Books, essays, and videos (or Yes, I write a lot)

This page lists my books and essays chronologically, with the most recent first. There are separate pages on this site for art,  my writings on Alexander Hamilton; History, technology, and business; Writing, copywriting, and publishing; and Fearless Foreign Foods. For book recommendations for kids, see this page; for music and toys for kids, see this page. For essays on specific sculptures and other short pieces, use the Search function on this site.

My supporters help make new works happen – thanks to all of you! To be notified when I publish new books and essays and/or to support my work, follow me on Substack or send an email to DuranteDianne@gmail.com.

2024

2023

2022

  • The Great Antidote podcast with Juliette Sellgren: discussing art, Innovators in Sculpture, and more. Aired 11/18/2022.
  • Sunny Sundays: Highlights of Five Years of Sunday Recommendations. Order from Amazon here, or from other stores (via Ingram with ISBN 9781088214619 (print) or 9781088214701 (ebook).
  • Timeline 1900-2021: Events Worldwide, US Politics & Culture, Economics, Science & Technology, Books, Visual Arts, Architecture, Film & TV, Music. Available from Amazon in print & Kindle. Other stores via Ingram in print & EPUB format (print ISBN 978-1-0880-9535-5, epub 978-1-0880-9542-3).
  • Starry Solitudes: A Collection of Inspiring and Thought-Provoking Poetry. Includes 98 poems I’ve recommended over the past five years of Sunday Recommendations.
  • Completed in 2022: on Instagram, photos of outdoor representational sculptures in all five boroughs of New York City, in chronological order. These were automatically shared on the ForgottenDelights page on Facebook.
Books completed in 2022: Starry Solitudes, Sunny Sundays, Timeline 1900-2021

2021

  • The Financial Programs of Alexander Hamilton. Purchase on Amazon here, or from other stores via Ingram, with standard discounts for booksellers and institutions (print ISBN 9780974589992, EPUB 9781088081327).
  • “Henry Kitchell Webster’s Life-Loving, Pro-Business Fiction,” on the blog of The Objectivist Standard as of 12/22/2021.
  • Volume 3 of Henry Kitchell Webster’s Collected Short Works  (1915-1922) and volume 4 of the Collected Short Works (1922-1932): more on volumes 1-4 here.
Books completed in 2021: Financial Programs of Alexander Hamilton; Henry Kitchell Webster, Collected Short Works, vols. 3-4

2020

2019

2018

  • Started a YouTube channel with weekly videos of blog posts and Sunday Recommendations for the free email list.
  • From Portraits to Puddles: New York Memorials from the Civil War to the World Trade Center Memorial. Available in print or as an ebook, from Amazon or from other stores via Ingram (9781088207116 print, 9781088207222 ebook). To read online, click the “Portraits to Puddles” tag in the Obsessions cloud on this site.
  • Interview with Yaron Brook on 8/16/18; pics of the art we talked about here.
  • Excerpt on the earliest sculptures in Central Park for Gotham, the blog of the City University of New York, from Central Park: The Early Years.
  • New editions of works by Henry Kitchell Webster (short bio here), with covers by Allegra Durante: Comrade John, in Kindle and in print; (other stores via Ingram: 9781088274491 print, 9781088274521 ebook);  A King in Khaki via Amazon (other stores via Ingram, 9781088270929 print, 9781088270950 ebook);  The Sky-Man, from Amazon in Kindle and in print, other stores via Ingram (9781088271353 print, 9781088271384 ebook). NOTE: According to Amazon’s new policy, all public-domain works are lumped into the same online entry. If the version you purchase doesn’t have the covers shown above and in my short bio of Webster, you don’t have my edition. 
  • Guest post on Wanderlustingk: “A New Yorker’s guide to the best free views of New York City’s skyline.” Some of my favorite places to shoot photos of the Manhattan skyline in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, New Jersey, and Manhattan.

