This is a great book telling a wonderful story of art in America. This is what American art is all about and how this little pottery enterprise made its mark on the art world. You will enjoy this book very much.

I wrote the 1st review of this book. There are 3 typo's in the second paragraph. It should read "Shearwater POTTERY not potter, (2) struggled not strugged, and (3) their ART not air. Thanks for letting me make these corrections.

THE STORY OF A FAMILY'S DEDICATION TO EACH OTHER AND THEIR ART

By Lynna Williams.

Maria Estrella Iglesias, a collector of American art pottery, was in an antiques mall near Nashville when she saw a pottery vase glazed "an extraordinary blue." Seeing it across the cluttered room "was like catching a glimpse of the ocean," and when she turned it over she found a name and mark unfamiliar to her. Iglesias couldn't know it then, but that chance introduction to Shearwater Pottery would open up an extraordinary world apart: the personal and public history of the Andersons of Ocean Springs, Miss.

Some readers may already be familiar with the brilliant work of painter, printmaker and muralist Walter Inglis Anderson without knowing the story of his role in the pottery, and the broader story of his family's passionate commitment to art as a way of life.

Four generations of Andersons have created Shearwater's art and, while cordially disliking the term "artist," have nurtured potters, painters, sculptors, poets and writers, from the Depression to the present. The story Iglesias and her husband, Vanderbilt professor Christopher Maurer, tell in "Dreaming in Clay on the Coast of Mississippi" has passion and torment sufficient for grand opera, all borne of a relentless dedication to the making of art. It would be a remarkable story in any time. In the America of the 21st Century, when art is so often viewed as extraneous in our daily lives, or as just another commodity to be consumed, it takes on a special, almost electric, resonance. Maurer and Iglesias' book, which starts with an account of their own "falling into" the Shearwater world, is a compelling account of lives in which art, for better and worse, is as basic a necessity of life as air and water.

It began with a marriage, 100 years ago. After a 12-year courtship, George Walter Anderson, a prosperous grain dealer, wed Annette McConnell, a lawyer's daughter educated at Newcomb College in New Orleans, a central force in the post-Civil War resurgence of arts and crafts in the South. By 1907 there were three sons: Peter, Walter Inglis and James McConnell.

From the beginning, their artistic mother wanted art to wash over them, to be fundamental to who they were. Their businessman father dreamed of "Anderson, Incorporated," the family functioning as a unit. "Dreaming in Clay" documents how both parents' wishes shaped their sons' lives, from their free spirits and work ethic, to their specialized educations, to their vocations, to their choice of wives for whom love and art were one, inextricably linked. As in fairy tales, both wishes-for art, for a family enterprise-came true, but not at all in simple, happily-ever-after fashion.

As an enterprise, Shearwater Pottery began after the family's move in 1918 from New Orleans to Ocean Springs, a place where the beauty and wildness of the natural world led inevitably to the making of art. Oldest son Peter was 22 or 23 when he built a kiln in the side of a hill. One of the pleasures of "Dreaming in Clay" is its careful record of what was involved in the making of modern pottery, and an artistic community, in a "sleepy coastal town that had never had more than a nodding acquaintance with art."

Slowly, amid Peter's ongoing education with established artists intrigued with the experiment at Ocean Springs, the family worked to perfect the technical aspects of producing pottery: the right kiln, the right glazes, the right touch with wheel and hand-thrown pots. The Andersons were getting a business on its feet, but artistic concerns were paramount from the beginning: More than 2,500 pots considered unacceptable -- sometimes entire kilnloads -- were intentionally destroyed before Shearwater opened to the public. The name for the pottery came from a book about birds but was used in tribute to Mississippi's black skimmers, which shear the surface of the water to scoop up small fish. The name reflects what has become Shearwater's enduring connection to the Mississippi landscape.

In writing "Dreaming in Clay," Maurer and Iglesias were given access to the family's archive, and it is in the letters of the day that the family's struggles and triumphs come most vividly alive. Nowhere is that more true than in the stories of the two oldest sons, Peter and Walter Inglis (called Bobby by his family), and the women they would marry, sisters Patricia and Agnes "Sissy" Grinstead. Pat was "transported" the moment she saw the handsome Peter Anderson, and was immediately adopted as a "true" member of the clan. Bob's courtship of Sissy was long and arduous, and drew him into producing decorative pottery and figurines at Shearwater as a livelihood, a way of showing that he, too, could support a wife. The two were married in 1933; four years later, Bob had a devastating mental breakdown. Not long after, Peter, too, was hospitalized, suffering from depression. Peter's illness was more easily treated; Bob's involved a more prolonged hospital stay, and the latest, and most extreme, of psychiatric treatments. When he returned home to Ocean Springs he would find his art again but never be a part of the family in the same way as before.

The book's account of Sissy and Pat Anderson is fascinating in its picture of women determined that both love and art would survive. The resolve of all the family to see each other through, no matter what, helps make "Dreaming in Clay" a highly readable and remarkable testament. We're able to appreciate the survival of Shearwater Pottery into the 21st Century in part because it is also the continuation of a family that has lived, and lived through, its passion for art.

