Reviews -- A Basket of Chips: An Autobiography by James Taylor Harwood



	A Basket of Chips An Autobiography by James Taylor Harwood

Utah Historical Quarterly, William C. Seifrit
Utah history generally, and Utah art history specifically, are enriched by the publication of James T. Harwood's autobiography. This reviewer was left wistful for not having known this remarkable man. Harwood's selective and unfortunately incomplete self-portrait tells the reader what Harwood wanted known: one could speculate endlessly as to what might have been produced had he and his second wife worked together longer and harder on his memoirs.

This work is a collection of six topical essays begun seventeen years prior to his death and never worked up into finished form. They stand, however, as one of the most revealing summations of a Utah artist's life yet produced. Harwood was not a polished writer, yet his recollections contain a quiet charm, gentlemanliness, and country-boy openness that is captivating. The chief failure of this work is its incompleteness; the main strength of the work is its existence. We now have a major autobiographical statement from a major Utah artist whose work spanned more than half a century, whose reputation was international, and whose influence is still felt forty-five years after his death.

This is a comfortable little book. Olpin sets the scene nicely for Harwood's essays and has largely avoided deifying the artist. One senses that the editor may have wished to provide even more emendations than actually appear; fuller documentation should probably wait until a full biography can be prepared. The editorial staff of the Tanner Trust is to be commended on the presentation of this book; it is one of the most attractive of the series.

A Basket of Chips is an important contribution to an understanding of Utah's art history.