Eric Sloane

I've read over 300 books relating to woodworking. Everything from the historical to the common - from traditional Japanese joinery to building canoes. There are so many good books and wonderful efforts to keep the craft alive and healthy.

I've also talked with many authors of woodworking books and I've broken bread with many fine crafts men and women. And, I've taught and discussed woodworking with hundreds of earnest people wanting to know more about the art and techniques of good woodworking. I have always felt privileged to be part of the craft.

Every so often I’m asked to recommend a book or two. It’s at this moment I hit my brakes and consider the cornucopia available to today’s crafts people. There are many many book on techniques, on the how-to's and the what to do. There are excellent biographical books on successful woodworkers and even a few on woodworking philosophies.

But what book should I recommend? I'll pick something that stands alone, is different and offers a wealth of information. My recommendation, the books of Eric Sloane.

Sloane wrote dozens of books which he also beautifully illustrated. His in-depth discussion of the seemingly mundane, such as barns, tools and wood offer a glimpse into Early America that few others have equaled. Furthermore, one doesn’t have to be a woodworker to enjoy his writings.

From the Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Sloane

“Eric Sloane was born in New York City. As a child, he was a neighbor of noted sign painter and type designer Frederick W. Goudy. Sloane studied art and lettering with Goudy. While he attended the Art Students League of New York City, he changed his name because George Luks and John French Sloan suggested that young students should paint under an assumed name so that early inferior works would not be attached to them.

In the summer of 1925, Sloane ran away from home, working his way across the country as a sign painter, creating advertisements for everything from Red Man Tobacco to Bull Durham. Unique hand calligraphy and lettering became a characteristic of his illustrated books.

Sloane eventually returned to New York and settled in Connecticut, where he began painting rustic landscapes in the tradition of the Hudson River School. In the 1950s, he began spending part of the year in Taos, New Mexico, where he painted western landscapes and particularly luminous depictions of the desert sky. In his career as a painter, he produced over 15,000 works. His fascination with the sky and weather led to commissions to paint works for the U.S. Air Force and the production of a number of illustrated works on meteorology and weather forecasting. Sloane is even credited with creating the first televised weather reporting network, by arranging for local farmers to call in reports to a New England broadcasting station.

Sloane also had a great interest in New England folk culture, Colonial daily life, and Americana. He wrote and illustrated scores of Colonial era books on tools, architecture, farming techniques, folklore, and rural wisdom. Every book included detailed illustrations, hand lettered titles, and his characteristic folksy wit and observations. He developed an impressive collection of historic tools which became the nucleus of the collection in the Sloane-Stanley Tool Museum in Kent, Connecticut.

Sloane died in New York in 1985, while walking down the street to a luncheon held in his honor. This celebration marked the publication of his memoir Eighty: An American Souvenir.

Sloane's best known books are A Reverence for Wood, which examines the history and tools of woodworking, as well as the philosophy of the woodworker; The Cracker Barrel, which is a compendium of folk wit and wisdom; and Diary of an Early American Boy: Noah Blake-1805, based on a diary he discovered at a local library book sale. His most famous painted work is probably the skyscape mural, Earth Flight Environment, which is still on display in the Independence Avenue Lobby in the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum.”

Two books I return to time and again and I recommend without hesitation.