The Sphinx and the Milky Way - Selections from the Journals of Charles Burchfield

The Sphinx and the Milky Way - Selections from the Journals of Charles Burchfield, edited by Ben Estes / ISBN 9781734035148 / 174-page paperback, 5.75 x 8.25 inches, published in 2023 by the Song Cave / illustrated *** In the early years of the twentieth century, Charles Burchfield (1893-1967) began painting mystic and visionary landscapes, and with some of his contemporaries, including Edward Hopper, Georgia O'Keefe, and Grant Wood, can be seen to have built the foundations of a particularly American sensibility that the critic Dave Hickey said "continues to evoke an unrepentant, gnostic vision of this vast, rolling, abandoned continent—America without Europe—America without Americans—a massive, alluring kingdom ..." For most of his life, Burchfield also kept a journal. Over 54 years, he filled nearly 10,000 pages. To call this journal epic would be an understatement. A masterpiece whose bulk has remained unread, it is a handwritten tome that combines elements of the American nature j