Smith Books

Everywhere you look, you see bamboo -- advertising, catalogue goods, book lists. If you have noticed and are intrigued, if you have EVER considered bamboo, then you want Bamboo Style on your bookshelf and in your hands. The author is a well-traveled architect and her skills and experience are reflected in her offering. The publisher is well-known for beautiful "style" books, among others, but it is the author who determined the scope of this publication: Why Choose Bamboo, The Ways of Bamboo, Bamboo Inside, Bamboo Outside, On Your Own, and Afterword: Bamboo and Beyond. There are many ways to read this book and benefit -- hit only the photos and captions, read the chapter you already know you'll love, try the "how-to" projects or use the resource lists at the end. Any single approach would be sufficient to warrant the purchase of this book, but do yourself a favor, and go through the entire book! There is a wealth of information here. Enjoy every bit of it and welcome to BAMBOO.

It's true, bamboo is the future. With all the many ways bamboo can be used it will continure to grow in popularity. This book does a great job educating the reader about this unique plant. The photographs of the many ways bamboo is utilized in the home and garden are beautiful. This book makes a great gift for the plant lover.

Bamboo Style by architect Gale Beth Goldberg is an amazing and superbly presented guide to crafting works of beauty and wonder from bamboo for the purpose of adding either a functional or an elegant touch to home decoration and interior design. Enhanced with lavish color photographs throughout, Bamboo Style offers an informed and informative history of bamboo uses the world over, as well as offering simple projects that anyone can create, this unique reference and truly beautiful book is enthusiastically recommended for the professional as well as do-it-yourself interior decorator wanting to try something fresh and vibrant.

Bamboo is appealing because of its beauty and because it's a renewable resource. While it takes 25 years to grow an "old timber" forest before it can be harvested, it's only a few years before bamboo shoots grow into usable, er, timber.

This book provides a great overview of how you can decorate a home with bamboo, inside and out. You'll find plenty of beautiful pictures with everything from Balniese homes to all-bamboo living rooms, to furniture, flooring and fencing.

However, if you're looking for a how-to book, you may be disappointed. Bamboo Style's emphasis is definitely on _style_ rather than construction. It devotes quite a bit of (well written) text to the reasons to choose bamboo, and those many photographs do an excellent job of demonstrating the breadth of what the material is capable of, both physically and in a decorating sense (i.e. it can fit into a modern decor or an Arts & Crafts scheme). Plus, the book has an extensive resource section, in case you want to explore more.

There are indeed a few hands-on projects, but they're more illustrative of what you can accomplish than anything else. If you want to start building with bamboo, you should definitely get this book -- it's quite inspiring! -- but you'll want another book for the how-to.

She writes excellent mysteries with a great protagonist/detective (Grace Smith), and the books are, quite frankly, better plotted than Evanovitch but just about as funny. Maybe Evanovitch does better on the romance, but personally, I prefer Evans, who places more emphasis on the mystery.

Grace Smith is an ex-police officer who was forced to resign following an appearance of misconduct. She's now working in a seaside town in England as a private investigator, although her work includes such things as looking for lost dogs. That's how this book begins, with her trying to recapture a lost bull dog mix for a junk yard owner who hires Grace every time the dog takes off. In the course of trying to get the dog back, Grace stumbles onto a man (hits him with a cow bone, actually) who ends up hiring her. He wants her to investigate some past life regression tapes, because he fears he may have killed someone -- in a past life? Grace fears more for the present, and doesn't entirely know if he's being honest with her -- she doesn't believe in the supernatural. But money is money...and it's better than looking for lost dogs. Under that theory, she also agrees to dogsit for the bull dog for a couple of days (right), and ends up having to haul the dog around with her -- which is where much of the humor comes in.

I look forward to reading more of the series. If you haven't read any yet, you're in for a treat. This mystery was very well plotted and I did not guess -- or even consider -- the ending.

This series is hilarious. Stephanie Plum has her family to help keep the laughs coming. Grace Smith has only herself. She doesn't need anyone else. This series will keep you laughing. You'll love Grace, trust me.

The Grace Smith mystery series is definitely one worth reading. I almost missed out on this author because I thought the first two books ("Who Killed Marilyn Monroe?" and "JFK is Missing")had silly titles. "Barking" is the 4th book in the series, and definitely the best by far.

