"Biosthetics" in Robert Francis's Traveling in Concord

Abstract

This article examines the presence and action of a unique multi-moded, environmentally-tuned participatory art form, or "biosthetics," in Robert Francis's tragically unpublished book, Traveling in Concord. The article seeks to introduce readers to Francis and argues that, given current concerns over economic and environmental devastation, his book (a product of post-WWII industrial "progress") should be published and read in the twenty-first century. A marginal but prophetic twentieth-century American author, Francis lived at or below the poverty line outside Amherst, Massachusetts, from 1901 to 1987.