Artist, Soldier, Lover, Muse

Freshly graduated from Yale in 1935, Henry J. Kapler parlays his talent, determination, and creative energy into a burgeoning art career in New York under the wing of artists such as Edward Hopper and Reginald Marsh. The young artist first gains notoriety when his depiction of a symbolic, interracial handshake between ballplayers is attacked by a knife-wielding assailant at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington. Yet even as his art star rises, his personal life turns precarious--and perilous--when his love for Fiona, a young WPA muralist, collides with his growing attraction to the exquisitely beautiful Alice, an ex-chorus girl who becomes his model and muse. Alice is the girlfriend of Fiona's cousin, Jake Powell, the hotheaded, hard-drinking outfielder for the New York Yankees whose jealousy explodes into abuse and rage, endangering the lives of all three. While Henry wrestles with his complicated love life, he also struggles mightily to reconcile his pacifism with the rabid patriotism of his Jewish-Russian migr father. As war draws near, Henry faces two difficult choices, one of which could cost him his life.
Artist, Soldier, Lover, Muse transports the reader to pre-war New York City, into the creative mind of the artist, and into the lives of major figures from the worlds of art, sports, and politics. In the tradition of art-centered fiction such as Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch, Dominic Smith's The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, Tracy Chevalier's Girl with a Pearl Earring, and B. A. Shapiro's The Art Forger, it will appeal to art lovers, sports enthusiasts, and lovers of smart historical fiction.

Author: Arthur D. Hittner
Publisher: Apple Ridge Fine Arts
Published: 12/05/2017
Pages: 354
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.99lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.79d
ISBN: 9780998981017

About the Author
Hittner, Arthur D.: - ARTHUR D. HITTNER has been writing books and articles about art and baseball for more than two decades. A retired attorney, he spent nearly thirty-four years with the national law firm now known as Nixon Peabody LLC, resident in the firm's Boston office. He served as a trustee of Danforth Art (formerly the Danforth Museum of Art) in Framingham, Massachusetts and the Tucson Museum of Art in Tucson, Arizona and was a co-owner of the Lowell Spinners, a minor league baseball club affiliated with his beloved Boston Red Sox. Married with two children and three grandchildren, Hittner currently divides his time between Oro Valley, Arizona and Natick, Massachusetts. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School.