New Book Features 'Genius Belt' In Bucks County

2-20-97

University Park, Pa. --- The name of Bucks County, Pa., conjures up images of pastoral vistas and famous artists. Walking down the streets of Doylestown or New Hope in the 1930s or 1940s, you might have glimpsed humorist Dorothy Parker at a lunch counter, not to mention Pulitzer-Prize-winning writers like James A. Michener, George S. Kaufman or Pearl S. Buck.

Thanks to cheap real estate, proximity to New York City and the lure of country living, Bucks County became such a well-known haven for creativity that the New York media began to call it "the genius belt."

Penn State Press announces a new book, "The Genius Belt: The Story of the Arts in Bucks County, Pennsylvania," which tells the story of the county's rich artistic tradition: from the 19th-century's best-known primitive painter, Edward Hicks, to the turn-of-the-century birth of a major art colony along the Delaware River, to the influx of literary and theatrical figures during the Depression.

Published by the James A. Michener Art Museum in association with the Penn State Press, the book, edited by George S. Bush, offers a colorful introduction by renowned novelist James Michener. He begins with his own boyhood in Doylestown and recalls his delightful memories of the county's "golden years."

Bush is a former editor at the old Saturday Evening Post, Look, and Better Homes and Gardens magazines. He is a resident of Bucks County, Pa.

"The Genius Belt" ($24.95 paperback) is available at bookstore or at Penn State Press, 820 N. University Drive, University Park, PA 16802-1003; or calling toll-free order department at 1-800-326-9180.

***

EDITORS: For a media copy of the book or to contact the authors, contact Alison Reeves, Penn State Press, at (814) 865-1327 (phone); (814) 863-1408 (fax) or adr3@psu.edu by email.

For other Penn State news, please visit our home page at: http://www.psu.edu/ur You also can visit the Penn State Press home page at http://www.psu.edu/psupress