NEWPORT COTTAGES 1835–1890
DAILY BEAST “Just Booked”: “A gorgeous new book from historian Michael C. Kathrens and a beautiful companion for those discerning visitors to Newport with a keen eye and a more curious soul. The real treasures of Newport—the houses that make it the city for understanding pre-modern American domestic architecture—are usually overlooked, but in the new book by Bauer and Dean Publishers, the best of the houses from Newport ascendancy are given star treatment.” (April 20, 2023)
NEWPORT THIS WEEK review by LUCIE-ANNE DIONNE-THOMAS: “Another stunning book from Michael Kathrens, Newport Cottages is a one-of-a-kind purchase that will be an asset to anyone’s library. Not only a beautiful book, but it shares lesser-known information about some of Newport’s most beautiful homes. In all, when it comes to information about these exceptional properties, this book is in a league of its own. It is evident Kathrens loves the subject matter. His enthusiasm comes through on every page.” (August 10, 2023)
BOSTON MAGAZINE review by STEFANIE SCHWALB: “Published with the Preservation Society of Newport County, this compilation of grandiose homes crafts a compelling narrative on the impressive architectural legacy of 19th-century Newport, known for its lavish resort architecture. These 19th-century summer ‘cottages’ were commissioned by several of America’s most wealthy and high-profile families and are showcased in the book through 512 illustrations, 60 floor plans, and 81 house portraits.” (May 18, 2023)
NEW CRITERION review in “The Critic’s Notebook”: “Though now overshadowed by the luxurious European-inspired mansions, the original ‘cottages’ are a window into a simpler, though still fortunate, period in American history. Michael Kathrens’s stunning new book, Newport Cottages 1835–1890 published by Bauer and Dean in association with the Preservation Society of Newport County, is enlivened by new and archival photography to help tell the story of Newport’s first flourishing.” (April 4, 2023)
KANSAS CITY HOUSES 1885–1938
- 2019 Osmund Overby Award, Missouri Alliance for Historic Preservation.
- 2019 Missouri State Resolution No. 527 recognizing Michael C. Kathrens for his published work and contribution to historic preservation.
- 2018 George Ehrlich Award for Outstanding Publication.
- 2018 “Best Book” Award, Jackson County Historical Society.
DAILY BEAST review by WILLIAM O’CONNOR: “My job allows me to go to my favorite cities every year―Paris, Mexico City, São Paulo, Los Angeles―and, yes, Kansas City… I was whisked away to cruise around the city with native son (and one of my favorite authors) Michael C. Kathrens …While he’s best known for his tomes on the great houses of New York City, Horace Trumbauer, and Newport, Kathrens’s most charming work might be Kansas City Houses … even though you likely won’t be able to snag him as a guide, his beautiful book is a worthy substitute. Grab a copy, get in a car, and cruise by some of the most magnificent homes in the country. And, wow, what treasures his book brings out of this city’s neighborhoods.” (November 1, 2022)
JOCK PETERS: THE VARIETIES OF MODERNISM
THE NEW YORK TIMES article “Shining a Light on Forgotten Designers” by DONALD ALBRECHT: “The German-born, Los Angeles-based Jock Peters was one of the 20th century’s unsung polymaths. He designed buildings, interiors, furniture and Hollywood film sets. He also refused to limit himself to one signature style and roamed across a spectrum from Art Deco to Bauhaus Modernism. At the same time, his life and career deepen our understanding of the trans-Atlantic dialogues that shaped avant-garde architecture and design in the United States and, specifically, Southern California, in the 1920s and 30s.” (October 28, 2021)
DANIELLA ON DESIGN review by DANIELLA OHAD: “[Jock Peters] created endless sets for Hollywood studios, interiors for some of the best department stores, and chic residential interiors. He was no less ambitious than Neutra, and no less talented than Urban… His most famous project was Bullock’s Wilshire, one of the greatest retail establishments along Los Angeles’s Miracle Mile. [Long] is an amazing scholar who never cuts corners, whose ambition in revealing the lesser known is admirable. His contribution to the study of modern design is unparalleled, particularly the chapter of early modernism in the United States. Jock Peters is an important document that should be included in any library of design and architecture.” (January 20, 2022)
CHICAGO ART DECO SOCIETY MAGAZINE review by BENNETT JOHNSON: “Vintage photos and Long’s lively and authoritative text capture the groundbreaking design of Peters’s stunning interiors. I highly recommend this beautiful book and encourage readers to add it to your Deco library alongside Long’s noteworthy books on Kem Weber and Paul T. Frankl.” (Summer 2022)
