Strand is a Pulitzer Prize winning poet who died in 2014.  Hopper is a much-loved and honored artist who died in 1967.  Strand continues a long tradition of writers writing about art and artists in this slim volume in which he comments on 30 of Hopper’s paintings, from the iconic Nighthawks to little known (at least to me) scenes from hotel rooms and apartments. My favorite painting from the Yale Art Gallery, Rooms by the Sea, is there as are the well-known Seven AM, Gas, Automat, and House by the Railroad.  Strand writes a brief interpretation of each painting in one or two pages, focusing on the structural elements of the work in tension with its narrative function.  He beautifully describes Hopper’s work as ‘saturated with suggestion’ noting that ‘there is always something beyond that works its influence’ related to ‘an invisible realm beyond its borders’.  This is a lovely little book which I read years ago in a form which only had black and white photos of the works.  This edition, with its color reproductions, is far superior. Strand is an insightful and penetrating observer.  Hopper is a great artist of solitude.  Terrific combination.