Rockwell Kent (1882-1971) was an artist of extraordinary drive, talent, and versatility; he embraced life with exuberance. And though he was one of the most popular American illustrators of this century--so much so that The New Yorker published the ditty, "That day will mark a precedent, which brings no news of Rockwell Kent"--the controversies engendered by his socialist leanings, particularly during the McCarthy era in the 1950s, frequently overshadowed his artistic achievements. His major art was inspired by his extended stays in remote, sparsely inhabited and climatically harsh regions, most of them islands, to which his imagination was drawn for a mythic association with the mystical and marvelous. Distant Shores captures Kent's great enthusiasm for the sea and mountains, and the relationship between nature and humanity.