“[Delbanco’s] latest essay collection . . . reveals itself as a musical composition, with repetitions and variations of thematic material weaving in and out of its unfolding.” —Provincetown Arts

“Delbanco has a fine intellect and a sharp pen, and he wields both with precision.” —Harvard Review

“The Art of Youth is a brilliant book about the power of youth to make great art, itself suffused with youthfulness, with wisdom and diligence and hope. . . .Dazzling in detail and amazingly well informed.” —Paul Theroux, author of Deep South

A miscellany of sorts, preeminent author and critic Nicholas Delbanco’s Curiouser and Curiouser attests to a lifelong interest in music and the visual arts as well as both “mere” and “sheer” literature. With essays ranging from the restoration of his father-in-law’s famed Stradivarius cello—known throughout the world as “The Countess of Stanlein”—to a reimagining of H. A. and Margaret Rey’s lives and the creation of their most beloved character, Curious George, Delbanco examines what it means to live and love with the arts.

Whether exploring the history of personal viewing in the business of museum-going, musing on the process of rewriting one’s earliest published work, or looking back on the twists and turns of a life that spans the greater part of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, Delbanco’s Curiouser and Curiouser invites adventurous readers to follow him down the rabbit hole as he reflects on life as a student, an observer, a writer, a lover, a father, a teacher, and most importantly, a participant in the everyday experiences of human life.

Nicholas Delbanco is the author of thirty books of fiction and nonfiction, including the novels The Years, The Count of Concord, and Spring and Fall and his nonfiction works The Art of Youth: Crane, Carrington, Gershwin, and the Nature of First Acts, The Countess of Stanlein Restored, and The Lost Suitcase: Reflections on the Literary Life.

Contents

Author’s Note

The Countess of Stanlein Restored

A Visit to the Gallery

Curiouser and Curiouser

My Old Young Books

Towards an Autobiography

Acknowledgments