Books by Elaine Scarry

Have we become beauty-blind? This title not only defends beauty from the political arguments against it but also argues that beauty does indeed press us toward a greater concern for justice. It offers a manifesto for the revival of beauty in our intellectual work as well as our homes, museums, and classrooms.

Just as painters understand paint, composers musical instruments, and sculptors stone or metal, verbal artists understand the only material in which their creations will get made - the back-lit tissue of the human brain. This book explores the almost miraculous processes by which poets and writers teach us the work of imaginative creation.