Finally, an introduction to these two Deerfield MA sisters who turned to photography as a trade when deafness interfered with teaching careers. At a time when women weren't commonly professional photographers, they were able to successfully support themselves with commercial sales of pictures which were sensitive and artistic at the same time as marketable. Flynt gives us a detailed biography, many illustrations, and a hundred full-page plates of their beautiful photographs. The foreword is rich in detail about other women photographers of the time. This book is informative specifically about two women succeeding in their career, but also about the development of photography as an art form, the idealization of rural life culturally, and the political nuances of feminism at that point in time. Readers will be happy to have made acquaintance with the Allen sisters and savored their bucolic, charming, and tranquil pictures of life, specifically of children and their simple pleasures. Flynt has done an admirable job presenting the hard work of the Allens that resulted in such delicate images.

Rare is it that any photographic book captures the imagination as does this book. The Allen sisters tale of woe school teachers gone deaf to becoming world renowned photographers from the Arts & Crafts movement is quite the metamorphises. Long and short of it this book is a testament to the strength of character of these women as they overcome lives chalanges to embrace their fullest potential in an era when women couldn't even vote. Kudos Ms. Flynt for collecting the best collection of Allen sisters photographs I've ever seen and writing, with annotation such a fine piece of literature. Ms. Rosenblum's introduction as in all her world class work set the plate for one of the finest Photographic books to be published in years.

Robert Rosenblum is a true scholar in the world of art history. Throughout my undergraduate years, I had looked to his writings for guidance and to gain an understanding of the subject matter. While 1900, Art At The Crossroads is enjoyable and the color plates are stunning, it should be noted that it is companion piece to an exhibition and not a book for academic research. Overall, it is a fine book.

This book balances the often overpraised work of the impressionists with the reality of the Salon artists (academics) at that time and the rumblings of modernism to come. As a painter, this title is a real treat... it's always been so hard to find examples from this era, that have not been washed away from post 1920's revisionist art history. Accurately reconstructing the exhibits of that era and showing what was on the fringes speaks for itself.

I'm sorry to see this novel is out of print, it was very good. One might mention that Before she wrote this novel, Mary Rosenblum wrote several short stories about "The Drylands".

The thing that makes this novel stand out is that it's much more realistic and low-key than most science fiction novels, and the near future it portrays is all too beliavable. The only actual fantastical element comes from the inclusion of "mutants" with special talents that have begun to develop as a result of living in The Drylands.

This realistic and grim-and-gritty aspect also makes "The Drylands" quite different from Rosenblum's next novel "Chimera", which was also very good, but very different.

Rosenblum brings scifi to the northwest, and does it with a very real overtone. Written at a time when the area was begninning to find that water was limited even there, Rosenblum brings us a possible future where water controls all our lives from its scarcity.

This is a captivating book with spirit, emotion and a well thought out sci fi "future" which makes for one of those books that it is just difficult to put down. I look forward to reading some other books by this auther.

Usually, scifi lit is very manly, full of men and their machines. Rosenblum manages to show the feminine feel of the genre, and does it without overdoing it and alienating those who don't fit that description.

I really enjoyed this book - Mary please write more books soon

Rosenblum is an excellent author that does not get the wider attention many lessor talents recieve.

This collection displays the best of her gritty, distopian style. I personally prefer the more (do I say it?) "cyberpunkish" stories over the eco-disaster "Drylands" stories.

If I can find any fault with the author, it is in her slow production of novels. Recommended.