Daniel D. Reiff is Professor of Art History at the State University of New York College at Fredonia. His books include Architecture in Fredonia, New York, 1811-1997 (White Pine, 1997), Small Georgian Houses in England and Virginia (Delaware, 1986), and Washington Architecture, 1791-1861 (U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, 1971).
“Daniel Reiff’s Houses from Books is a sweeping, intriguing
compilation. It makes all those ‘other’ buildings around us
understandable. It’s a useful text for students, scholars, and
professionals in fields ranging from American studies to
architecture and architectural history, from local and regional
history to historic preservation. It should be on the reference
shelf of every library in the United States.”—Michael A.
Tomlan,Cornell University
“This is the definitive story of the role that architectural
publications have played in American domestic
building.”—Columns
“Building on more than a quarter-century of his own research and on
many articles and books that have appeared during the past two
decades, Daniel D. Reiff has chronicled the slow progress from
builder’s handbook to mail-order dwelling. Houses from Books is the
most far-reaching of several recent studies that have addressed the
long-overlooked influence of the published word and picture upon
the American concept of home. . . . [It will be] the standard
reference on its subject for many years. . . . Houses from Books
belongs in every public and academic library and on the bookshelf
of every preservationist and student of American material
culture.”—James L. Garvin Pennsylvania Magazine of History and
Biography
“A handsome, fully illustrated quarto volume, Houses from Books is
a thorough and thoughtful treatment of house building in America
from 1820 to 1950s. . . . Combined with Reiff’s extensive and
intensive fieldwork, Houses from Books makes a major contribution
to our understanding of the built environment.”—Fred W. Peterson
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians
“While others have sketched the outlines of this history, Reiff’s
significant contribution is to show through daunting field research
and meticulous library work how richly detailed and widely built
these designs actually are.”—Gordon Bock Old-House Journal
“Daniel D. Reiff’s Houses from Books is an excellent reference work
that provides an accurate and comprehensive guide to house designs
and domestic architectural styles in America from the 1730s to
1950s. The handsome, profusely illustrated quarto volume presents
analyses of the theoretical literature that stimulated and
supported each phase of domestic architectural history, provides
abundant examples of actual houses in relation to their printed
elevations and plan in architectural pattern books and house
catalogs, and explains materials and methods of construction used
by local builders and carpenters to realize actual houses.”—Fred W.
Peterson Annals of Iowa
“This thought-provoking book is a must for all reference libraries
and an essential guide for anyone concerned with the history,
historic significance, and preservation or restoration of the
buildings in the thousands of historic districts listed on the
National Register of Historic Places or yet to be listed. Even
today’s builders might learn about design sources and architectural
literacy so lacking in today’s house designs.”—Hugh Miller, FAIA,
FAPT APT Bulletin
“Reiff's book, Houses from Books, is an excellent resource for
people studying pattern-book houses. The multitude of examples
included along with the vast number of illustrations make the book
a valuable source for someone with an interest in the topic. The
appendices included also provide many other sources of information
for those with an interest in pattern books and their influence on
architecture. In addition, the case study does a very good job of
illustrating just how influential pattern books were on
architecture in the average American town, and will hopefully spur
others on to examining the architecture in their own
backyards.”—Ralph Wilcox Vernacular Architecture Newsletter
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