The book is set in England and written in the first person. One of the best qualities is the humor. I wouldn't necessarily liken the character of Grace Smith to Stephanie Plum, since I found the humor in the only Stephanie Plum book I read to be too over-the-top.

Fans of British mysteries would probably also enjoy the Anna Lee series by Liza Cody (now out of print but available as second-hand or from the library) and the Kate Brannigan series by V.L. McDermid (available at Amazon).

I loved the laughs from the situations and the British jargon.
Grace Smith is an ex-policewoman who is sassy and crass, but
has a bit of a conscience. The plot is interesting, although
the story does drag a little in the middle. Over all Liz Evans
does a great job. How can you not like a story that starts with
the main character accidentally knocking out her future client
with a cow bone while trying to catch a lost dog. He then hires
her to find out if he ever murdered someone in a past life.
When you need a break from the serious British writers try this
series. Its fun!!

Interior designs range from casual to formal, from eclectic to historic, from traditional to avant garde. Barry Dixon's interior design style is especially noted for his international approach incorporating classical architecture and traditional themes with elements of modern and contemporary designs. The results were elegant and individualized interior creations ranging from a Caribbean mountaintop villa, to an 18th century Virginia farmhouse, to an open-plan Manhattan loft, and so much more. Profusely illustrated with full color photography by Edward Addeo, "Barry Dixon Interiors" by historic house restoration enthusiast Brian D. Coleman is a compendium of the best of Dixon's designs and a pure pleasure to simply browse through for inspirations and examples of what can be done. Simply stated, "Barry Dixon Interiors" is an enthusiastically recommended and seminal addition to personal, professional, academic, and community library Interior Design reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

For readers who enjoy magazines such as VERANDA and SOUTHERN ACCENTS, this book will be a step-up in quality of design. Mr. Dixon's use of antiques and high quality reproductions mixed with contemporary furnishings produces a fresh, easy to appreciate approach to interior design. Subtle coloration schemes dominate and there is an architectural sensitivity that would make the rooms man-friendly. This is an attractive presentation that could offer any number of ideas that would translate for the serious do-it-yourself-er.

I own many interior design books, and this one is by far the best. From the cover, to the preface, which includes a photo of Barry Dixon's staff, a first in a high end design book, to the back cover, there is a delight on every page. He highlights eleven homes, including his own. They each share his decorating signature, round rugs, pictures hung frame to frame, and he does seem to love his brass tack trim, and yet each is individual in style. He can do color and neutrals, he does pattern on pattern, simpler rooms, modern and country, and each is fabulous. Every photo, and they are beautifully photographed, has a wealth of ideas. This book would be a treasured edition in your decorating library.

I picked this book up at a local bookstore because I thought the cover and photos inside were intriguing. Upon further investigation, began to realize what a gem this resource truly is... The copy that accompanies each house it informative yet written in such a way that it's hard to put the book down. Addeo's photos are brilliant... captivating.... in a word, lush. An added bonus, Dixon gives amazing tips on how to decorate your home. It's your one source for all your real design needs.

Martha Smith is entertaining and light. A great read to lighten your heart and load after working outside in the heat all day.

I found this gardening memoir to be both feisty and funny. I love the way Martha Smith describes her "Mae West Memorial Garden". I could almost smell the lilacs and dahlias as I was reading. For anyone who loves gardening essays with a humorous slant this book is a must read!!

This is a must read for anyone who loves the joy of gardening and knows it's Nature's Prozac. Smith is a funny, witty, spirited writer and my only woe was that it was too short. Yes, 300 plus pages was simply not enough of her wonderful outlook on life and gardening and people and giving. As a writer and writing teacher, I'm sensitive to good writing and Martha Smith's work exceeded my expectations.

Please take my advice and read this collection. Then go out and get your hands dirty. You'll be in good company. I'd say more, but my garden and my dog are waiting!

My husband and I are both avid gardeners and on a recent road trip, I read this book aloud to him as he drove and he almost wrecked from laughing so hard. This is a very funny book and the author knows too well the joys as well as the back-breaking hard work that gardening can be. My favorite chapter - "Canna lily kill you?" - a must read for gardeners who enjoy a spike of humor.

