Mark Lamster

I am the author of Master of Shadows, a political biography of the artist Peter Paul Rubens, who led a double life as a diplomat and spy. It is published in the United States by Nan A. Talese/ Doubleday and in Dutch translation as
De Meester van de Schaduw by De Bezige Bij. It is available in stores everywhere or via the web from your bookseller of choice:

-Amazon
-Barnes & Noble
-Borders
-Independents everywhere


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Praise for Master of Shadows

A Best Read of 2009
—Providence Journal

"A Fascinating study."
—The Telegraph (A Book of the Year)

"Mark Lamster is a brave writer....His affection for his subject is so complete—and completely convincing—his style is so gracefully unpretentious and his research is so thorough that “Master of Shadows” manages to be engaging, instructive and thought-provoking, all at once."
—The Los Angeles Times

"A different kind of artist's biography....Gripping reading."
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Highbrow and Brilliant
—NY Magazine Approval Matrix

"An exceptional book."
—Library Journal

A Daily Beast "Hot Read"

Selected as an Indie Next Notable Book for November 2009

"Rubens’s story surprises and dazzles."
—Kirkus

"In elegant brushstrokes, and using as his subject the painter/diplomat Rubens, Mark Lamster gives us here a vivid portrait of 17th century Europe and the political intrigue that led to the modern world."
—Russell Shorto, author, The Island at the Center of the World

"Mark Lamster looks beyond Rubens’s talent for era-defining sensual nudes and delves into his little-known career as a diplomat and spy. The result is an exhilarating portrait of an age as dramatic and richly toned as one of Rubens’s gigantic canvases."
—Ross King, author, Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling

"This adroitly crafted biography of Rubens brings to life an artist so busy wheeling and dealing with the crowned heads of Europe that it's amazing he found the time to put brush to canvas. Lamster's account engages the student of history as much as it opens the eyes of those who love Rubens's art."
—Timothy Brook, author, Vermeer's Hat

"Master of Shadows is a fascinating account, as lively as it is informed. This utterly intriguing narrative has the knowledge and verve that infuse Rubens's brushstrokes; Lamster writes with the panache and enthusiastic engagement, as well as the capability, warranted by his marvelous subject."
—Nicholas Fox Weber, author, Le Corbusier: A Life

"Imagine that Pablo Picasso, in addition to painting the most famous masterpieces of the twentieth century, had also devoted decades of his life to secret diplomacy aimed at preventing another world war. That is exactly what Peter Paul Rubens, the most revered painter of his era, did in seventeenth-century Europe. Mark Lamster tells this little-known story with a combination of brio and historical erudition bound to appeal to anyone who cares about beauty, passion, war and peace. I couldn't put it down."
—Susan Jacoby, author, The Age of American Unreason

"Art, war, diplomatic intrigue, secret spy missions—all rendered with the erudition of a scholar and the deft touch of a gifted writer. This is exactly what popular history should be. I was utterly transfixed by this book."—
—Jonathan Mahler, author, The Challenge: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld

More praise here.

***
My first book, Spalding's World Tour, was an Editor's Choice selection of the NYTBR. It tells the story of America's first cultural diplomats, an intrepid group of professional baseball players who fully circled the globe in the late 19th century.

When Artists "Borrow"
(LA Times)
What Am I Doing Here?
(Design Observer)
Art of the Steal
(Architect's Newspaper)
A Clean Slate
(Dwell)
Big Book, Small Reward
(Design Observer)
Hearts of the City
(LA Times)
The Aughts in Architecture & Design
(Mediaite)
The Goldberger Standard
(ID)
Peter Paul Rubens: Graphic Designer
(Design Observer)
Lessons on the Art of Diplomacy
(Huffington Post)
The Art of Diplomacy
(WSJ)
Next Door, New York
(Print)
Ron Arad at Moma
(ID)
Play Ball
(Metropolis)
Bottom of the Ninth
(LA Times)
Building: Loft Repeated
(ID)
Out of the Gutter
(Architect)
Bleacher Bummers
(ID)
A Terrible Spendor
(Bookforum)
Le Corbusier: Tres Grand
(Print)