Books

For most of us 1947 is a very important year.  After all we were born during those 12 months.  (For those of you born a year or two before or after, this is still relevant.)  The approximately 70 years of life we are currently reflecting on started in that year.  So maybe we wonder what else was born in that year, what else started in 1947.  The Swedish historian Elizabeth Asbrink has an answer to that question in her recent book 1947: Where Now Begins. Asbrink doesn’t know us and didn’t write this about us, but she does suggest in this book that major events shaping our world today began in 1947.

As luck would have it, on a recent visit to the Yale Art Gallery, I happened upon Adam Van Doren, an accomplished artist / teacher / Fellow in Yale College and learned about his new book, The Stones of Yale. Thirty buildings, thirty short chapters, with paintings and watercolors created by the artist to accompany the descriptions, history, functions and feelings of living and working in these spaces. It’s a wonderful work, and I review the book for your possible additional interest.