2017

2016

2015

  • Innovators in Sculpture: A revised version of Art History through Innovators: Sculpture, which appeared on Medium.com in mid-2015. Thoroughly revamped in 2020, for a print version and the appearance of the companion Innovators in Painting: see here.
  • “How to Introduce Your Kid to Art”(originally on Medium.com): Advice from a homeschooling parent and art historian.
  • “Fearless Foreign Foods: Poland” – main ingredients and dishes in Polish food.
  • Yemen, In Brief. History & culture of Yemen, a survey written in 2000, after the attack on the USS Cole in Aden harbor, with a brief update to 2015; includes 17 photos and maps. Available as an ebook on Amazon, and at other stores via Ingram (ISBN 9781088278314).
  • “About Us” page evaluations for the blog of CorporateHistory.net (2010-2015): over a hundred of them.

2014

  • “Creating the Monuments of Manhattanapp” (interview with Marion Calabro for Freewrite ezine).
  • Interview on Monuments of Manhattan app (with Joseph Kellard in The Objective Standard).
  • J. Marion Sims, with Notes on New York’s Sculpture of Sims (Kindle): A look at the controversial career of Dr. J. Marion Sims, “the Father of Gynecology,” and the sculpture of him at Fifth Avenue and 103rd Street, New York City. Updated slightly after the removal of the sculpture. Available from Amazon; other stores via Ingram (ISBN 9781088278390). 
  • Monuments of Manhattan (Guides Who Know videoguide app for Android) – A series of 4-minute videos on 55 of the most beautiful and/or intriguing outdoor sculptures in Manhattan; with details of the sculptures, archival images, maps, and animations, plus original music, GPS, and Citimapper directions. Based on my book Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide. NOTE: As of 2023, this app is no longer available.
  • Review of Amor and Psyche, performed by Opera Feroce. (Loved it!)
  • “The Central Park Dairy and the Swill Milk Scandal”– Why was Vaux asked to design a dairy for Central Park? Olmsted and Vaux wanted a pastoral vibe, but having livestock on site (except for a flock of sheep) wasn’t in the Greensward Plan.
  • Comments on Tim’s Vermeer – Did Vermeer uses a lens and a concave mirror to project an image onto the canvas, which he then painted?

2013

  • “Amadeus Revisited” – For 20 years, I refused to watch Amadeus because I couldn’t stand the way Mozart was represented. When I finally did watch it again, I realized I’d been misinterpreting it.

2012

  • Getting More Enjoyment from Art You Love (Kindle) –Originally published in The Objective Standard. NOTE: an edited version of this essay appears in Getting More Enjoyment from Sculpture You Love, a compendium of 16 essays on sculpture that’s available on Amazon as a Kindle book and in print.
  • Alexander Hamilton: A Brief Biography – short bio of Alexander Hamilton with numerous quotes from the man himself. Originally presented in 2004 as a walking tour of Manhattan’s four sculptures of Hamilton. NOTE: An edited version was published in 2017, when the print version came out; see here.
  • Bernini’s Innovations (Kindle) – Innovations by Bernini that changed the history of sculpture, followed by a brief chronological survey of this Baroque sculptor’s life and major works; with dozens of color illustrations. Updated in 2020: see this version.
  • From Portraits to Puddles: New York Memorials from the Civil War to the World Trade Center Memorial (Reflecting Absence)( Kindle) –Surely we can offer the victims of 9/11 a better tribute than Reflecting Absence, a gloomy piece of landscape architecture with lists of names. But what makes an effective tribute? What makes a memorable memorial? Revised in 2018, with print and video versions: see here.
  • How to Analyze and Appreciate Paintings – Via discussions of Holbein’s Sir Thomas More and Bellini’s  Francis in the Desert, we work through a series of questions to help you systematically observe the details of a painting, state what effect they have, and set them in the context of the rest of the work. As we go, we work out tentative themes and then a final statement of the theme; and finally, we evaluate the works in emotional, esthetic, philosophical, and art historical terms. Revised version of an essay originally published in The Objective Standard. More here. Ebook available from Amazon, and other stores via Ingram (ISBN 9781088277447).
  • Review of Arminio in Armenia, performed by Opera Feroce. (Loved it!)
  • Seismic Shifts in Subject and Style: 19th-c. French Painting and Philosophy – What caused the dramatic shifts in subject and style over the course of the 19th century – from Madame Recamier, by Jacques-Louis David (1800), to Luxe, Calme, et Volupte, by Matisse (1904)? This 30,000-word essay is a combination of art analysis and philosophical detection. Revised version of an essay originally published in The Objective Standard. Available as print & ebook from Amazon; other stores via Ingram (9781088236079 print, 9781088240502 ebook).
  • Step-by-Step Kindle Publishing (Kindle) –  Geared toward those of us who would rather be writing books than writing computer code; an overview of the principles of ebook design, followed by step-by-step instructions arranged so you can easily find the parts that apply to your book. NOTE: I haven’t kept this updated; on 1/7/2018, I unpublished it from Kindle.
  • The Statue of Liberty: Timeless Art, Political Hot Topic  – A look at the Statue of Liberty as a timeless work of art and as a political statement by those who conceived it and by their contemporaries in the late 19th century. Includes archival illustrations, close-up views of Liberty, quotes from sculptor Bartholdi and his contemporaries, and tips on photographing outdoor sculptures in New York. Available as an ebook from Amazon; other stores via Ingram (ISBN 9781088276310).

