Utopia Parkway

“Deborah Solomon’s admirable biography illuminates the life of the man without diminishing the mystery of his art.” —New York Magazine

“A principal virtue of this biography . . . is that it challenges in a very authoritative way the received idea of Cornell as merely the timorous recluse, the marginal artist of Utopia Parkway.” 
—James R. Mellow, New York Times Book Review

“As perfectly composed, richly nuanced and quietly surprising as one of Cornell’s boxes.” —Donna Seaman, Chicago Tribune

“Deborah Solomon’s clear-eyed and sympathetic narrative does for [Cornell’s] life what he, as an artist, did for his penny world…It is a book about Cornell I would not dare to have hoped for in our mean and deconstructionist age.” —Arthur C. Danto, Art Critic, The Nation

“Fascinating reading . . . Skillfully weaving together fact, anecdote, and conjecture, Solomon brings Cornell’s place in the art world and his legacy to artists of the younger generation into sharp focus.” —Allison Kemmerer, Boston Book Review