Yaddo: Making American Culture

Few names in American arts and letters resonate like Yaddo, the artists' colony on a wooded estate in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., which has hosted generations of America's greatest writers, artists, critics and musicians. In this splendid book, which accompanies an exhibition at the New York Public Library, McGee (the exhibit's curator) and her contributors trace Yaddo's history through both personal recollections and historical research. Poetry critic Helen Vendler recalls the glittering conversations she had and the freedom, solitude and inspiration her stays gave her to delve into Yeats's life, while Allan Gurganus writes evocatively about the ghosts who are said to haunt the mansion. McGee chronicles Yaddo's origins as the country retreat of Spencer and Katrina Trask and their children and its development in 1926 into an artists' retreat, presided over by Elizabeth Ames for almost 40 years. David Gates relates that Yaddo's artistic soil is so fertile that its residents have racked up 62 Pulitzers, 58 National Book Awards, 24 MacArthur Fellowships and 106 Rome Prizes. Chock-full of photographs, this lavishly detailed book offers an intimate glimpse into life at this enchanting and storied retreat. (Nov.)