Jerome B. Shapiro

Before I was born my mother's brother gave her Aldous Huxley's catalogue of Goya's mezzotints. I was fascinated by the images from a very young age. Some, of course, were incomprehensible, while others were easily understood. "The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters" remains one of my favorite works of Goya. This same uncle was instrumental in furthering the establishment of a lithography workshop that produced images by Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and other masters of the nineteen-sixties and seventies. During the nineteen-sixties i began to collect prints. I was introduced to Herman A. Webster in 1990. After my retirement I thought that the study of Webster's life would be an interesting project. I then learned that he lived in France from 1904 to 1970. Fortunately he wrote many letters to well known people in the art world. These were contributed to public collections where they could be consulted. I found that in addition to being a respected artist Webster was a war hero, windmill preservationist, and Officer of the Legion of Honor. He had a wide circle of friends in the European and American art worlds.

In addition to this work I have contributed an article concerning Webster's role during the Battle of Verdun to "Janus," the organ of the American Field Service.

I, like Webster, enjoy collecting eighteenth-century Italian etchings, but he has opened my eyes to the richness of some of the nineteenth-century French etchers.

I have earned a Ph.D. from Yale University. Every effort has been made to make this volume a well documented study so that others may build upon my work.