Living Architecture: A Biography of H. H. Richardson

After several important studies of the works of major American architects, O'Gorman has written an excellent biography of Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-1886). O'Gorman's gentle, simple writing makes the vast amounts of historical information--about the personal details of Richardson's life, his contemporaries, his works--extremely digestible even to a reader completely unfamiliar with Richardson's importance as the architect of Boston's Trinity Church and the creator of a style still called ""Richardson Romanesque."" The portrait that emerges is filled with empathetic understanding of the personal conflicts of a man whose influence was international. The book is organized chronologically, except for an initial chapter that presents Richardson's character through an anecdote. Like so much of the rest of the book, this chapter also immediately pulls the reader through Richardson's milieu, a milieu echoed in the book's fine collection of 150 archival and new photos (100 in full color). O'Gorman's scholarly experience allows him to follow this absorbing story of a man's life through every historic event, while his personal fascination with his subject allows him to slide quickly from formal analysis to personal detail without ever leaving the rich atmosphere. O'Gorman has produced a detailed biography of this great architect, an important document on 19th-century American culture and a deeply felt read. (Nov.)