Truth vs. Beauty

Robert Shetterly's Americans Who Tell the Truth is an essential picture book which popped up months ago in the mostly vacant lot of new juvenile non-fiction, with no warning and little promotion (at least, I'd never heard about it before today). I recommend it for the usual patriotic reasons, but also because the paintings will astonish you, portraying with grave accuracy the non-iconic faces of haunting, happy, serious, sad, reckless, and brave Americans. Though it's always a mistake to paint the unpaintable Abraham Lincoln, I still admire Shetterly for the attempt.

Now I know what you're gonna ask: what is "truth"? Well, I'm guessing Shetterly subscribes to the correspondence theory of truth, which allows for no tinfoil hats or teary-eyed staring at flags. This is the Truth that inludes true conservatives like Mark Twain, Margaret Chase Smith and Dwight Eisenhower alongside the rebels, reformers, and outsiders.

Plus, there's these two Minnesotans: