John Sacret Young ’69's 'Artoir' Blends Memoir and Art

The book: In Pieces of Glass (Tallfellow Press), an illustrated memoir comprising chapters that pivot around different pieces of art, John Sacret Young ’69 reflects on the way art has shaped his life. He explores memories ranging from the stories he and his late sister spent their childhood recording on the walls of their garage to the way art became an integral part of a cancer-stricken friend’s final days. Artists such as Mark Rothko, Norman Rockwell, and Charles Burchfield make appearances, accompanied by Young’s musings on the effect their work has had on him. The memoir’s publication in the spring coincided with a Sotheby’s auction of four paintings from Young’s collection.

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Opening lines: “What Ernest Hemingway called ‘the perpendicular pronoun’ – I – as opposed to that more sitting down, horizontal fellow – me – may haunt these pages. It is only true because this book stems from my trying, not without foolishness, to hold up light and a lens, my lens, to the remarkable characters and their art that, in most instances, precedes my existence and, even more, will outlive my own.”

Reviews: Art critic and curator Peter Frank says, “Even as he indulges his own memories, John Sacret Young indulges his readers’ appetites, wrapping artwork, vital and bracing, at hand and distant, in rich pockets of nostalgia without smothering either art’s fire or life’s tang.”