As much a book about old buildings as some of the men involved in saving them, here's a thoughtful journey through contemporary cultural conservation. Acknowledging the impossibility, and questioning even the desirability, of ever completely recapturing the past, Howard (How Old is This House?, 1989not reviewed) claims that the role of the preservationists he has profiled is rather to ``enable us to glimpse other times within the context of our own modern world. It is their insistence on the importance of the physical presence of the past, of its artifacts and its architecture, that preserves them.'' To make his case, then, he has assembled an eclectic group of buildings and preservationistsincluding architects, businessmen, art historians, and craftsmen like Donald Carpentier, who has lovingly assembled his own small restored village. In separate chapters, Howard profiles, among others, a preservation group in Essex, N.Y. that consults the community in making preservation decisions; the director of the curatorial department at Old Sturbridge Village; the architects restoring one of Thomas Jefferson's ``pavilions''; the founder of Old House Journal; a New Yorker who does research on buildings, especially in New York, for his clients; and an ongoing study of a problematical Frank Lloyd Wright house in Buffalo. An informative and accessible guide to the current status of preservation by someone who celebrates style and craftsmanship.
Pub Date: May 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-374-17303-6
Page Count: -
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1991
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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