From poverty and a Yorkshire orphanage, Herbert Read went on to become the most significant cultural critic to come out of England in the twentieth century. He was a major art theorist and writer on literature, a key figure in anarchist politics, a leading figure in many Eureopan art movements, and one of the first English writers to embrace the Existentialist theories of Sartre. And yet, after his death in 1968, he became an almost forgotten figure in art and cultural studies. In this book, sixteen of the world"s leading writers on modernist cultural history look at Read"s work again, placing him in the context of twentieth century cultural life. Well illustrated with images by many of the artists Read championed.