Customer Reviews

Listening to Stone

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I've been a huge fan of Dan Snow since I received his first book, In the Company of Stone, 6 years ago as a gift from my father. I often find myself re-reading this cherished volume, so perhaps it's not too much of a surprise that Dan's next book scores at the top of my list of favorite books I've read this year. It is difficult to keep the hands of family and friends off my copy, because they inevitably find themselves fascinated not only by the thought-provoking and entertaining writing, but by the beautiful and intriguing photos as well. If you are interested in stone walls or sculpture, you will love this book. Dan Snow writes about not only his relationship with stone, but the relationship that stone has with the rest of us, (and, for that matter, the world) with fresh perspective. The writing is cleanly and carefully crafted such that each word, sentence, and paragraph seem to fit as gracefully together as the stones that comprise his creations. The result is simply delightful; I highly recommend this book.

This is a beautiful little book. Sitting out here in Hawaii reading "Listening to Stone", my mind was immediately transported to the verdant Vermont countryside where a man still works with his hands in the most elemental way with the most elemental of materials. While the rest of us struggle with the strangeness of modern life, Snow has found a livelihood in simplicity itself. His art is beautiful in a Zen way where the material fits in nature without spoiling it.

The language of the book is wonderful too. His descriptions are vivid and poetic.

I loved it.

As a longtime admirer of the dry stone walls of England and the intersecting dry stone mounds at Washington's National Gallery East Wing, I've often wondered about the manner of men (and it's just about always men, right?) who master and practice this ancient craft. Until now, the only one I've "met," is Peter Robinson's fictional Chief Inspector Gristhorpe of the Inspector Banks mysteries. What a pleasure, then, to discover the rare and quite real American waller, Dan Snow, to see the incredible diversity of his works--a grotto, an Asian garden, a footbridge, a shrine, a style, seats, shelters and, of course, walls--and learn firsthand about the insights and ideas that inspired them and the tussles with nature and other challenges involved in their execution. As an accompanying graphic shows, most can be found in Snow's native southeastern Vermont. Or within a stone's throw.

I doubt I'll ever again see a dry stone edifice without also trying to envision what it tells me about its creator.

If you are familiar with masonry techniques, this book may be great for you. I have always been fascinated by stonework but don't have a clue as to how its done. When I ordered this I was expecting to have a nice coffee table photo collection that showcased the beauty of stone. I was also hoping to learn something about how this man creates his structures.

The book, which is about 7.5" by 11" is not really large enough to be displayed but contains the kind of short chapters that invite casual browsing. Inside you find a series of anecdotal stories related to each of his creations. They are illustrated with black and white and color picutures of the final projects. The stories are a mixture of discussions about what inspired him and his approach to creating each project. What emerges most strongly from the information is a portrait of the artist's relationship to his working environment. What is missing are diagrams or photographs that might give us a better understanding of some of the construction descriptions he provides. A few well placed diagrams, a glossary of techniques or even a chapter dedicated to masonry construction would have been a good addition for those of us who know little about his craft. I had a hard time visualizing what he was describing as he created some of the works and since much of the book is filled with these discussions, reading it was at times frustrating. In spite of this, the book is a good exploration of one man's approach to the creative process.

While reading this inspiring and visually appealing little book it kept reminding me of a book I owned in the early 1970's (now long lost, alas, in my perigrinations). It was a book of selected works by the American poet Robinson Jeffers with photographs of the stunning stone house he built with his own hands over several decades on a cliff overlooking the California coast which he called "Tor House." Etched in a granite block over his mantlepiece was the line from Virgil, "Ipsi sibi somnia fingunt" -- Rough translation: "They make their own dreams for themselves."

I don't know if craftsmen make the best poets, but Vermonter Dan Snow is very poet-like in his worldview and the richness of his expression. I kept wondering whether he was a better stone-craftsman or writer. He excels in both endeavors. His lifework is really the realization of his inner fantastic dreams. Less a "how-to" book than an ethereal and heady meditation on stone, its place in the physical world, and the ways in which man may manipulate it, use, venerate it, Snow succeeds brilliantly. The writing is very thought provoking, almost meditative.

What fascinated me most about Dan Snow's work is this irony--it is founded in the most practical of media--stonework, and yet has this dream-like quality as well.

Peter Mauss's photographs are stunning, and capture the other-worldly and sometimes bizarre quality of Snow's structures. My favorites were the several outdoor fireplaces or fire pits surrounded by the wild verdure of a Vermont skyline.

Highly recommended from this reader!

I simply could not put this book down when I got it. Stone walls, and stone structures built without mortar would not normally be "exciting reading" for me, but this is quite a remarkable book that has held my attention and that I've shown to a number of my friends and family.

Dan Snow, who I had not previously heard of, builds beautiful stone sculptures (to be sure, many are functional, but really their elegance and affinity to their natural sites speak to art, sculpture, and landscape rather than home-building or even architecture), by hand, one stone at a time, with months of work, in the lands near his home in Vermont. Okay, I'm not sure I'd buy the book from that description. Let me add more to it.

The book reads like a hymn to the rolling hills of New England and even more so to the rock that is brought out of its slumber underground and is elevated to its chosen purpose in a garden wall, or a firepit. In fact, this book is kin to the nature writings of Annie Dillard and Thoreau and from the "how-to" library of M.F.K. Fisher rather than from Home Depot's Improvement Guide to Using Rock.

