 20" format. Many of
7905-617: Was included in the track "California Saga" on The Beach Boys album Holland (1973). Two lines from Jeffers's poem "We Are Those People" are quoted toward the end of the 2008 film Visioneers . Several lines from Jeffers's poem "Wise Men in Their Bad Hours" ("Death's a fierce meadowlark: but to die having made / Something more equal to the centuries / Than muscle and bone, is mostly to shed weakness.") appear in Christopher McCandless ' diary. Robinson Jeffers
7998-531: Was less disciplined about recording the dates of his images, and he neglected to note the date of Moonrise . But the position of the Moon allowed the image to be eventually dated from astronomical calculations, and in 1991 Dennis di Cicco of Sky & Telescope determined that Moonrise was made on November 1, 1941. Since this was a day for which he had not billed the department, the image belonged to Adams. When Edward Steichen formed his Naval Aviation Photographic Unit in early 1942, he wanted Adams to be
8091-405: Was light everywhere.... A new era began for me." His father gave him his first camera during that stay, an Eastman Kodak Brownie box camera , and he took his first photographs with his "usual hyperactive enthusiasm". He returned to Yosemite on his own the next year with better cameras and a tripod. During the winters of 1917 and 1918, he learned basic darkroom technique while working part-time for
8184-442: Was made probably enhanced the photograph's fame: the light on the crosses in the foreground was rapidly fading, and he could not find his exposure meter; however, he remembered the luminance of the Moon and used it to calculate the proper exposure. In the resulting negative the foreground was underexposed, the highlights in the clouds were quite dense, and the negative proved difficult to print. The initial publication of Moonrise
8277-516: Was met with some distressing resistance and was rejected by many as disloyal." This work was a significant departure, stylistically and philosophically, from the work for which Adams is generally known. He also contributed to the war effort by doing many photographic assignments for the military, including making prints of secret Japanese installations in the Aleutians. In 1943, Adams had a camera platform mounted on his station wagon, to afford him
8370-511: Was not yet up to the standards of Strand. He decided to broaden his subject matter to include still life and close-up photos and to achieve higher quality by "visualizing" each image before taking it. He emphasized the use of small apertures and long exposures in natural light, which created sharp details with a wide range of distances in focus, as demonstrated in Rose and Driftwood (1933), one of his finest still-life photographs. In 1932, Adams had
8463-436: Was published in 1930 with text by writer Mary Hunter Austin . Strand proved especially influential. Adams was impressed by the simplicity and detail of Strand's negatives, which showed a style that ran counter to the soft-focus, impressionistic pictorialism still popular at the time. Strand shared secrets of his technique with Adams and convinced him to pursue photography fully. One of Strand's suggestions that Adams adopted
8556-833: Was to use glossy paper to intensify tonal values. Adams put on his first solo museum exhibition, Pictorial Photographs of the Sierra Nevada Mountains by Ansel Adams , at the Smithsonian Institution in 1931; it featured 60 prints taken in the High Sierra and the Canadian Rockies . He received a favorable review from the Washington Post : "His photographs are like portraits of the giant peaks, which seem to be inhabited by mythical gods." Despite his success, Adams felt that he
8649-499: Was uninjured in the initial shaking but was tossed face-first into a garden wall during an aftershock three hours later, breaking and scarring his nose. A doctor recommended that his nose be reset once he reached maturity, but it remained crooked and necessitated mouth breathing for the rest of his life. In 1907, his family moved 2 miles (3 km) west to a new home near the Seacliff neighborhood of San Francisco, just south of
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