Dwelling in Possibility: Searching for the Soul of Shelter by Howard Mansfield

Dwelling in Possibility: Searching for the Soul of Shelter by Howard Mansfield

Physical Info: 0.75" H x 9.0" L x 6.07" W (0.83 lbs) 240 pages

The mystery that attracts Howard Mansfield's attention is that some houses have life, are home, are dwellings, and others don't. Dwelling, he says, is an old-fashioned word that we've misplaced.

When we live heart and soul, we dwell. When we belong to a place, we dwell. Possession, they say, is nine-tenths of the law, but it is also what too many houses and towns lack. We are not possessed by our home places. This lost quality of dwelling and  the soul of buildings haunts most of our houses and our landscape. Dwelling in Possibility is a search for the ordinary qualities that make some houses a home, and some public places welcoming.

Howard Mansfield is the author of books about preservation, architecture, and history. He has contributed to the New York Times, the Washington Post, Historic Preservation, and Yankee. He and his wife, writer Sy Montgomery, live in a 130-year-old house in Hancock, New Hampshire.