"It is perhaps unnecessary today to insist on Robert Smithson's authenticity. Despite his eulogy five years ago [1974] I found myself wishing to make 'great claims' for him, a wish I feel again now, on the publication of his essays. The audience willing to hear such claims, has, I feel, grown considerably since his death, and this in spite of the remarkable brevity of his career which began roughly with the appearance of the earliest essays in this book and ended with his death in 1973 - some seven years..." - Philip Leider, from book's introduction. Edited by Nancy Holt. Publication designed by Sol LeWitt.