The Mentor: Famous American Sculptors, Vol. 1, Num. 36, Serial No. 36

Before America had a sculptural tradition, it had ambition. In these pages, Lorado Taft, himself a towering figure in American sculpture, profiles the artists who built something from nothing. Here are the lives of John Quincy Adams Ward, whose 'Indian Hunter' gave voice to a vanishing world; Augustus Saint-Gaudens, whose Lincoln in Chicago remains the most copied presidential statue in American history; Daniel Chester French, whose tiny seated Lincoln watches over the nation from inside the Lincoln Memorial. Taft writes as an insider among insiders, tracing how American sculpture evolved from cautious imitation of European masters to bold, original voices that commanded global respect. These are stories of stone and bronze, of public monuments that still define city squares a century later, of artists wrestling marble into meaning. For anyone curious about where American art came from, or why certain statues feel immortal, this collection offers both history and revelation.