Review by Choice Review
During the Victorian era of architecture, there were a myriad of styles for an architect to follow. One man, Richardson, made such a mark that his designs became a style all their own: Richardsonian Romanesque. O'Gorman (Wellesley College) has teamed up with photographer Cervin Robinson to produce a biography that also enlightens the reader about life in the last half of the 19th century. Richardson died in midlife, so to follow his life is to follow his career. Ateliers, not architecture schools, were the norm; classmates became clients; patrons and competitions were invaluable to budding careers. The reader learns less about Richardson's family life and more of how the man nestled ground-hugging, load-bearing masonry with nature. The superb illustrations support this, while having almost no relevance to their assigned chapter. Admittedly, personal documentation may be scant, but the use of phrases like "we do not know," particularly when mixed with brief diversions, is distracting. O'Gorman is the logical author for this book, as it is his fourth on Richardson. Many others in addition to O'Gorman, such as Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Vincent J. Scully Jr., have written on the architect; few since Mariana Van Rensselaer, in her Henry Hobson Richardson and His Works (1888), have focused on the personal side of the man. Alas, there is no bibliography. Highly recommended. General readers; upper-division undergraduates through professionals. L. B. Sickels-Taves Drexel University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
After several important studies of the works of major American architects, O'Gorman has written an excellent biography of Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-1886). O'Gorman's gentle, simple writing makes the vast amounts of historical informationabout the personal details of Richardson's life, his contemporaries, his worksextremely digestible even to a reader completely unfamiliar with Richardson's importance as the architect of Boston's Trinity Church and the creator of a style still called "Richardson Romanesque." The portrait that emerges is filled with empathetic understanding of the personal conflicts of a man whose influence was international. The book is organized chronologically, except for an initial chapter that presents Richardson's character through an anecdote. Like so much of the rest of the book, this chapter also immediately pulls the reader through Richardson's milieu, a milieu echoed in the book's fine collection of 150 archival and new photos (100 in full color). O'Gorman's scholarly experience allows him to follow this absorbing story of a man's life through every historic event, while his personal fascination with his subject allows him to slide quickly from formal analysis to personal detail without ever leaving the rich atmosphere. O'Gorman has produced a detailed biography of this great architect, an important document on 19th-century American culture and a deeply felt read. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
O'Gorman is the foremost authority on Richardson, having authored H.H. Richardson: Architectural Forms for an American Society (Univ. of Chicago, 1987) and half a dozen books on related topics. Together with Jeffrey Earl Ochsner's H.H. Richardson: Complete Architectural Works (1984), this thoughtful and learned biography completes our knowledge of the life and achievements of America's greatest 19th-century architect. Richardson emerges in this study as a paradox: a Southerner who worked in the North, a sensitive artist who worked for industrial barons, and a fashioner of dignified, weighty homes who lived in an ill-proportioned, rented "Jamaican Planter's" house in suburban Brookline. Robinson's photographs are simply among the best; never before has Richardson's architecture been seen to greater effect. For larger general public and academic collections and all American architecture collections.Peter S. Kaufman, Boston Architectural Ctr. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