Valerie Yow has done it again. I was absorbed by her biography of North Carolina writer Bernice Kelly Harris; now, with Betty Smith: Life of the Author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, she has given us another fascinating, highly readable and meticulously researched and documented biography of a major woman author.
Since I first read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn--at about age thirteen--it has remained one of the books that have remained bright in my memory. Valerie Yow has brought me into the world and the writing life of the complex and determined woman who was its author, and the author of many other memorable works. Yow is herself an excellent writer. She gives us a story that is a true pleasure to read, and which also demonstrates her strength and professionalism as an historian. This biography deserves wide readership. I recommend it highly to anyone interested in Betty Smith's work, as well as in the writing process and the writing life during a period when the way was not often easy for a woman writer.
Joyce Allen

Fans of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943) will find a rich treat in Valerie Yow's biography of its author, Betty Smith. Smith is best known today for the largely autobiographical Tree, but she was celebrated in her day as a prolific playwright (she wrote some 60 plays), and three other popular novels that, like Tree, drew from her own life: Tomorrow Will Be Better (1948), Maggie-Now (1958), and Joy in the Morning (1963).

Though Smith's dramatic work (King Cotton, 1937; So Gracious Is the Time, 1938; The Desert Shall Rejoice, 1941, with Robert Finch) is little-known, Yow examines it thoroughly, and shows that Smith first found her voice in theatre - a lifelong passion.

Yow portrays Smith as a complex individual, at home in the lively, combative streets of Brooklyn as well as its quiet library. She had a fine intellect, nurtured by study at Yale and a circle of literary friends; but as a writer, she did not seek the companionship of the intellectuals of her day. An introvert, she immersed herself in raising her family through three complicated marriages and years of poverty; and in writing polished, sometimes controversial, plays that explored the dark corners of contemporary life in the mid-twentieth century. With success came the stressful glare of public life; but with the accompanying money, she was able to afford weeks of solitude at Nags Head, on North Carolina's Outer Banks, where the diminutive, city-bred author rose at dawn to revel in the sunrise and fish for hours in the Atlantic surf.

Much of the revelation of Smith's character and life in Yow's book comes through well-chosen excerpts from her correspondence and published personal interviews. Yow, an oral historian and psychologist,also conducted lengthy interviews of Smith's surviving family, friends and associates; spent years ransacking obscure archives for information on, and photos of, her subject; and thoroughly immersed herself in the places that Betty brought to life in her semi-autobiographical fiction: Williamsburg, Brooklyn; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and Nags Head.

Yow's excellent analysis suggests Smith's enduring appeal arises from her realism, for in her fiction she developed the full, flawed humanity of her characters - most famously, Francie Nolan's beloved, alcoholic father, Johnny Nolan in Tree. At a time when "literary" fiction was expected to have an overt social and political agenda, Betty Smith explored more personal terrain, though nonetheless gritty; for her characters pick their way through messy personal relationships that both nurture and thwart their hopes and dreams.

Yow points out that Smith's wise studies of individuals struggling in the barbed embrace of family and community remain compelling more than a half-century after she wrote them. Despite critics who dismissed her books as "sentimental" because they dealt with the personal, rather than the political, Smith's realistic approach has survived seismic cultural changes, and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn has become what few of her contemporaries can claim to have produced - a classic.

Having loved "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn", I picked up Ms. Yow's biography of Betty Smith with curiosity and a measure of trepidation. I expected an academic treatise but what I discovered, to my delight, was a rich, full-bodied, insightful account of Betty Smith's life.
Ms. Yow is a skilled story teller and this talent combined with her keen research skills and her expertise as a psychologist, yields a book that is not only informative and perceptive but a great read, as well. You won't be able to put this one down.
Anyone who has read and loved "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" will enjoy this biography. Ms. Yow helps the reader achieve a new understanding of the genesis of Francie Nolan and her family through her compelling analysis of Ms. Smith's own story.

In Betty Smith: Life of the Author of a Tree Grows in Brooklyn, author Valerie Yow has done a masterful work of making a non-fiction biography read as entertainingly and engrossingly as a well-written novel. Using a compelling narrative style, Yow tells the fascinating story of this little-known woman writer of mid 20th century. Amazingly well researched, this biography never feels moribund by facts. Instead they are used to paint a compelling picture of a writer's life and the times in which she lived. Yow provides a telling analysis - both literary and psychological - of Smith and her work. From her impoverished beginnings in Brooklyn to her turbulent life in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Smith's story is even more compelling than that of the character Francie in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. After reading Yow's biography the relationship between author and characters, between author and the people in his/her life becomes even more understandable, as is the relationship between an author and the times in which he/she lives. This book is more than just a great read, it is an invaluable resource for writers and historians and anyone interested in literature.