THE PALM SPRINGS POST review by TRACY CONRAD: “Jock Peters [is] an undeservedly obscure master architect who is the subject of a gorgeous new book by Christopher Long… essential reading for anyone who wants to truly understand midcentury modern design in Southern California. Breezing through its pages creates a yearning to be in Peters’s rarefied interiors, even for just a moment of shopping.” (March 6, 2022)
COLLECTORS WEEKLY review “Modernist Man: Jock Peters May Be the Most Influential Architect You’ve Never Heard of” by BEN MARKS: Long’s new book shines a welcome spotlight on this early modernist… Jock Peters, Architecture and Design is packed with newly available drawings, photographs, correspondence, and reference materials from the Peters family archives.” (November 19, 2021)
BOING BOING review by MARK FRAUENFELDER quoting Ben Marks: “If you are a fan of Southern California modernist architecture in the first half of the 20th century, you are probably familiar with names like Irving Gill, Frank Lloyd Wright, his son Lloyd Wright, R.M. Schindler, and Richard Neutra. But few have heard of Jock Peters, who contributed mightily to the movement before dying of tuberculosis at the age of forty-five in 1934. That is about to change thanks to a new book by University of Texas architecture professor Christopher Long [that] gives an unsung participant his due while reminding us how fluid modernism was in its infancy.” (November 28, 2021)
BUILDING THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE 1869–1883
Recipient of the 2021 Book Award from The Victorian Society New York.
BOWERY BOYS review “Best of the Bowery Boys Bookshelf: Holiday gift ideas for history buffs” by Greg Young: “This thrilling and richly arranged coffee-table volume will re-ignite your love of the Brooklyn Bridge. Bringing together a trove of archival images, Richman explores the extraordinary story of the bridge’s construction―grand, marvelous and sometimes tragic. Richman’s epic visual treatment of the bridge’s development rightly centers it as one of the greatest engineering achievements in American history.” (December 16, 2021)
BOOMERS DAILY review: “An inside view of the 14-year construction process that has been largely out of sight, until now.” (November 27, 2021)
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS review “A new look at a venerable span: Historian takes deep, detailed dive into construction of the Brooklyn Bridge” by LARRY SHANE: “After 40 years of being a fan, historian Jeffrey Richman’s labor of love is done: a beautifully illustrated new book about the 14-year construction of the Brooklyn Bridge.” (October 16, 2021)
BROOKLYN PAPER review “Rare images of Brooklyn Bridge construction” by AIDAN GRAHAM and SUSAN DE VRIES: “Now, interested Brooklynites can take a walk through history with Richman’s extraordinary photographs, showing yesteryears’ construction miracles that conjure the irresistible reverence for New York’s past.” (August 24, 2021)
BOOK MARKS: AN ARTIST’S CARD CATALOG
CORNELL UNVERSITY review by BETH SAULNIER in CORNELLIANS. (October 20, 2021)
ITHACA TIMES review by ARTHUR WHITMAN: “Book Marks will be of great interest to art aficionados as well as lovers of memoir, travel, nature and literature. An affecting, impressionistic memoir, and, although not an “artist’s book” in a strict sense, it [is a] literary-visual work of art… an eccentric variation on what the theorist of comics Scott McCloud has called sequential art: discrete images arranged in a larger sequence to form a narrative, direct or oblique… a hybrid graphic novel: combining conceptual abstraction and intimate personal narrative into a complex whole.” (May 3, 2021)
MAKING AMERICA MODERN: INTERIOR DESIGN IN THE 1930s
MODERN MAGAZINE review by JUDITH GURA: “The awakening of the United States to a new aesthetic is the subject of Marilyn Friedman’s exhaustive research into one influential decade.” (October 11, 2018)
ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST review by STEFANIE WALDEK. (December 27, 2017)
SURFACE MAGAZINE review by EMILY CONKLIN: “Lawyer turned historian Marilyn Friedman uncovers the beauty and intellect that propelled America from style imitator to innovator during the worst economic downturn in American record… recast[ing] one of America’s darkest periods as a moment of great innovation.” (April 20, 2018)
1ST DIBS review in INTROSPECTIVE by CARA GREENBERG: “A new book takes a deep look at the pivotal decade when modernism became truly American. Here is the definitive scholarly chronicle of how it all happened.”
