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``For all his realism, Hopper was essentially a poet,'' writes Goodrich, and this sumptuous album, a reissue of an out-of-print 1970 monograph, is an incomparable guide to understanding that poetry. Hopper (1882-1967) gravitated to painting lunch counters, nudes in hotel rooms, lighthouses, gas stations, rooftops--underappreciated, nakedly honest figurations of America's heartland. A prophet of loneliness, this laconic individualist captured the anarchy of American cities, the quiet melancholy of small towns and suburbs. Paradoxically, his pictures have a restorative, bracing effect--perhaps, as is suggested here, because of Hopper's emotional attachment to his native environment. The late Goodrich was director of the Whitney Museum in New York and a friend of the artist, whose own comments are interspersed with a refreshingly readable text and more than 200 full-page plates. (Nov.) Copyright 1989 Cahners Business Information.