The Art of the Moving Picture

Vachel Lindsay is known as the "Prairie Troubador" because of his Midwestern themes in his poetry. Lindsay grew up in Springfield, Illinois, which had a large influence on his poetry. He lived next door to the governor's mansion and wrote about the governor as well as Springfield's most famous citizen Abraham Lincoln. Several times Lindsay made walking treks across parts of the United States trading poetry for food. Vachel Lindsay wrote The Art of the Moving Picture in 1915. Lindsay was the first author to write about the film industry as an art form. Lindsay gives the reader an excellent analysis of the early silent films. Many of Lindsay's predictions about the film industry were right on the mark including viewing the director as the author of a film.