ART DECO NEW YORK JOURNAL review by KATHLEEN MURPHY SKOLNIK: “Almost every page of Making America Modern contains historic photographs of interiors commissioned by private clients or included in exhibitions organized by department stores, galleries, or professional associations. The designs represent the work of the foremost designers of the time—Donald Deskey, Gilbert Rohde, Walter Dorwin Teague, Eugene Schoen, Russel Wright—and the text contains short biographical sketches of each one. Friedman also includes liberal footnotes and an extensive bibliography. Making America Modern is a valuable resource for scholars of twentieth-century American interior design as well as an informative and engaging narrative of the introduction of Modernism into the American home.” (Vol. 3, Issue 1, Spring 2018)
ARCHIDOSE review: “Friedman’s year-by-year account of modern interior design in America in the 1930s is remarkably thorough and well researched, with words that are as descriptive as the photographs accompanying them. Fifteen years in the making, Making America Modern has more than four hundred footnotes and an eight-page selected bibliography; the latter comprises more magazine articles than books, signaling to me that scholarship on interior design relies on writers like Friedman to synthesize contemporary accounts into historical accounts that capably brings designs together and put them into larger contexts.” (February 13, 2022)
UNTAPPED NEW YORK review by JULIA VITULLO-MARTIN: “Friedman’s book is a crucial contribution to our understanding of how and why one phenomenon, cutting-edge interior design, helped New York develop into the city we know today.”
BOSTON MAGAZINE review by MICHAELA QUIGLEY: “Five Gorgeous Art and Design Books to Read This Fall.” (August 24, 2018)
ARDROSSAN: THE LAST GREAT ESTATE OF THE PHILADELPHIA MAIN LINE
NEW YORK TIMES review by STEVEN KURUTZ “Inside the Estate that Inspired ‘The Philadelphia Story.’” (October 18, 2017)
ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST review by DANA THOMAS: “A rich and exhaustively researched illustrated book.” (May 13, 2019)
MAIN LINE TODAY review by J. F. PIRRO “New Book on Ardrossan Estate Offers an Unprecedented Look at the Iconic Home.” (December 28, 2017)
IMAGINING ICHABOD: MY JOURNEY INTO 18TH-CENTURY AMERICA
MAINE ANTIQUE DIGEST: “This fascinating memoir will delight all who have a love of old houses and their preservation and a desire to re-create the atmosphere and experience of living in one. Color photographs of the interior and exterior of the home, plus other photos of documents and prepared 18th-century foods, highlight the text. Bennett has included acknowledgments and sources with thoughtful personal notes along with the extensive notes, bibliography, and index. This short memoir will perhaps inspire others to live a life somewhat removed from the modern world of today.”
