Few magazines can lay claim to a century of history or to having published work by so many extraordinary and distinguished photographers and writers as House & Garden. Now, straight from the pages of this well-loved periodical, The Well-Lived Life presents a lavish chronicle of a country and a culture coming into its own, documenting America's continuing education in matters of house, home and garden over the course of the twentieth century. Selecting high points from the magazine, this book surveys the growing confidence and imagination reflected in American interiors and entertaining over the last century - the dinners, picnics and parties of a country dedicated to welcoming others - and the changing definition of home. It also illuminates the joys - sedentary or sporting - Americans have always found in the out-of-doors. The Well-Lived Life surveys the landscape of our lawns and gardens, from rigid formality to wild, blowsy beauty, and takes a close look at blooms and their ability to charm, seduce, amaze and inspire. It also travels to the places we build to get away from it all - the cabins, cottages and summer palaces where we shed the formality and stress of everyday life. Above all, this volume illustrates the abiding affection we have for how and where we make our lives. Featuring such legendary photographers as Irving Penn, Horst P. Horst, John Rawlings, Andre Kertesz, Lord Snowdon, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Ezra Stoller and George Hoyningen-Huene.
Dominique Browning is a writer, editor and consultant in the newspaper and magazine fields. She blogs at SlowLoveLife.com.
She has worked with and written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, New York magazine, O, the Oprah magazine, Departures, Food &Wine, Travel & Leisure, Body + Soul, Wired and On Topic, among others. She writes a monthly column about environmental issues for the Environmental Defense Fund website.
Until November 2007, Browning was the editor-in-chief of House & Garden, a magazine of 950,000 readers. Browning began her career in 1977 working at Savvy and American Photographer magazines. She also worked at Esquire, Texas Monthly, Newsweek, and Mirabella magazine before joining Conde Nast.
Browning is the author of three books: Around the House and In the Garden: a Memoir of Heartbreak, Healing, and Home Improvement; Paths of Desire: the Passion of a Suburban Gardener; and Slow Love: How I Lost my Job, Put on My Pajamas, and Found Happiness. She has also authored several books under the House & Garden brand.
Browning is a classically trained pianist, and also performed with Wesleyan's Javanese Gamelan orchestra. She is the mother of two sons and lives in New York and Rhode Island.
