Fred Kleiner:
Writing, editing scholarly art journals prepared historian for textbook

Harcourt must be glad too. The 11th edition, of which Kleiner is the lead author, won both a 2001 Texty and a 2001 McGuffey Award from Text and Academic Authors. Kleiner had prepared the 10th edition with Richard Tansey, who, with Horst de la Croix, had written the fifth through ninth editions. Tansey died before he could begin work on the 11th. Kleiner then prepared the 11th edition with Christin Mamiya of the University of Nebraska.

Art through the Ages has been Number One in the art history field for most of its history and remains so today. It has a reputation, well-deserved, said Kleiner, for being the most authoritative introduction to the history of art. The book combines well-written, quality text with gorgeous photographic reproductions, maps and timelines. "It's the most lavish in terms of the number of color illustrations -- many of them full-page color illustrations," said Kleiner. "For art history textbooks, the text is there to explain the pictures. The pictures are the subject matter. It is of the highest importance that the pictures are of the highest quality." This takes an enormous commitment on the publisher's part, said Kleiner: "They only make that kind of investment when they have a book that will command a very large audience."

The first edition of Art through the Ages was written by Helen Gardner in 1926. It was the first history of art in English that was global in scope and did not confine itself to Western civilizations. It was a big hit. Gardner completed the third edition before she died. Since then, said Kleiner, the book's publisher, Harcourt, has invited various authors to write succeeding editions.

The approach Kleiner and his co-author have taken with the book is one that students genuinely enjoy reading, he said: "Our aim is to make whole vanished civilizations, historical figures, paintings, sculptures and buildings come to life for the reader. We've been successful at that." The book has many tools: boxes, sidebars, glossaries, time lines and maps. Its accompanying website contains a synopsis, review questions and thousands of additional illustrations. The website has been an enormous benefit, said Kleiner: "For art history textbooks, access to visual material is primary. Prior to the Internet, students were largely confined to the illustrations in the textbook. Some colleges might put slides on reserve or post black-and-white photographs, but for most students, study materials meant only what was in the textbook. The Internet has helped us to greatly expand the number of illustrations available to students, and that has been an enormous benefit pedagogically."

At Boston University, where Kleiner is a professor of art history and archaeology, a web site is tied to each course. Slides are scanned and put online. Students can, in effect, recreate the lectures online. Kleiner tried to duplicate this for Art through the Ages. The book's expanded Internet web site is new for the 11th edition. Designed in-house, the web site is tied chapter-by-chapter and image-by-image to the text. Students have access to a summary and review of the material as well as extra links to images. "The Internet has proved to be of enormous value to the teaching of art history," said Kleiner.

Kleiner has brought several of his own strengths to the book, including:

His expertise in the ancient and Medieval worlds. There had never been an author in the history of the book who had this expertise.

A quarter of a century of classroom teaching, which, reviewers say, shows in how the material is presented.

The goal to communicate to students that art works are not objects to be studied in isolation but are documents of past cultures. "It is impossible to understand the works of art and the buildings without understanding the historical context," said Kleiner.

The 11th edition is the first to have a number of new pedagogical features, including boxes focusing on various aspects of the study of art history, for example boxes on Greek gods and heroes and on the life of Christ and the Buddha in Art, painting and sculpting techiques, architectural terminology, and reproductions of relevant written documents. "From the response of both readers and reviewers, they have been a very well-received addition," he said.

Kleiner said his major interest in accepting the offer to write the text was to extend his teaching audience from hundreds to thousands: "It is a personal thrill for me that I am turning on that many more students to art history than I could reach in the classroom." Kleiner spent 15 years as editor-in-chief of the leading English language archaeology journal in the world, the American Journal of Archaeology. "The audience one reaches through a scholarly journal is a fraction of what one reaches through a major textbook," he said. "I have gone from editing a journal of the most advanced research in the field of art history to writing the most basic introduction to the field and feel priviledged to have done both."

While writing for journals and writing an introductory text are on opposite sides of the spectrum, Kleiner had no problem adapting his writing. "The writing I do at the intro level is consistent with the teaching I do at that level," he said. "It's obviously a different type of writing than journal writing, but it is no different than the way I present material in the classroom." He has had much feedback on the book from reviewers but treasures the response he has received from students at other colleges. "I get an occassional email from a student I have never met who says, 'I loved your text. I'm going to become an art history major because of it.' That is a wonderful feeling."

Kleiner received his bachelor's degree with honors in art history from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968. He decided early on that he wanted to be a college professor. "I thought I would love to teach," he said. The only thing he wasn't sure of was the subject. He was attracted to the humanities, and played around with several different majors before deciding on art history. "I knew it was for me when I liked the subject even when the instructor was boring," he said.

Kleiner loves teaching: "I like young people. I like talking to them. I like communicating my enthusiasm for the material. When they respond in kind, I get a great amount of pleasure." Many of his students say that they didn't think they would like the course when they signed up for it to fulfill a humanities distribution requirement, but that after taking it, they really love the material. "That is really heartwarming," he said.

He received his master's in art history and archaeology from Columbia University in 1969 and his doctorate in 1973. In addition to Art through the Ages, he has also written The Arch Nero in Rome. A Study of the Roman Honorary Arch Before and Under Nero in 1985 and The Early Cistophoric Coinage in 1977, and roughly 100 articles and reviews for scholarly journals.

From June to Labor Day, Kleiner writes constantly, putting in long days. During the academic year he writes on weekends. "My pace and intensity vary with the academic calendar," he said. He uses pad and paper to take notes in the library and writes directly on his computer.

His experience as a journal editor, Kleiner said, enabled him to learn an enormous amount about his subject matter. As editor, he was responsible for manuscripts in all areas of t ancient art and archaelogy. It gave him, he said, "a wide post-graduate education": "It enhanced my own education and made me more prepared to write a textbook." He also learned much about the mechanics of publication, which helped him when it came time for him to write a textbook, he said: "I knew the lingo, how to mark up a manuscript, the decisions editors have to make about placements of illustrations, moving text around, and a great deal about the cost of publishing. It was an enormously useful education for me to have so that I could speak the same language when talking to my book editors."

Kleiner is married to Diana E.E. Kleiner, professor of classics and the history of art and deputy provost for the arts at Yale University, and has one son, Alexander. They enjoy traveling together, especially to Europe. He and his wife lived in Greece and Italy for four years in the 1970s.

— reported by Kim Pawlak, 2001