2010

  • Internationalism (Key Concepts in American History series) (hardcover) – A work-for-hire high-school history text on American foreign policy from World War II to ca. 2000. I have some reservations about it: see here.
  • “Tips for Photographing Sculptures”
  • VersaQuill Copywriting Workbook – A systematic way to generate ideas for copywriting, and to check what you’ve produced against accepted “best practices” of prominent copywriters from the last century or so. I pull this off the shelf every time I need to promote a new book or product. Available in print only, from Amazon or via Ingram (ISBN 9781088272497).

2009

2008

  • Upward Glance: Chicago (screensaver) – 200 high-resolution photos of Chicago, mostly the architecture in the Loop and Michigan Avenue.
  • Upward Glance: New York (screensaver) – 1,500+ photos taken in New York City and nearby, ranging from skylines to pedestal clocks, from phalanxes of skyscrapers to brownstone facades, from Central Park scenes to sailboats in Suffolk County.

2007

  • Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide(hardcover & paperback) – 54 monuments, ranging from major figures in American history to city icons, and with works by some of America’s best sculptors. Each monument has an “About the Subject” and an “About the Sculpture” section.

2006

2005

  • “On Studying History” – An essay written when I was homeschooling my daughter, with two important points to remember as you work your way through the ages.

2004

2003

  • “Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Real World” – “Why do I feel the Hellmouth is gaping because Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s last episode airs this month? After all, I have no immediate, ‘practical’ reason for watching it. I don’t need lessons in killing demons, or martial arts, or dressing twenty-chic. So what’s the appeal? …” (A thank-you of sorts to Joss Whedon.)
  • Forgotten Delights: The Producers (paperback) – First in what was intended to be a series of self-published books on outdoor sculptures in Manhattan; includes essays on explorers, inventors, engineers, businessmen, and workers, some of which I still haven’t published anywhere else.

2000

1999

  • “Vermeer’s Geographer” – “Think of a moment of insight – a moment when you had an integration of such scope that it made you stop writing, stop speaking, stop moving, so you could concentrate on working through the implications of that thought. What would you give for a reminder of that moment when you were tired, or had writer’s block, or when you just needed to remember that one man improves, and the whole of mankind progresses, by such moments of insight? …” Video here.

1998

  • “MacMonnies’ Nathan Hale” – “MacMonnies’ Nathan Hale is a reminder not of what the Founding Fathers stood for, but of how they stood for it. …”
  • Review of The Scarlet Pimpernel (Broadway play) – Here’s why I loved the first version – although I’d be happy to see any of the versions again.

1991

  • “A Checklist for Healthy Skeptics” (The Freeman) – “We in the United States are becoming terrified of our own technology. Nuclear energy will zap us into early graves. Alar and DDT will give us cancer. The greenhouse effect will melt the polar ice-caps and Manhattan will be submerged. Wouldn’t it be better to live ‘in harmony with nature,’ that is, without all our high-tech devices but in peace and health and security? – Or would it, perhaps, be better to ask first how much truth there is in the media hype that bombards us with such dire predictions every day?”
  • “Nuclear Power: How It Works and Why It’s Better Than Other Fuels” – Pretty self-explanatory title!
  • “National Health Care: Prescription for a Fool’s Paradise,” with Salvatore J. Durante. Published in The Freemanin April 1991; reprinted in Prices and Price Controls  (Freeman Classics), 1992.