This is a lovely, lovely book on dry stone building, written by a stonemason - described as a "waller" actually - who has an artistic and thoughtful soul. More accurately, it is a book about the builder, his projects, and his thoughts. This is not a project or how-to book. There's more of Walden here than walls.

The book itself is written in 2-4 page thematic chapters, most of them about a single structure: a stone wall, a pyramid, an oratory, Swiss stone roof, footbridge, etc. Some chapters are devoted to tools - a pry bar, a level. Still more on activities like gathering stone, or thoughts on old stone walls "Tides of Stone." All wonderful.

The structures themselves are unusual, many foreign in origin in their style or history, and the text is an eclectic mix of description, philosophy, history, and the author/builder's musings on any number of subjects.

Take the following as an example - the structure is an "archer's pavilion" - a stone structure that looks just like a medieval tent.

"On a perfectly peaceful, early Fall day I was halfway finished with the roof construction. The sky was bright blue, calm as could be. The only sounds were birdsongs and the tapping of my hammer. I was happy, content, feeling accomplished. It was only after the workday ended and I was heading home, listening to the radio, that I understood what had contributed to making the day special, why the sky was void of contrails, why it had been noiseless overhead. All aircraft in the country were grounded. The jet planes that normally crisscross the sky were no longer flying, since four of their number had been turned into arrows and loosed at our country's citizenry. On that day I had the pleasure to work under a sky not unlike one that may have lighted the work of a fourteenth-ccentury waller but oh, mercy, it came at such a toll."

Dan Snow's stone work is beautiful and exceedingly well-crafted. The photographs in the book do the work full justice. If you love stone and stone work for its own sake, this book will speak to you. If you love working with stone, you'll feel an instant kinship to Dan. His tactile descriptions of handling stone are so realistic you feel as though you were working with him at times. From another angle, taken as philosophy, this book honors labor and fine craftsmanship.

Highly recommended.

Before sticks, fire, and yes, dogs, stones are humanity's ancient companions. Yet with the invention of concrete, doing much with stone has become unnecessary beyond utilitarian purposes like brick walls and dumping it on a driveway. Perhaps then this is why Dan Snow is so remarkable as someone that not only works with stone, but is obsessed with it. He knows the beauty of stone.

Snow, an expert in sculpture and dry stone walling, revives a centuries old tradition of using stone and gravity to create various free standing sculptures. He takes readers through not only his various projects (mostly in New England) but also his creative process and tools. Peter Mauss's photographs not only provides beautiful photographs of Snow's work, but helps demonstrate his aesthetics and the various way's his creations interact with the surrounding landscape.

"Listening to Snow" is an amazing book not only for lovers of stone and photography, but also for artists and creative minded types. Snow's writing approaches poetry, and as someone that reads high amounts of poetry it is not something I casually claim.

Dan Snow is a man who lives/loves his life work. That he is such a rare creature who shares this work with us is an incredible act of generosity. This is a book about the enhancement of space which results in the assemblages of stone that this man excels at.

Snow crafts his language like he stacks his stones: tightly, gracefully. That he prosaically articulates his visions and the ensuing work in stone is doubly impressive; the reader is invited into the process whereby our connections with the earth begin.

The text is full of anecdotes about Snow's neighbors and customers; about the stone gathering process out in the deep woods; and about aspects of historical stone-walling. Told from the perspective of a master stone stacker, we see where form and function are welded together as his new creation-entities are brought forth into the world. Snow's fire bowl is a particularly fascinating work of concavity.

As much as himself doing the talking, Snow allows the stones to tell their own stories too. The mesmerizing Peter Mauss photos make the stories complete and rewarding.

Dan Snow shares vignettes throughout this text of his ancestry, of his education and apprenticeship in stone work, of the tools and methods he uses in his work. He talks of the "delver", the one who splits stone; of the "knapper", the one who breaks the stone; we also go with him to the mythic stone sites he has visited: Ireland, Chaco Canyon, the New England woods, Norway. It all makes for some fascinating reading.

Most highly recommended.

Parataxis

The Cloud Reckoner

Extracts: A Field Guide for Iconoclasts

The first thing that struck me about this book was the quality of the book itself and the photographs. The pages are a high quality, heavy stock and when reading it I often thought I had turned two pages instead of one. The photographs of the stone walls taken by Peter Mauss were beautiful and captured a calmness that was beautiful.

When I started reading I was immediately taken by Dan Snow's style of writing which is kind of phiosophical and folksy at the same time. His writing has a way of grabbing your attention right from the start of his short stories about each of the walls and what inspired them and the people they remind him of. It's interesting that such a talented dry stone artist and craftsman is also such a talented writer.

There are many passages in the book that are so lovely, but this one from his story about myth making typifies some of Dan's writing. He's talking here about old walls from perhaps centuries ago whose creators are long since gone. "The discussions about siting, access, footing, proportion, scale, drainage, stability, materials, tolerances, and grades are what the piece is make out of, but not what we are left with. What remains becomes an open receptacle for dreams to fall into. A mass of rock becomes fertile ground for myth to grow."

I've always been a fan of the stone walls in Europe and have wondered from time to time about the stories behind them. When seeing them in the future, this book will make me wonder even more about who built them and why and their stories. This book makes me want to go to Vermont and see for myself what he writes about.

This is such a high quality book in every way, the writing, photographs and the paper it is written on. It's the type of book that I think most people would enjoy and will be on my future gift lists.