Franz Kline in Coal Country
––Detail of Lehighton , 1946, Allentown Art Museum Allow me to introduce our new book, a biography of Franz Kline, published by America Through Time. If you're not into art history, you may have seen Kline depicted in an episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel , or in the film Pollock . ––Franz J. Kline, Self-Portrait, 1945 At the pinnacle of his career, Kline was celebrated internationally. Avanti! , a newspaper in Rome, called him the "Elvis Presley in art." He helped found the New York School and died in Manhattan in 1962. But before the cognoscenti claimed him, he spent his youth in the mountains of Pennsylvania, and we share a hometown. In a letter to a young lover, Kline described home as a 'little Dutch settlement wrapped up in a cloud of coal dirt,' referring to Lehighton, Pennsylvania, a railroad stop along the Lehigh River with deep history, nestled amid mountains rich with quartz and anthracite coal. Like these mineral deposits,
