Somehow a Past: The Autobiography of Marsden Hartley

Hartley (1877-1943) was a pioneer modernist in American art whose travels and acquaintances comprise much of the avant-garde in the early-20th-century U.S. and Europe. Inspired by his friend Gertrude Stein's The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, among other memoirs, Hartley began a series of reminiscences in 1933, now gathered and incisively introduced by Ryan. Slapdash though they often are, the writings present a revealing look at a well-connected but solitary figure and a peek into a restless and energetic age. The narrative hopscotches from Hartley's native Maine to Cleveland to New York, where he joined the circle of Alfred Stieglitz, to the Paris of Stein's salon, to pre-WWI Berlin, to Provincetown, Mass.; New Mexico; Florence; Mexico; Aix-en-Provence... and at last back to Maine. Hartley's voice is often that of a chirpy naif--at its worst when he tries for Steinian pastiche (""It is the room around Alice and Gertrude--it is them in the room it is the room with everybody passing through it""). More often he tosses off arresting imagery--notably a military pageant in Berlin--or such gems as ""you must sleep well and eat well if you are to look at pictures."" The reader is left with a touching portrait of a shy New Englander eager to be liked and disposed to wander. Illustrations. (Jan.)