Lewis Hyde Books
Lewis Hyde is an American writer, cultural critic, and scholar known for his works on creativity, art, and cultural commons. He has taught at Harvard University and Kenyon College, and his books, including *The Gift* and *Trickster Makes This World*, have influenced generations of artists and thinkers.
Known for: The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property
Books by Lewis Hyde
The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property
Originally published in 1983, Lewis Hyde’s *The Gift* explores the nature of creativity and the social and moral dimensions of artistic work. Hyde contrasts the 'gift economy' of art—where creative acts are shared freely and enrich the community—with the 'market economy' that commodifies art. Drawing on anthropology, mythology, and literature, Hyde argues that true creativity thrives when art circulates as a gift rather than as a commodity.
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The Gift Economy
To understand the meaning of the gift, I turned first to anthropology. The French sociologist Marcel Mauss showed that in many tribal and pre‑capitalist societies, economic life did not revolve around barter or sale but around the circulation of gifts. On the northwest coast of America, for instance...
From The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property
The Spirit of the Gift
Every true gift carries a spirit, something alive within it that compels motion. In ancient stories, the gift often appears as an enchanted object—a song, a flame, a magical tool—that loses power if its owner withholds it from use. This is more than metaphor. In human terms, when we receive somethin...
From The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property
About Lewis Hyde
Lewis Hyde is an American writer, cultural critic, and scholar known for his works on creativity, art, and cultural commons. He has taught at Harvard University and Kenyon College, and his books, including *The Gift* and *Trickster Makes This World*, have influenced generations of artists and thinke...
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Lewis Hyde is an American writer, cultural critic, and scholar known for his works on creativity, art, and cultural commons. He has taught at Harvard University and Kenyon College, and his books, including *The Gift* and *Trickster Makes This World*, have influenced generations of artists and thinke...
Lewis Hyde is an American writer, cultural critic, and scholar known for his works on creativity, art, and cultural commons. He has taught at Harvard University and Kenyon College, and his books, including *The Gift* and *Trickster Makes This World*, have influenced generations of artists and thinkers.
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Lewis Hyde is an American writer, cultural critic, and scholar known for his works on creativity, art, and cultural commons. He has taught at Harvard University and Kenyon College, and his books, including *The Gift* and *Trickster Makes This World*, have influenced generations of artists and thinkers.
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