An extremely helpful book to use as a reference or to read through. Great resource for new believers and/or those who want to become more knowledgeable about the Bible, as well as a quick refresher for long-time believers. Simple, easy to understand little book. Entertaining to read yet jam-packed with information. Includes excellent suggestions for how to study the Bible and plenty of background information to help you understand what you read. I own a copy and just purchased 2 more for gifts! Whether you grew up in Sunday School or have yet to step foot in a church, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book!

This book told me what the Bible is about....book by book. It gave history, and the ways of life for the days that the Bible was written. It made soooo many things clear to me. It did more for me than chats with my pastor, because this book is so indepth, and thorough........more so than any pastor would be willing to take the time to tell you......at least in as short a time as it takes to read this. WELL worth the $!!!!

I Love this book! It has helped me tremedously. I found the references and tips to be thorough without being overwhelming. Just enough information to help you understand and at the same time inspire you to re-read the verse, chapter, book and usually with a different point of view. It is like someone just turned on the lights! This book is informative, interesting and entertaining. I highly recommend it to every christian young and old. Would make a great gift to non-christians as well.

This book is wonderful for new Christians! Or to refresh your memory. It has helped me more in one day than I have learned in a month reading the bible. What a useful tool it has been. I make sure I have this along with the bible wherever I go. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning and gaining knowledge from the bible. Or who needs help in studying or knowing how to read the bible and how to get out information to help you.

Written by Jeffery L Schatzer with the assistance of Mark Bush and Don Rutt, The Bird In Santa's Beard: How A Christmas Legend Was Forever Changed is superbly and imaginatively illustrated by Ty Smith combinations of art and photography. This is the story of how a bird was given Santa's permission to nest in his beard in order to keep warm in the winter. Santa is having trouble making his rounds across the world. But with the help of the bird, he comes upon a solution that worked so well it is still the one used to this very day! Lively, colorful, original, and fun, The Bird In Santa's Beard is a wonderful contribution to the every growing library of Santa Claus lore and legend!

this is a terrific story for mom's and dad's who need to explain why there
are so many "Santas" around at Christmas. My Grandkids love this book.
I read it before I gave it to them and am pleased with the story, the
illustrations, and the theme. Also, it's a nice hard cover book that will
become a treasured keepsake for your child.

I highly recommend this book to all the children who believe in the
wonder of Santa.

Written by Jeffery L Schatzer with the assistance of Mark Bush and Don Rutt, The Bird In Santa's Beard: How A Christmas Legend Was Forever Changed is superbly and imaginatively illustrated by Ty Smith combinations of art and photography. This is the story of how a bird was given Santa's permission to nest in his beard in order to keep warm in the winter. Santa is having trouble making his rounds across the world. But with the help of the bird, he comes upon a solution that worked so well it is still the one used to this very day! Lively, colorful, original, and fun, The Bird In Santa's Beard is a wonderful contribution to the every growing library of Santa Claus lore and legend!

Winter can be a cold, lonely and dangerous time for a bird that didn't fly south. But in The Bird in Santa's Beard, help comes from Santa Claus himself. Santa invites the cold and hungry bird to nest in the warm safety of his beard. During the long winter Santa and the bird develop a deep friendship. They solve problems and share the secret of Santa's helpers. And when Christmas morning arrives, Santa receives a grand gift just for him.

The Bird in Santa's Beard is the story of an unlikely friendship between Santa and a bird and how a simple kindness makes a difference.

I so enjoyed learning how Santa came to have all of his helpers. Children will enjoy this book with a subtle and important message. The photographs are wonderful and a nice change of pace from other illustrated books. The cover is exactly the way I have always pictured jolly old Santa.

Armchair Interviews says: This is a splendid addition to a child's Christmas library.

This is a truly wonderful, but little known sex-comedy, by Thorne Smith who brought us "Topper". Written in 1932, it deals with a young man named Peter Van Dyck, who has recently inherited his father's coffee business and is engaged to beautiful socialite Yolanda Wilmont. Peter's secretary Josephine Duvall is in love with Peter, and makes the most of every oportunity to attract him, mostly by showing off her sexy legs while taking a couple of letters. Josephine tells Peter that the stuffy Yolanda is entirely unsuitable for him, and that he needs someone to mold him into the kind of man who can successfully run a business (i.e., Josephine). Peter rebuffs her advances, but all the while finds himself getting turned on by his cheeky secretary. When the ferry they are taking gets lost in the fog, Peter, Yoland, Josephine, and a few other peripheral characters (including the Bishop of the title) set out in a small boat hoping to get to shore before the ferry. When they alight, they discover they are in a nudist colony, where all persons are forced to strip and go naked--all except Yolanda, for whom an exception is made. Being naked causes the characters to see themselves and others differently, especially Yolanda, who has an epiphany when she finally decides to disrobe.

