What We’re Reading This Month

The stories of American artists don’t live only in their paintings. They live in the books that ask new questions of old work, and in the letters, journals, and biographies that bring us closer to the people behind the art. At HAHS, we believe reading around an artist is part of understanding the work itself: where pen meets palette.
Each month we choose a book connected to an artist, a place, or the wider world of American art history. Some are biographies. Some are field guides. Some are the very books that sat on an artist’s own desk. All of them are worth your time, and all of them will send you deeper into the stories these extraordinary places have to tell.

September 2026

The Coats of James Castle: A Plane of Singularity

(Primitive, 2026)

This month we’re featuring The Coats of James Castle: A Plane of Singularity, a stunning exploration of the self-taught artist’s extraordinary body of work centered on coats as objects, portraits, and artistic postulations.

Made from folded, cut, stacked, and sewn paper—along with drawings rendered in soot gathered from the family woodstove and colored with Castle’s own invented techniques—these works reveal a singular artistic vision rooted in the everyday materials of rural Idaho. Through this collection, we discover Castle’s sustained, internally coherent universe of making, where humble objects become sources of wonder, beauty, and fascination.

Continue the story

James Castle House

📍Boise, ID

The James Castle House in Boise, Idaho preserves Castle’s historic home and studio, offering residencies and exhibitions that explore his singular artistic practice. Visit to experience the spaces where Castle created these extraordinary works.

Earlier selections

August 2026

Ed Levine: The Embodied Experience of Art edited by Julie Reiss (Harpo Foundation and Marquand Books, 2026)

Buy the Book

July 2026

Madoo: The Making of an American Garden by Alejandro Saralegui and Kendell Cronstrom (Timber Press, 2026)

Buy the Book

June 2026

Glorious Country: How the Artist Frederic Church Brought the World to America and America to the World by Victoria Johnson (Scribner, 2026)

Buy the Book

More selections coming next month.

The people who know these artists best are the ones who tend their homes, walk their grounds, and keep their stories alive. If you’re a HAHS member site and there’s a book that belongs in this conversation, we’d love to hear about it.