The Dream of Arcadia: American Writers and Artists in Italy 1760-1915

New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc, 1958. 8vo.  205 x 135 mm., [8 1/4 x 5 1/4 inches].  [16], 272 pp.  Gray publisher's cloth, embossed publisher's mark on upper board, blue label on spine, dust jacket.  Some very minor fraying to head and tail of spine, dust jacket with scrape to outer edge of front wrapper and tiny chips at head and tail of spine.

First edition inscribed "For Julius Teller with affection Van Wyck Brooks/ 1958".   Van Wyck Brooks, the noted historian, Pulitzer Prize winner, and National Book Award recipient, investigates the  experience of American writers and artists in Italy before the WWI.  Focusing on Prescott, Bancroft, Cooper, Longfellow, Hawthorne, Adams, Twain, Wharton and Howells, and artists like West, Copley, Greenough and Powers, Brooks delves into the impact of Italy on the creations that came organically from this seductive country.  In doing so he offers insights into the changing nature of Italy over a century and a half since Americans began to travel to the cities of the ancient world and Renaissance period.