Living well was the best revenge for Leo Stein, the art critic who took to heart Samuel Johnson's dictum, "Clear your mind of cant." This book includes his reminiscences and estimates of Picasso, Matisse, Cezanne, and Renoir, among others, as well as his considered views on the place of art and literature in everyday life.

Living well was the best revenge for Leo Stein, the art critic who took to heart Samuel Johnson's dictum, "Clear your mind of cant." Leo shared with his sister, Gertrude Stein, the Paris apartment that became a meeting place for the famous. Reflected in "Appreciation: Painting, Poetry and Prose" are their early years as American expatriates as well as their later estrangement. This book, originally published in 1947, the year Leo died, includes his reminiscences and estimates of Picasso, Matisse, Cezanne, and Renoir, among others, as well as his considered views on the place of art and literature in everyday life. Introducing this edition is Brenda Wineapple, the author of "Genet: A Biography of Janet Flanner", also a Bison Book, and of "Sister Brother", a biography of Leo and Gertrude Stein. She is Washington Irving Professor of Modern Literary and Historical Studies at Union College, Schenectady, New York.