Rushmore - Hardcover

Curlee, Lynn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0590225731 ISBN 13: 9780590225731

Publisher: Scholastic Press, 1999

Synopsis

A compelling narrative and realistic paintings describe how Mount Rushmore, a patriotic shrine and tourist attraction, was conceived, designed, and created by the dedicated artist and son of immigrants, Gutzon Borglum.

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Reviews

Grade 2-5-A chronological description of the creation of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, from its inception in the 1920s by a state historian in South Dakota to its completion in 1941. This attractive, oversized book features large, single- and double-page acrylic paintings. The artwork is simple and touching, providing some sense of scale and illustrating the progress of the monument. While the paintings never quite seem to capture the immensity of this undertaking, they do provide a sense of poetic achievement and national pride. The writing is factual, straightforward, and, for the most part, unexciting. While Curlee discusses sculptor Gutzon Borglum's life and involvement with the project, there is little vivid imagery of what it took to imagine and engineer its completion. The undertaking never quite comes to life. And some questions of interest remain unanswered, e.g., how were the eyes of each sculpture designed to follow the viewer? Overall, this is a visually appealing if uninspired offering.
Rosie Peasley, Empire Union School District, Modesto, CA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Curlee (Into the Ice: The Story of Arctic Exploration) presents a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the making of Mount Rushmore. South Dakota's state historian first came up with the idea of carving figures into the Black Hills during the 1920s, a notion that was quickly taken up by one of the state's senators as a way to pay tribute to history and draw more tourists to his remote state. The original planAto carve figures representing the Old WestAwas swept aside by the sculptor commissioned for the project, the egotistical but talented John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum. Curlee's story of Borglum's 17-year involvement in the arduous project brims with details of the politics surrounding the monumentAa grassroots campaign to include Susan B. Anthony rather than Theodore Roosevelt as the fourth dignitary featured; the uproar that ensued when Borglum attempted to change Calvin Coolidge's condensed history of the United States, which the sculptor originally planned to inscribe on the monumentAas well as the logistics involved (each morning the crew had a 40-story climb to the precipice to begin work; by the job's completion, they had blasted 450,000 tons of rock). The stark, flat feel of the acrylic paintings in stony shades of gray and blue mirror the dignified aura of their subject. Exploiting each spread, Curlee conveys the sensitivity in the faces of the giant chiseled sculpture while simultaneously demonstrating a sense of scale, with the sculptor rappelling from the nose of Washington or a worker examining Roosevelt's cheek. If readers have not yet made the trip to the Black Hills, Curlee's account will likely spur them on to visit. Ages 7-10.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This history of the Mount Rushmore monument is laudatory to a fault, devoting a mere paragraph to the many people who considered (or still consider) the colossal sculpture a blot on the landscape, a man-made disfigurement of nature. Curlee (Into the Ice, 1998, etc.) emphasizes the sculpture's patriotic aspects: Washington represents the founding of the nation, Jefferson its westward expansion, Lincoln its preservation, and Roosevelt--a controversial choice even at the time--conservation. The details on the physical process of construction, from pointing to blasting, honeycombing to bumping, make the procedures clear even without the finely wrought, realistic illustrations. Equally lifelike is the portrait of Gutzon Borglum, the autocratic artist commissioned for the work, who managed to offend just about everybody involved in the project. Perhaps the most insulted were the Native Americans; only passing reference is made to their belief that the area is sacred ground. Just as beautiful as Curlee's previous works, this volume should be used in conjunction with other, more comprehensive texts. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-10) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Scholastic Press
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0590225731
• ISBN 13: 9780590225731
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 48