Walter Anderson was an extremely unique and interesting fellow. After hearing about him, I wanted to see some of his paintings and read more about him. The book has many color plates which will give you more than a feel for his style. The introductory chapter provides a nice biography and is in large measure an essay on his artistic style and philosophy, as viewed by Redding Sugg, jr. The bulk of the book, (pages 38 to 236)are transcribed log entries by the artist himself. I am glad that what was included was included, but after about the 100th page of "today I saw a duck. A boat went by. I drew a Pelican. The wind was blowing.....", it gets a bit boring. Still, I wanted to learn about this guy and I feel that, having read the book, I have done so.

I have been interested in Walter Inglis Anderson since I first saw some of his stunning watercolors and woodcuts. This book allows the reader to see the world through his eyes and to experience with him the wonders of nature. It records the time he spent living, sans shelter other than his overturned rowboat, on Horn Island, an island off the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Anyone who loves Anderson's work (and if you've not seen it, you should) will love this chance to delve into his philosophies and insights as he tries to capture the world around him perfectly through pen, ink, and watercolor.

Anderson argues that evolution has accelerated tremendously as a result of the "augmentation" of humans through technology. Because Anderson is so enthralled with technological developments, he doesn't pay much attention to the downside. He breathlessly reports on one invention after another without acknowledging that they don't always work the way they're supposed to. For example, he talks about the wonders of penile implants without saying a word about all the problems people have experienced with them. Anderson talks in grant generalizations that are removed from concrete reality. He likes to think of himself as the practical guy in the middle of the extremists of the right and left, but he is basically setting up straw men; he exhibits little interest in trying to understand where they are really coming from. So, for example, he portrays what he calls "the Far Green" as follows: "By demonizing technology, it renders itself incapable of helping us to understand life in a high-technology, informatizing world." If he stopped to think about what he means by "demonizing technology," he would realize how nonsensical his charge is. There are legitimate criticisms to be made of some environmentalists, but Anderson makes no attempt to evaluate them fairly.

The title is misleading for this book in that it is only peripherally concerned with Darwin's theory. The subtitle is only slightly better. The difficulty in naming this book is its interdisciplinary nature. Anderson covers biology, cybernetics, information technology, agriculture, environmentalism, and genetic research. Although all are specialized fields, Anderson shows how they interact with each other cud every one of us. It is an exciting time to be alive, Anderson says.

Like many popular books on science, Evolution starts off slowly. Because Anderson cannot be sure of the background that every reader brings to his book, he spends the first half of each section in a survey of one or two of his inter-connected subjects. Interspersed in the survey are some delectable bits of controversy and discovery, but he saves the items That have the most impact for the last sections. Since the book is organized into four different sections, this makes for a thrilling roller coaster ride through some of the most exiting terrain in science today.

In the first 50 pages, I was somewhat bored by Anderson's prose (he is no David Quammen) and slightly skeptical of his early opinions. At the halfway point I realized that I was reading much more smoothly and often nodding my head at the text. When I found myself quoting this book at a business meeting the next day, I knew I was learning from this book.

Anderson's basic thesis is that humans have taken control of their own evolution, and the mechanisms of this control are the convergence of biology and technology, and seen today in the growing field of biotech. I have long thought that information is the opposite of entropy (in a local sense) and Anderson closely dovetails into this idea with his concept of information being the control mechanism by which we modify our biological environment. In a sense we have done this in the past, through the use of corrective lenses and vaccines. But these are only baby steps compared to the strides we may be capable of shortly.

Anderson's personal background is rooted in the environmental movement (which, if you were unaware of it, you find out in the last section), and his moderate stance on certain issues is quite refreshing compared to the demagoguery we are subjected to daily. While you may disagree with his predictions, it is important to think about and discuss them.

I've read a lot of books on biotechnology, and I have to say that this is my absolute favorite. Dr. Anderson has tremendous insight, and does a nice job explaining this how this tremendously powerful technology is going to affect all of us, and in fact already does. An excellent book.

Anderson basis his book on an argument that has little to do with analysis and much to do with superficially convincing the reader to accept his position as true. It makes me so upset when writers attempt to manipulate the reader, as if we are stupid and cannot distinguish between real evidence and the general, abstract references he has presented. I hope that this book will not be taken seriously by the readers, and that someday someone will explicate these theories in a REAL analysis.

Anderson describes a world in which the self is endangered, nearing extinction. Though his style is charming, funny, appealing to the masses, his ideas, as innovative as they seem, really have too many loopholes to be accepted in the academic world. It is a glitzy, superficial book making a circular argument about the "liberation" of the human being from the concept of self. The idea is good, but each chapter really needs a lot more explaining to really get to the whys and hows of things, if he's really serious about making a social statement. Otherwise, this book is as souless as the society he describes.

As a novice to the world of post-modern philosophy, I found this book helpful in starting the inquiry into the terms, ideas, and metaphors used to explain the post-modern point of view. While obviously not an academic rendering, Anderson's style of writing is informative and journalistic. He may not be accurate in all that he reports, but his book has motivated me seek out more information.