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Winter Art Show

March 2023
1min read

Daniel Webster maintains what frail hold he still has on the popular imagination through Stephen Vincent Benèt’s superb short story that locks him in oratorical combat with the Devil. Butin his day he was a true folk hero, his fierce dark eyes, barrel chest, and rock of a jaw backed up by a rhetorical brilliance unmatched by anyone else alive. This Webster is very evident in the fine likeness opposite, by Francis Alexander, who was Boston’s most popular portraitist when Webster sat for him in 1835. Later “Black Dan” would infuriate much of his New England constituency by backing the fugitive-slave law; but Alexander’s powerful portrait shows one of the most popular men in America.

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Stories published from "December 1987"

Authored by: Wallace Stegner

“Why hasn't the stereotype faded away as real cowboys become less and less typical of Western life? Because we can't or won't do without it, obviously.”

Authored by: The Editors

Superb carvings by an obscure artisan recapture the circus world of the 1920s

Authored by: Thomas Fleming

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Authored by: Alfred Kazin

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Authored by: Bryan R. Johnson

Americans have been doing just that since the days of the California gold rush—and we’re still not full

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