World Through Blunted Sight: An Inquiry into the Influence of Defective Vision on Art and Character

by Patrick D. Trevor-Roper

. Thames & Hudson 1970, clean copy, with dustjacket, gift inscription on endpaper, no other markings, Professional booksellers since 1981

Genres: Art

191 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

Reviews

[Carson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Patrick Trevor Roper included in his book some poetry by W.H. Coates, who was blind from birth; here is his poem "Touch Landscape":

Then stepped my fancy out over the scene.
Through stiff bracken she waded,
The turf caressed her feet.
The ground flowed away in broad slopes towards the valley.

She heard the shadow-sound of trees;
Her hands brushed the fields — a thousand acres —
To touch the distant wood
Flung like a scarf of lace
Upon the knees of the hills.

She buried her face in grasses rich and cool
When to the plain she leapt
Beside a level river —
A polished strip of metal cutting the pastures.

And thence to farther hills
Swelling beneath my disembodied hands
In three-dimensional curves:
Most lovely hills, phantom and far away
And overlaid with velvet.

And farther yet, beyond the misty hills,
I reached the wrinkled sea;
I touched the waves with crests of thistledown.

[Mallory · Rating 2 out of 5]

Retroactively diagnosing artists with disabilities through medical terminology that has, and still does today, subjugate disabled individuals is one hell of an ethical problem within this book

[Chetan Vashisht · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, the idea that you can understand a person from their work. I’ll need to reread this book to fully appreciate it.