Smith's prose is fast-moving and enjoyable, and his plots and dialogue are laugh-out-loud funny. This is my favorite of all his books.

A number of years ago, when I was in acting school, a classmate of mine and I adapted Chapter Three into a scene to perform for a show my school put on. It was a big success, and I have long thought this book was theatrical enough to be easily transformed into a movie or play, except for the second half which takes place in the nudist colony. How could you present this with everyone totally naked? I recently read that "The Bishop's Jaegers" is on its was to becoming a motion picture, so I am eager to see what they do about this.

A businessman, his fiancee, his secretary, a thief and a bishop leave a ferry lost in a fog, and find themselves at a nudist colony, where they are forced to remain. The usual Thorne Smith zaniness, with the occasional caustic comment on society.

Thorne Smith is always a treat. The Bishop's Jaegers is my personal favorite of his works. Characters like "Aspirin Liz" and the little pickpocket make the book more personable. The plot involves a group of Ferry boat passengers stranded on a nudist colony. The pickpocket finds nudity unrewarding, the Bishop (in his Jaegers) finds it disconcerting. The reader finds it very amusing.

Thorne Smith lived a melencholy (and some what alcohol besotted) existance and yet was able to create some of the funniest writtings known to modern man. His books are a slow read because you find yourself stopping for extended periods of time to laugh, blot your tears, laugh some more and then some more. Line by line, he has you rolling on the floor, causing a scene nowhere near as funny as what you have just read but in serious contention. If you are one of those folks who does not laugh out loud, you should, perhaps avoid his work as I believe it must be unhealthy to stay in control of this much fun with out the safety valve of laughing. And for heaven's sakes, don't read in the presence of strangers, they will think you demented (and you will feel much that way, as well). Smith wrote so long ago that his were books sneaked into the house by my (then) teen-aged father (now nearing 80). The books have survived to be read (and re-read) by every one in the family...and they are evry bit as funny (though probably not as racey) as they were for my dad. They are irreverent, ridiculous, fantastic and amazing. I need more, more,more....

I recently read this book, in one day, as a matter of fact. I was so drawn into the story that I didn't want to put it down. The descriptions were enough to "see" the places and characters, yet not overly done. The author took a story that involved many ordinary aspects of life - growing up, finding friendships, employment, housing and death, and wove them into an uplifting and pleasant story. I would recommend this book to any woman , especially one who is striving to be the best she can be, even after enduring a painful upbringing.

I truly enjoyed this trip to Small Town, USA. I was able to walk the streets and see the sights as Mara did. I experienced her pain and joy as she sought answers with a forgiving spirit. The author was able to draw me into the character in a way that was truly inspiring and uplifting, while also allowing the Holy Spirit to convict me for my unforgiveness.

I really loved this book. The characters are believable and easy to identify with. I could barely put the book down once I started reading. This book is a must have.

I really enjoyed this book. I enjoyed journeying with Mara back to her roots. I found inspiration in her ability to stay true to herself despite having to face the pain of her father's rejection all over again. Smith's book is warmly written, gently riveting, and an inspiring reminder of just how much courage and ability to persevere through "bitter waters" can come from being rooted in faith, especially a faith in God that has been honed by those same bitter waters.

