“Despite manifest differences, knitting together most of the masterpieces of modern American art is a web of shared temperament. One of the key aspects of this temperament is an overarching sense of solitude–rarely oppressive, usually not neurotic, but nevertheless omnipresent. Our landscapes are unpeopled, our fictional narratives full of isolated souls, our music and architecture characterized by a right-angled plainness whose unadorned simplicity runs in parallel with our inclination to be alone even in a crowd.”