Storytelling
about people,
architecture, food,
things that matter
ABOUT ME
I write about decorative arts & architecture, sometimes food, and am right now working on a duel biography of an artist and a poet.
For over thirty years, I have been writing about early-twentieth-century decorative arts and architecture, focusing especially on the architects Charles and Henry Greene. I have researched and written about Japanese influences on American architecture, the Arts and Crafts movement, on Japanese bathing culture, and on the culinary arts, and it’s all been great fun.
My book, Greene & Greene Masterworks, was honored as one of the New York Times Editor’s Choice Architectural books in 1998. My latest book, Six California Kitchens, I co-authored with chef Sally Schmitt. It was awarded the 2022 Golden Poppy Award by the California Independent Booksellers for best cookbook of that year, followed by the 2023 award for best cookbook in the American cooking category from the International Association of Culinary Professionals.
I’m based in Kamakura, Japan, though you will often find me with pen and paper in hand at my cabin in Minami Yatsugatake.
Latest Articles
The Poet and the Artist
Once, not that very long ago,… …there was a poet who loved to build by placing stone upon stone, first to build a home for his family, and then a tower for his wife. And there was an artist who had expressed his art through architecture, who also loved to
