Boston Bohemia 1881-1900; Volume One of Ralph Adams Cram: Life and Architecture

Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1995. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Very good/Good. Fred Holland Day (Jacket art, circa 1985). Mick H. The format is approximately 7.125 inches by 9.5 inches. xxi, [1], 569, [1] pages. Illustrations. Chapter Notes. The Works of Ralph Adams Cram 1882-1900. Illustration Sources. Index. DJ has a tear at the top front near the spine. This is a large and heavy book and if sent outside of the United States will require additional shipping charges. The initial volume of a two-volume biography of Ralph Adams Cram (1863-1942), considered by many as America's greatest church architect. [It is not clear that the planned Volume Two American Gothic was ever completed]. Volume 1 focuses on Cram's early architectural and literary work within the context of Boston's little known avant-garde fin-de-siecle bohemia in which Cram figured prominently, as an art critic, poet, editor and designer. Includes 114 b&w figures. Douglass Shand-Tucci became one of the 20th century's leading authorities on Boston architecture and history. A graduate of Harvard College, he worked as a journalist for the Boston Phoenix and taught at Boston Architectural College and MIT. He is best known for his biography of Isabella Stewart Gardner and for his studies of Boston architecture, including his 1978 book "Built in Boston," which includes a definitive history of Dorchester's signature housing stock, the three-decker. His Dorchester roots shone through in other, more- focused studies, including "Dorchester: The Second Settlement (1875-1925) and "Church Building in Boston 1720-1970". He also published a study of " The Gothic Churches of Dorchester" in 1974, as well as a guide to Ashmont Hill, Carruth Street, and Peabody Square. Ralph Adams Cram (December 16, 1863 - September 22, 1942) was a prolific and influential American architect of collegiate and ecclesiastical buildings, often in the Gothic Revival style. Cram & Ferguson and Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson are partnerships in which he worked. Cram was a fellow of the American Institute of Architects. At age 18, Cram moved to Boston in 1881 and worked for five years in the architectural office of Rotch & Tilden, after which he left for Rome to study classical architecture. From 1885 to 1887, he was art critic for the Boston Transcript. Cram and business partner Charles Wentworth started business in Boston in April 1889 as Cram and Wentworth. They had landed only four or five church commissions before they were joined by Bertram Goodhue in 1892 to form Cram, Wentworth and Goodhue. Goodhue brought an award-winning commission in Dallas (never built) and brilliant drafting skills to the Boston office. Wentworth died in 1897 and the firm's name changed to Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson to include draftsman Frank W. Ferguson (1861-1926). Cram and Goodhue complemented each other's strengths at first but began to compete, sometimes submitting two differing proposals for the same commission. The firm won design of the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1902, a major milestone in their career. They set up the firm's New York office, where Goodhue would preside, leaving Cram to operate in Boston. He designed the sanctuary for the First Unitarian Society in Newton which represents elements of his signature ecclesiastical style and was built in 1905. Goodhue began his solo career on August 14, 1913. Cram and Ferguson continued with major church and college commissions through the 1930s. Particularly important work includes the original campus of Rice University, Houston, as well as the library and first city hall of that city. Also notable is Cram's first church in the Boston area, All Saints, Dorchester.