A biography of the controversial sculptor, Jacob Epstein. Recognized as a seminal figure in 20th-century art, his powerful and often explicit sculptures, monumental in scale, were hailed as the work of a genius by a few contemporary figures such as Ezra Pound and Augustus John, but produced hostility from the establishment. It is a comment on changing tastes that Epstein's carving in alabaster, Jacob and the Angel, once refused by the Tate Gallery, now stands in the Central Sculpture Hall of Tate Britain. His sculpture, drawing and other work is to be found in museums and art galleries all over the world. This is a true rags-to-riches story. Jacob Epstein was born in 1880 in the Jewish ghetto of New York, but by the time of his death in 1959 he had met almost everybody of importance in the art world and many in political and other spheres. In 1946 he modelled the portrait of Winston Churchill, and he was knighted in 1954. This biography contains an account of his tangled private life and its resonance in his work.