An accomplished author, photographer, and filmmaker, Bruce Jackson is SUNY Distinguished Professor and James Agee Professor of American Culture at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. He is also codirector of the university's Creative Arts Initiative. His numerous books include Inside the Wire: Photographs from Texas and Arkansas Prisons.

"...this book is a show stopper." — RALPH: The Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy, and the Humanities

"...[an] evocative and memorable collection of photographs." — ArtVoice

"The author skillfully captures these landmark buildings in all seasons and in various light. After even a cursory glance at this impressive work, you'll want to experience for yourself a close-up view from one of the Buffalo River and Harbor boat tours that include these architectural wonders along that waterfront." — Niagara Gazette

"...an astonishingly beautiful document of form: Jackson, an accomplished social historian, comes to the structures with an eye for their geometry, their scale, their imposition on the waterfront and landscape over which they tower … It's a terrific book." — The Public

"Bruce Jackson's American Chartres joins a distinguished line of photographic explorations of the magnificence of modern terminal grain elevators and introduces viewers to the collection of these architectural wonders that remain standing—often in ruins—along and near the Buffalo River. It is a stunning, if sorrowful, reminder of the glories of these buildings and of the role they played in the growth of Buffalo, the city in which they were invented and flourished." — David W. Tarbet, author of Grain Dust Dreams

"Through Jackson's vision, these light-struck elevators are pure concept, an industrial sublime: ruined, magnificent, direct ideas, all form. These sequoias are Buffalo's church, and they stand as a sign for America. Jackson is among the few public scholars left. Whatever he writes and whatever he photographs quickens attention and enlivens the conversation. His brief appreciation with helpful timeline grounds a photographic love note to the giant ruminants of industrial might along the harbors of the city. Pay attention: American Chartres is a secret poem." — Anthony L. Bannon, Director, Burchfield Penney Art Center at SUNY Buffalo State