Dime-Store Alchemy: The Art of Joseph Cornell (New York Review Books Classics)

This book will be added to our non-profit community library...

As a longtime admirer of both Charles Simic & Joseph Cornell, it was perhaps inevitable that I would love this little book. What I didn't expect was just how much I'd love it, for its dreamlike yet precisely detailed tone. The short passages are magical prose-poems, often focusing on one tiny thing that illuminates the universe of Cornell's art & imagination. The overall effect is that of stumbling upon a verbal equivalent of Cornell's famed boxes; the text adds new dimensions to the art, and the art provides a foundation for the jeweled text. Rarely have I come across such a perfect marriage of subject & commentator. Obviously best suited for similar admirers of Simic & Cornell … but also a fascinating introduction to the distinctive personal visions of both men. Thank you, NYRB, for making this exquisite volume available again!

This was the first book that I bought on my Cornell journey. I was lost and didn’t care for the book. After reading every other Cornell book, and making my own boxes, this book has improved.

This adorable book is a pleasure to hold in the hand! 7.25" x 5" and bound in midnight blue cloth lettered in silver and with a Cornell image applied to the front cover it is the perfect size and shape for this group of appreciations and quotations from Joseph Cornell's notes by the poet Charles Simic. I'm in love! But it is only fair to admit that I was a beeg fan of the work of both men before I ever saw this volume. It would be a treasured gift for that quirky, discerning friend.

I was dubious at first so got this book from the library. Once I read it, I couldn't order my own copy fast enough! Simic's poetic responses to Cornell's enigmatic work adds another dimension to my appreciation of Cornell. Now I want to read more of Simic's poetry. He is an alchemist of words.

If you are interested in Joseph Cornell this is a collection of poems you might want to review from an acclaimed writer and poet. Interesting insight and interpretation of Cornell's assemblages

If you are interested in the flaneur, in art, in how nonfiction in the hands of this great American poet can give us insight not just into the work of Joseph Cornell but into our own lives on the streets of our towns and cities, perceiving everything in this daily collage that has order and no order, and could all be art, could all be moving in the right eyes.

A wonderful writing assignment I was introduced to it graduate school was to write a poem about a work of art. Poet Charles Simic has written a poem, prose and wonderful reflections - an assemblage of words - on the life and work of surrealist assemblage artist Joseph Cornell and his boxes. This is a treasure of a book if one is acquainted first with the work of Joseph Cornell.

I'm a huge fan of Joseph Cornell and already own a number of books about his life and work. This slim volume is rather different, being a meditation by an author who is a poet in his own right. If you want information and straight analysis then this is probably not for you but if you already have knowledge of Cornell then this will add depth and insight, coming as it does from a very personal angle. There is a small section of colour prints in the middle which are referred to in the text.

A joy to read the eloquent poetic words about the eloquent collector / displayer / employer of ephemera; a small inspired combination, far outvaluing more academic voluminous volumes

great book, arrived in good time

There are not many books about Cornell and so any book gets points for writing about him. The book needs more images of the actual artwork and the writing is 'round-about' Cornell not directly engaged with his work. A good book about Cornell still needs to be written. This one is a stop-gap.

Interesting read