The Transcendentalist Writer of the Essay Nature

The Transcendentalist Writer of the Essay NatureThe 19th-century transcendentalist writer of the essay nature? As a very young man, my friend and I both took an art history course at Harvard University. The teacher there, Professor Fergus Borden, made sure that we heard as much about Immanuel Kant and Baron Munch as we did of the full-length works of William Blake and Emily Dickinson. I can still remember the collage that Professor Borden displayed, about three times a year, in the West Quad rooms, some of which showed the compositions of an unknown artist: The Works of Lord Byron, The Fall of the Roman Empire, Milton's Paradise Lost, Robert Louis Stevenson's Whitehorn and the Fairy King.It was such a brilliant collage that it had a profound, even unbearably deep appreciation of its subject matter. But did it ever give a phrase to our beloved famous thinker or poet or artist? Did he ever become a part of it? And what was the point of a collage, it seemed to me, that was a shallow stu dy of the two great writers of all time, but quite a dull study of Lord Byron and Milton?Those collages were meant to express a deep respect for the essay nature, but I was too young and too inexperienced to notice. My friend, on the other hand, knew the whole story of how the Collage Brothers created the world, and he understood exactly what was going on.You may have heard of John McReady, and if you haven't, you will soon, as his works have recently been picked up by a multitude of collectors. He is an artist who started out creating cartoons in his mind, before he ever began to draw actual pictures, and he eventually discovered the power of collage. That is to say, he became a master of collage and a craftsman at a very young age. In a moment, I will tell you a little more about his remarkable life and how he came to be an artist so famous.John McReady never really achieved a respect as a composer of music. All the pieces he composed were done in his mind and to make the piece, h e only knew a few chords only. And what he would do is to read the lyrics of the popular song 'Tammy the Snowbird' and figure out what those lyrics meant. When he wrote the score for 'Tammy the Snowbird,' he used the exact same method with the words, as he did when he sang the song for himself. It was what we would call a 'co-songs.'All of his works are expressive of the essay nature, but the challenge was how to translate the sounds of the words into sounds that would form a sound collage that would be simultaneously funny and meaningful. You might imagine that such a feat is impossible. It is not. Masterpieces like Johnny Marr's Piano Sonata or 'L-Y-S-T' by Irving Berlin, have been noted for their beautiful yet meaningful melodies. They are beautiful for the same reason that their lyrics are beautiful; because each melody is the work of a mind that, at one time, understood music.Behold, all the world's a stage; and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and th eir entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts: a good many roles. So, go, enjoy yourself, and maybe you will see John McReady in the next collage of his writing.