Going Home on the Morning Train — Diane Rankhorn and the Russian Socialist Realist Painters is a new literary nonfiction book by Charlton Walters Hillis of Chickamauga, Ga.
The informal narrative follows an unlikely American woman brokering art between Russia and the U.S. Diane Rankhorn is nearing 50 with a Fine Arts degree and not much else, when she first envisions an art exchange program with Russia. Scarred by a hardscrabble childhood and fighting clinical depression, she builds the program against all odds and goes on to deal art for 20 years.
This work of literary nonfiction parallels Rankhorn’s own story with behind-the-scenes views of some often idiosyncratic Soviet painters, many of whom became personal friends. Interwoven throughout these close up shots is an intriguing glimpse into unavoidable Russian history and the Soviet Union’s death grip on art.
Now available to order online at Amazon.com/books. Color photos are limited to the paperback.
Ms. Hillis was a graphic designer for the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 35 years. She holds a B.A. in Fine Arts.