Creative Book Club - Saturday, April 12, 2025

Book: “Falling Rocket: James Whistler, John Ruskin, and the Battle for Modern Art” by Paul Thomas Murphy

Discussion Date: Saturday, April 12, 10am-12pm

“The untold story of the artistic battle between James Abbot MacNeill Whistler and John Ruskin over Whistler’s controversial, ground-breaking Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket.

In November 1878, America’s greatest painter sued England’s greatest critic for a bad review. The painter won—but ruined himself in the process. The painter: James Abbot MacNeill Whistler, whose combination of incredible talent, unflagging energy, and relentless self-promotion had by that time brought him to the very edge of artistic preeminence. The critic: John Ruskin, Slade Professor of Art at Oxford University, whose four-decades’ worth of prolific and highly respected literary output on aesthetics had made him England’s unchallenged and seemingly unchallengeable arbiter of art.

Though Whistler and Ruskin both lived in London and moved in the same artistic world, they had, until June, 1877, managed to remain entirely clear of one another. This was unusual because Whistler had a mercurial temperament, a belligerent personality, and seemed to thrive on opposition: he once challenged a man to a duel because the man accused the painter of sleeping with his wife. (Whistler had, in fact, slept with the man’s wife.)”

—Excerpt from Pegasus Books, Publisher

The Creative Book Club meets on select Saturday mornings to discuss readings by a variety of authors. The club is drop-in, free, and open to all who are interested in keeping their creative muse flowing and connecting with other creative people.

“Falling Rocket: James Whistler, John Ruskin, and the Battle for Modern Art” by Paul Thomas Murphy

Host or Publisher Del Ray Artisans