Howard Mansfield
Encyclopedia
Howard Mansfield is an American author who writes about history, preservation, and architecture. He was born in Huntington, New York
, and graduated from Syracuse University
in 1979. He lives in New Hampshire
with his wife, writer Sy Montgomery.
The Bones of the Earth. Shoemaker and Hoard, 2004.
The Same Ax, Twice: Restoration and Renewal in a Throwaway Age. University Press of New England, 2000.
Skylark: The Life, Lies and Inventions of Harry Atwood. University Press of New England, 1999.
In the Memory House. Fulcrum Publishing, 1993.
Cosmopolis: Yesterday’s Cities of the Future. Rutgers, Center for Urban Policy Research, 1990.
Beyond the Notches: Stories of Place in New Hampshire’s North Country. Monadnock Institute of Nature, Place and Culture, 2011.
Brian Vanden Brink, Ruin: Photographs of a Vanishing America. Down East
Books, 2009. Introductory essay.
William Morgan, Yankee Modern: The Houses of Estes/Twombly. Princeton Architectural Press, 2009. Foreword.
James Aponovich: A Retrospective. Currier Museum of Art, 2005.
David Rothenberg and Wendee J. Pryor, eds., Writing on Air, The MIT Press, 2003.
Doubletake, American Heritage, Orion, New Letters Quarterly, Washington Post, New York Times, Metropolis, International Design, Yankee, Small Press, Places Quarterly, West Hills Review, SITES, Design Book Review, Historic Preservation, Inland Architect, Christian Science Monitor, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Kansas City Star, Oakland Tribune, Newsday, Arizona Republic, Chicago Tribune, Des Moines Register, ElleDecor, Air & Space Smithsonian, International Herald Tribune, New Hampshire Home, The Magazine Antiques, Creative Nonfiction.
"Now and then an idea suddenly bursts into flame, as if by spontaneous combustion. One instance is the recent explosion of American books about the idea of place.... But the best of them, the deepest, the widest-ranging, the most provocative and eloquent is Howard Mansfield's In the Memory House." -Hungry Mind Review
“Howard Mansfield has never written an uninteresting or dull sentence. All of his books are emotionally and intellectually nourishing. He is something like a cultural psychologist along with being a first-class cultural historian. He is humane, witty, bright-minded, and rigorously intelligent. He and his wife rescued the doomed runt of a litter of pigs and raised it to be the 175-pound Mr. Hogwood, a living symbol of Howard Mansfield’s care for the American, New England, history he writes so well about. His deep subject is Time: how we deal with it and how it deals with us. This beautiful book is about Time and Rocks.” —Guy Davenport
, author of The Death of Picasso
Huntington, New York
The Town of Huntington is one of ten towns in Suffolk County, New York, USA. Founded in 1653, it is located on the north shore of Long Island in northwestern Suffolk County, with Long Island Sound to its north and Nassau County adjacent to the west. Huntington is part of the New York metropolitan...
, and graduated from Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
in 1979. He lives in New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
with his wife, writer Sy Montgomery.
Author
Turn and Jump: How Time and Place Fell Apart. Down East, 2010.The Bones of the Earth. Shoemaker and Hoard, 2004.
The Same Ax, Twice: Restoration and Renewal in a Throwaway Age. University Press of New England, 2000.
Skylark: The Life, Lies and Inventions of Harry Atwood. University Press of New England, 1999.
In the Memory House. Fulcrum Publishing, 1993.
Cosmopolis: Yesterday’s Cities of the Future. Rutgers, Center for Urban Policy Research, 1990.
Contributed Essays
Twelve Breaths a Minute. Creative Nonfiction Books, 2011.Beyond the Notches: Stories of Place in New Hampshire’s North Country. Monadnock Institute of Nature, Place and Culture, 2011.
Brian Vanden Brink, Ruin: Photographs of a Vanishing America. Down East
Books, 2009. Introductory essay.
William Morgan, Yankee Modern: The Houses of Estes/Twombly. Princeton Architectural Press, 2009. Foreword.
James Aponovich: A Retrospective. Currier Museum of Art, 2005.
David Rothenberg and Wendee J. Pryor, eds., Writing on Air, The MIT Press, 2003.
Selected publications
Essays and articles on history and architecture have appeared in:Doubletake, American Heritage, Orion, New Letters Quarterly, Washington Post, New York Times, Metropolis, International Design, Yankee, Small Press, Places Quarterly, West Hills Review, SITES, Design Book Review, Historic Preservation, Inland Architect, Christian Science Monitor, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Kansas City Star, Oakland Tribune, Newsday, Arizona Republic, Chicago Tribune, Des Moines Register, ElleDecor, Air & Space Smithsonian, International Herald Tribune, New Hampshire Home, The Magazine Antiques, Creative Nonfiction.
Praise
“As an excavator and guardian of our living past, Howard Mansfield is unmatched. This decent, unpretentious, wonderful writer possesses the sensibility of a poet combined with boundless curiosity and deep, deep knowledge. In its quiet, persistent, honest search for timelessness and truth amidst the clamor of our uncertain times, Turn & Jump takes us to the very soul of America.” –John Heilpern, Vanity FairVanity Fair
Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero is a novel by William Makepeace Thackeray, first published in 1847–48, satirizing society in early 19th-century Britain. The book's title comes from John Bunyan's allegorical story The Pilgrim's Progress, first published in 1678 and still widely read at the time...
"Now and then an idea suddenly bursts into flame, as if by spontaneous combustion. One instance is the recent explosion of American books about the idea of place.... But the best of them, the deepest, the widest-ranging, the most provocative and eloquent is Howard Mansfield's In the Memory House." -Hungry Mind Review
“Howard Mansfield has never written an uninteresting or dull sentence. All of his books are emotionally and intellectually nourishing. He is something like a cultural psychologist along with being a first-class cultural historian. He is humane, witty, bright-minded, and rigorously intelligent. He and his wife rescued the doomed runt of a litter of pigs and raised it to be the 175-pound Mr. Hogwood, a living symbol of Howard Mansfield’s care for the American, New England, history he writes so well about. His deep subject is Time: how we deal with it and how it deals with us. This beautiful book is about Time and Rocks.” —Guy Davenport
Guy Davenport
Guy Mattison Davenport was an American writer, translator, illustrator, painter, intellectual, and teacher.-Life:...
, author of The Death of Picasso
External links
- Turn and Jump, Listen to a short interview on Here & Now
- Turn and Jump, The Wall Street Journal
- Turn and Jump, Englewood Review.
- Turn and Jump, Books and Culture: A Christian Review
- Howard Mansfield’s website
- The Bones of the Earth : New Hampshire Public Radio
- The Bones of the Earth : The Utne Reader
- The Bones of the Earth : The Paula Gordon Show
- Hogwood Steps Out
- Hogwood Steps Out video
- In the Memory House : New Hampshire Public Radio
- Prof. David H. Watters, University of New Hampshire, Study Guide to In the Memory House
- The Same Ax, Twice : The Paula Gordon Show
- The Same Ax, Twice : The New York Times Book Review
- Where the Mountain Stands Alone