SEACOAST NEW HAMPSHIRE & SOUTH COAST MAINE “Living with the Ghost of Ichabod Goodwin” by J. Dennis Robinson. (2016)
KATZ’S: AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A DELICATESSEN
GOTHAMIST: “5 Food-Centric Holiday Gifts All Under $100.” (December 10, 2013)
EATER’S: “Cookbook and Food Book Preview.” (August 22, 2013)
THE PALM BEACH POST: “Kitchen Bliss: Just The Cook and The Book. Liz Balmaseda’s Five Favorites!”: “What’s to Love: The Photos, poignant and intimate, transport you to the place. The text captures a family’s hard work, perseverance and pride.” (November 26, 2013)
Included in NEWSDAY Tom Beer’s Book Gift Guide: “Eye Candy Meets Brain Food.” (November 24, 2013)
THE JEWISH DAILY FORWARD review by Lauren Rothman. (December 1, 2013)
EDIBLE MANHATTAN review by ABIGAIL WELHOUSE: “Told mainly through Fernandez’s images, the book is a visual day in the life of one of the rare places that manages to be both delicious and a reminder of a Manhattan long past.” (November 11, 2013)
NEW YORK TIMES review by FLORENCE FABRICANT: “A book as overstuffed as Katz’s pastrami on rye.” (September 10, 2013)
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS review by MICHAEL KAMINER “The story of a New York institution is collected in Katz’s: Autobiography of a Delicatessen”: “The book doesn’t just offer up food porn shots of pastrami, corned beef and pickles, though there are plenty. It’s also a valentine of sorts to the 103 women and men who keep Katz’s going—24/7, 365 days a year—including multiple generations of some neighborhood families. Intimate, beautifully composed photos showcase the main dining room, but also the back-of-house operations like pickling, meat-cutting and restocking. Hell’s Kitchen-based lensman Baldomero Fernandez’s dense, dynamic images bring Katz’s to life with energy and elegance.” (September 15, 2013)
BON APPETIT review by Michael Y. Park: “Look Inside Katz’s Deli with Photographer Baldomero Fernandez”: “A gorgeous, photo-filled tribute that’s been attracting attention throughout the office.” (September 17, 2013)
BOWERY BOOGIE review: “Katz’s Deli Has a New Photobook Autobiography.” (September 17, 2013)
FOOD 52 review by MARIAN BULL: “Jake Dell on the Institution of Katz’s Delicatessen.” (October 1, 2013)
PATTERN BOOK OF UPHOLSTERY
NEW YORK SPACES The Goods Special Issue “In The Frame”: “Bauer and Dean’s desire to revive a tradition of design pattern books dating to Vitruvius is the wellspring of its Pattern Book series, of which Upholstery is the latest entry. By David Michael Wood, illustrated by Anara Mambetova-Finkelstein, edited by William S. Hooper, with contributions by Jody Xuereb, it’s a must have for serious students of design. With its encyclopedic array of seating forms, it includes history, insight into the upholsterer’s perspective, a useful appendix, and more.” (Fall 2013)
NEW YORK TIMES, Style Section “Look Books for Design Pros: The Pattern Book of Upholstery is the first in a new series of instructional guides” by STEVEN KURUTZ: There are detailed drawings of everything from a love seat to a Jean-Michel Frank-style sofa, notes on skirt styles and a list of fabrics like damask and horsehair and their characteristics.” (August 29, 2012)
One of HOUSE BEAUTIFUL’s “Best Books for 2012.” (September 2, 2012)
RALPH RUCCI: AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FASHION DESIGNER
ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST review by MITCHELL OWENS: “In his lushly illustrated new book, the acclaimed New York couturier offers intimate glimpses of his private and public personas”: “Though Autobiography of a Fashion Designer celebrates a man at the pinnacle of fashion, its personal approach brings Rucci down to earth.” (January 31, 2012)
THE NEW YORK TMES review by CHRISTOPHER PETKANAS “Ralph Rucci’s World, Times Two.” (December 28, 2011)
VOGUE “Last-Minute Gifts… the Perfect Book.” (December 2011)
MEDIA BISTRO Unbeige “The Five Most Inspiring Art and Design Books of 2011” by STEPHANIE MURG. (December 31, 2011)
NEW YORK SOCIAL DIARY review by DAVID PATRICK COLUMBIA: “A treasure of a book… beautiful and interesting… a collector’s item.” (March 15, 2012)
PEAK OF CHIC review by JENNIFER BOLES: “If you have the opportunity to buy a copy for yourself, I highly recommend doing so.” (April 30, 2012)