The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in
the Modern World (Vintage) by Lewis
Hyde
What's Better Than A Gift?
By now a modern classic, The Gift is a brilliantly orchestrated defense of
the value of creativity and of its importance in a culture increasingly
governed by money and overrun with commodities. Widely available again
after twenty-five years, this book is even more necessary today than when
it first appeared. An illuminating and transformative book, and completely
original in its view of the world, The Gift is cherished by artists, writers,
musicians, and thinkers. It is in itself a gift to all who discover the classic
wisdom found in its pages.
Personal Review: The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the
Modern World (Vintage) by Lewis Hyde
"The grass is a uniform hieroglyphic." - W.W.

Some books will simply not go away.
I am glad this one has endured.
Through its many sub-title revisions, The Gift has retained its place as a
prime interpreter of gift and commodity societies, and their relation to a
culture of creativity. The connections Hyde constructs between art, science
and literature are capable of provoking limitless discussion, increasing
frustration, and possess enlightenment potential.
Hyde weaves modernity and tradition, and succinctly sums economy and
philosophy at the close of chapter five where he states, "both anarchism
and gift exchange share the assumption that it is not when a part of the
self is inhibited and restrained, but when a part of the self is given away,
that community appears."
I was initially drawn to the author by his second non-fiction prose work
Trickster Makes The World: Mischief, Myth and Art. A year later, this
earlier work captured my attention because of an ongoing search for
contemporary sources that contain chapters on Whitman. The Gift's ninth
chapter is where Hyde's genius became vivid for this reader, and as a
bonus, in concert with another reviewer, my whole view of Pound shifted,
especially in view of the Ginsberg story.
It is striking to see a book categorized as Literary Criticism/Sociology on
the back cover of the original Vintage edition, and then noted on the
copyright page as 3. Economic Anthropology, and 4. Art and Society, with
three major poets' testimonies cited to Hyde's credit on the back cover.
Why, because this is not the sort of crossover, or fusion (to use the music
industry term) you expect to find. Reading any of the ten chapters,
conclusion, new introduction, or afterword to the 25th Anniversary Edition
individually is worthwhile. Especially the afterword for artists and arts
communities. Reading the book in toto is deeply satisfying in a disturbing
sort of way.
What led me to write this brief review was not an earnest desire to spread
my Whitmananian obsession. What I discovered after finishing the ninth
chapter and returning to the first in order to read the entire text, is an
ethnologist's collection of tales, history, and economics, with an omniscient
POV for the present. As the reader follows Hyde's stories and reasoning to
the end, there will be sufficient exposure to a mind-altering view of the arts
and the world. What is most gratifying is how The Gift has retained its
currency, in spite of a few dated references from an earlier generation.
There are five things in particular that make Hyde's work worth reading.
1. His eloquence as he combines seemingly tangential sources.
Nevertheless, as with poetry, reader patience and stamina are required.

2. The author possesses an ever-aware connection with the now, no
matter how much history or philosophy he challenges readers to absorb.
3. It is apparent that Hyde maintains a capacity for change and growth
within the scope of 385 pages. Note the beginning of his conclusion: ". . .
Such, at any rate, were my assumptions when I began to write." I like
experts who admit to being human. One expects this quality of judgment
suspension in good scientific writing; to find it in a book purported to be
literary criticism is heartening.
4. Hyde demonstrates a finely tuned understanding of Whitman in chapter
nine, which efficiently explains the mystery of the greatest American Poet's
creative awakening.
5. The Gift offers (albeit some 20 years in advance) a balance for Richard
Florida's Rise of the Creative Class. Although, some may see it as a
corollary work, or even a substantiation of Florida.
In order to conduct my own experiment, and add a witness to those of Bly,
Zweig and Sarton found on the back cover of the original Vintage edition, I
have introduced Hyde's book to the members of the Village Book Club in
the form of a gift.
Whether conscious of our quest along the fabled lines of The Gift, or not,
we will continue to act out the drama of Hyde's most provocative and
enduring dilemma: "How, if art is essentially a gift, is the artist to survive in
a society dominated by the market?" One other reviewer answered it by
saying "art will outlast the market." How will you answer the question?
Again, caveat lector: this book of Hyde's is not beach reading.
The gift is to the giver . . . it cannot fail. - W. W.
There are nothing but gifts on this poor, poor Earth. - Czeslaw Milosz
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