"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.

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Vachel Lindsay (1879-1931) studied painting at the Art Institute of Chicago and then in New York with Robert Henri before becoming a poet. He was a member of the Modernist School (others included Ezra Pound,e. e. cummings, and Wallace Stevens) and published over a dozen collections of poetry.

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