Dear Readers,

Toshio Odate and James Krenov are each unique. Characters like these two don't come along every day, and when they do, you can't help but listen up. Some oldtimers are like dinosaurs, cutting a wide swath even though they are the last of their line. But maker-teacher-writers such as Toshio and Jim are more like birds, sucessors to the dinosaurs, living lightly in the realm of beauty while working for the future.

You can see what I mean in Toshio Odate's new book, Making Shoji, produced by our Cambium Press editorial group for Linden Publishing. Toshio shares the techniques of his little-known craft, but he also tells stories of his youth in post-war rural Japan, when he was apprenticed to his stepfather, maker of sliding doors. Though I absorb the technical information, it's the stories that stick with me. Toshio's target is young people who may want to understand what he knows. He tells his own life story because he needs to reach them in their hearts as well as in their hands, and in that way, like the birds, Toshio goes on.

Jim Krenov's fifth book, With Wakened Hands, produced by Cambium and published jointly by Cambium and Linden, also completes a circle. His four earlier books have inspired thousands, and now, at age 80, Jim presents his students' work to the world. He wants to encourage them to take root and go on making beautiful things. Thus Jim writes not of how to cut the wood, but of how he feels about his own life-long struggle to think and make well. In this way, through his students and admirers, Jim goes on.

Human stories always lie beneath the river of how-to. Though we will use the how-to, dramas of travail and triumph are what give us all courage to carry on. You'll find both kinds of information throughout our website and print catalog. And, speaking of how-to, congratulations to our old friends at Fine Woodworking magazine, who mark their 25th anniversary this fall. To celebrate, we've hung the Sale flag on, among others, many Taunton Press titles.

John Kelsey
Furniture Maker, editor-publisher and bookseller

New items!