Lewis Mumford, a Life

Front Cover
Grove Press, 2002 - 628 pages
Malcolm Cowley called Lewis Mumford the last of the great humanists, and indeed, in more than six decades of writing, Mumford made contributions to history, philosophy, literature, art, architectural criticism, and urban planning. The author of some thirty books, Mumford produced a body of work almost unequaled in the twentieth century for its range and richness. A New York Times Notable Book, Donald Miller's engagingly written biography reveals Mumford's full and fascinating life. Based on ten years of research and unprecedented access to original and private papers, Miller penetrates Mumford's reserved public persona and takes in the complete man, his works as well as his days, as he struggles to transform the world -- and his own life -- in decades marked by unparalleled change. Miller is an excellent critical guide to Mumford's voluminous writing. -- The New Yorker A gracefully written biography. -- Francesca McKeon, San Francisco Chronicle With this large, large-spirited life of Lewis Mumford ... Miller takes his place in the first rank of contemporary American biographers. -- David McCullough
 

Contents

A Solitary Tree
3
A New York Boyhood
25
A Jovian Father
46
A Man in the Making
61
Son of Mannahatta
75
A Grub Street Apprenticeship
91
Sophiology
115
New York Again
134
Love and Work
322
One More Love
341
The Culture of Cities
354
From Lover to Monk
374
The Barbarian Eruption
389
The Primacy of the Person
407
The Age of Frustration
424
Cities of Men
452

Beyond Utopia
148
Architecture as a Home for Man
169
New Towns for America
192
Libra
212
Golden Days
233
A Period in Purgatorio
256
Crisis and Opportunity
292
The Renewal of Life
305
The Endangered City
478
Harvest Time
500
The Myth of the Machine
520
The Amenia Years
543
NOTES
563
INDEX
607
Copyright

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About the author (2002)

Donald L. Miller is the John Henry McCracken Professor of History at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, where he lives, and is the host of the PBS series A Biography of America.

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