Most of the book is devoted to institutional history (governance, finances, who sided with who in this or that petty dispute, etc.). Some attention is given to community aspects. We learn next to nothing about the academic side of things. The one exception is art, which is given some attention and only here are there some accounts of what actually went on in the classrooms. Art was central from the start and Black Mountain College became artier with the years and is perhaps best remembered as an art school today, but I still think there is good reason to be dissatisfied with this one-sided perspective, especially considering the founder Rice's very explicit rejection of the idea of the college as an art school: "'God, no!' he'd thunder, 'that's the last thing I want. They're the most awful places in the world!'" (p. 55). The following brief summary is essentially all we learn about how the college functioned academically: "Classes varied considerably in format, since each teacher was left to his own devices. Some would lecture or direct discussions more than others; some would settle for words, others would show pictures and play music; and occasional seminar would be taught by three or four instructors, and many classes had staff members or their wives sitting in as students. Most instructors privately jotted down grades, but only---so went the rationale, anyway---in case a student later needed a 'record' for transfer or for graduate school. The grades were never passed on to the students themselves, and never, therefore, became the focus of energy or the standards for evaluating self-worth ... The only exams given at Black Mountain were those to pass from junior to senior (specialized) division, and those set by outside examiners when a student felt ready to graduate. For the division exam, students were given all day, free use of the library and wide choice among many questions (which often included conundrums like 'How do you know the Philippine Islands exist?', or 'How do you know the sky is blue?'). ... Black Mountain never managed to get accreditation." (p. 108). Other interesting topics on which we would have liked to learn more include things like John Dewey's relation to the college. Dewey visited several times and became a member of the college's advisory board, but for some reason Duberman thinks that this should earn him no more that two short paragraphs (p. 102). The general conclusion from the entire experiment is fairly predictable: the college attracted interesting students (when fired from Rollins College, Rice "had few doubts about the students interested in starting a new school; 'top flight,' according to Rice, 'not a second-rater in the lot'---and indeed they included the president of the student body and the editor of the undergraduate paper." (p. 28)), and dedicated faculty (In 1942 "the community tried various expediencies in order to cut costs. Having already contributed its labor in putting up the new plant, the faculty now decided to contribute its pathetic salaries as well; it agreed not to draw any money, beyond $10 a month per person, until it looked resonable clear that the college would be able to survive (and in some cases faculty members turned down offers to teach elsewhere, including one that carried a $10,000 salary)" (p. 165)), although "at its worst, the community consisted of little more than a group of squabbling prima donnas---many professional, others in training" (p. 12).

With exceptional research, interviews and anecdotes, Duberman details the brief, lively history of Black Mountain College in western North Carolina. The influence of this experimental community continues to the present (the faculty and alumni included Anna and Josef Albers, Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, and Jonathan Williams, among many others). The struggle to keep the College fiscally solvent from year-to-year, as often happens at any instution, becomes paramount to the story, but doesn't detract from the intellectual achievement of Black Mountain -- or diminish the artistic clashes of its participants. In the 1970s, the founding of the Naropa Institute, the Jack Kerouac School of Disemobodied Poetics, and other experiments in community would find echoes in the history of Black Mountain College. This is an entertaining and informative history, and essential reading for anyone interested in mid-20th century literature and art.

Duberman's classic "Black Mountain" is the definitive work of scholarship on the school that gave America its most pivotal and influential artists of the 20th century.
A sheer joy to read, this account of the rise and fall of Black Mountain engages the reader into a world of ideas, community and art that is all too rare in today's considerations. Teachers can learn how to Teach and Do at the same time. Students can learn the meaning of involvement, responsibility and creativity. Parents might learn a thing or two about choices. And administrators will see where they've gone wrong. Something for nearly everyone in this erudite, and poignant dissertation.

If there was one idea that pervades the book, and, indeed, pervaded the college it was that "living" and "learning" should be intertwined, and a favorite slogan at Black Mountain was that "as much real education took place over the coffee cups as in the classrooms."
There is much that we all can learn from this account. But read it for the adventure! Think of it as a sort of Intellectual Indiana Jones where the treasure is that harmonious mix of education, art, community and life -- in other words, the very gem that these brave and gifted women and men of eminence sought at Black Mountain.
We owe these pioneers a great deal.
Honor them with your mind, and read this wondrous account by one of Black Mountain's own.

Dave Beckwith
Founder/President
Charlotte Internet Society

Needing guidance on how to lead an artist's community, I discovered this rare and remarkable book. It takes you inside an intentional community, one better known for its mythology than for its reality, and shows you the birth, growth and death of an ideal. Unlike other books on similar subjects, it is never trivial or purely ancedotal -- every paragraph reveals something fundamental about the struggles, passions, successes and failures that are part of inventing a community. There are moments in this book that are so profoundly true -- I know this because I recognize them from my own similar experiences. I respect Duberman's perceptions and his deep emotional attachment to the subject (someday I hope to thank the author personally as this book has made a positive difference in my life and the development of my community). I recommend this as a textbook for those thinking of starting an artist's community.