It should be quite clear that it is possible for unpleasant people who are small in various ways other than in their artistic genius to produce great art. Art and morality have no necessary connection. Fred Kaplan Read Quote
Can a great artist be mean-spirited, grasping, harsh to his family, violent in his emotions, vindictive in his hatreds, an all-purpose scoundrel? If our test cases are the likes of Wagner, Picasso, and, let me say, Dickens, the answer is a resounding yes. Fred Kaplan Read Quote
Colonel Roosevelt’ is compelling reading, and Morris a brilliant biographer who practices his art at the highest level. Fred Kaplan Read Quote
The challenge of a president himself struggling to find the conjunction between the right words and honest expression, a use of language that respects intellect, truth, and sincerity, has largely been abandoned. Fred Kaplan Read Quote
The value of Eric Foner’s ‘The Fiery Trial’ lies in its comprehensive review of mostly familiar material; in its sensible evaluation of the full range of information already available about Abraham Lincoln and slavery; and in the deft thoroughness of its scholarship. Fred Kaplan Read Quote
With all due respect to re-enactors, I consider the Civil War too tragic a subject to make a game of. Fred Kaplan Read Quote
I’m not a Lincoln expert, rather a biographer who has had the pleasure of reading much of what has been written about him from his lifetime to this year of his bicentennial. Some advice: Don’t try that unless you have at least five years available. Fred Kaplan Read Quote
Is there really any relationship between artists’ personal conduct and their art? Certainly not. Fred Kaplan Read Quote