In this extensively researched and beautifully presented history, Virginia Hales ignites in her readers a more complete and nuanced understanding than ever of the family forces that shaped the lives of Charles and Henry Greene, the most revered architects of the early 20th-century Arts & Crafts movement in America. And while the author's narrative illuminates the architects' lives by a study of their forebears, it also enables a better understanding of all Americans who shaped early colonial society, risked everything for independence, fought devastating Civil War battles, or rebuilt the country in the aftermath.
This narrative is, in many ways, the American story. During more than twenty-five years of researching and writing about architects Greene & Greene I have often relied on the knowledge and observations of direct descendants. Those of Virginia Dart Greene Hales have earily been the most important. And now, in these pages, we may all have privileged access to an important American family album.
-Edward R. Bosley, Director, The Gamble House