Sheds

The author has gone beyond standard research to harvest comments of architects and local builders. He has probed for meanings and feelings about these shelters.

This is a beautiful book to spend an hour with . . . Mansfield is an excellent writer. In Sheds he provides just a taste of his philosophy of the soul of shelter: “Sheds are utilitarian. Sheds contain small things — wood and tools — and big: summers, winters, solitude, festivity. The smallest sheds can be liberating: a bob house on a frozen lake, a summer cabin. The can shelter dreams.”

Superbly illustrated throughout, “Sheds” is an extraordinary and unique study that is as impressively well written as it is exceptionally well organized and presented. Simply stated, “Sheds” is unreservedly recommended for both community and academic library collections, and will prove to be of special interest to students of architecture as well as non-specialist general readers with an interest in the variety and utility of these relatively simple structures.

The title of Howard Mansfield’s panoramic book “Sheds” holds far more persuasive power than its simple five-letter title. And Joanna Eldredge Morrissey’s supporting photographs are mesmerizing.

His sheds range from maple sugarhouses to meetinghouses. Her camera catches covered bridges to farmhouse connectors. Never a dull moment in this full-color compendium of surprises.

Part of the attraction comes from Henry James’ book design of many full-book photo spreads edited onto coated glossy pages. No e-book version could compare.