A Letter From The Publisher, Sep. 2, 1957

TWO years ago, TIME'S Art Editor Alexander Eliot rolled a sheet of paper into his typewriter and carefully composed a memo to Senior Editor Edward Cerf. The memo developed an idea that Eliot had been trying out on his friends in the art world and his colleagues, including TIME Art Director Michael Phillips and myself. "We now have the opportunity," Eliot wrote, "of producing the first really handsome historical survey of American art ever published. The raw material for such a book is already ours." By raw material, Eliot meant an impressive collection of 1,069 color plates printed in the Art...