In 1936, in the pages of Esquire, John Dos Passos wrote, “In the last twenty-five years a change has come over the visual habits of Americans…From being a word-minded people we are becoming an eye-minded people…I am sure that my parents enjoying a view from a hill say, were stimulated verbally, remembering a line of verse or a passage from Sir Walter Scott, before they got any real impulse from the optic nerve.”

So true, so prophetic. Today’s America is drowning in images, at words’ expense. As a writer, I love words, but as a communicator, I know that few Americans read for pleasure anymore, and words rarely impact without images. (Painting by John Dos Passos)