IN THE COMPANY OF STONE
"In the Company of Stone: The Art of the Stone Wall" is a meditation on a handcraft dependent on natural materials and basic rules dictated by gravity. Dan Snow is a dry stone waller, an artisan who builds walls, terraces, caverns, and the occasional sphere out of dry stone. It's an ancient skill--building with only what the earth provides. Snow's evocative prose and Peter Mauss's richly textured photographs of Snow's work reveal the nuance and beauty of walling--and of one man's relationship with nature. The result is by turns poetic and practical. Snow’s commentary and a helpful appendix of design detail make for an inspiring, informative book.
LISTENING TO STONE
In his highly anticipated second book, Vermonter Dan Snow once again proves that he is not just one of America's premier artisans, but also one of our most articulate voices on the natural world and our relationship to it. Snow's medium is stone: He is one of the nation's premier drystone wall builders. In Listening to Stone, Peter Mauss's tactile photographs of Snow's artistry are matched by the artisan's quietly compelling prose. A master craftsman provides us with the timeless wisdom he has gained from heaving and hewing stone.
THE SOLITARY STONEWORKER
The Solitary Stoneworker celebrates the inner life of outdoor work. The book treks back across the trampled ground of one stoneworker’s 50-year career. It’s a clear eyed vision of hard labor’s leavings, both physical and metaphysical. The Solitary Stoneworker’s 108 pages fuse 50 selected projects with 50 essential truths. Color, and black and white, photographs illuminate the author’s world of free stone construction. Straight forward, revelatory statements punctuate the pages with humor and grace. The Solitary Stoneworker is the perfect, philosophical picture book.
“Likening the process of walling to alchemy, Snow conveys a boundless delight with his occupation. Whether describing the material that occupies his days, or expressing intricate knowledge of how stone responds at each stage of construction, Snow writes beautifully. ”
HOW TO PURCHASE
The Solitary Stoneworker: Aggregations and Grumblings 2017-1968, is available as a print-on-demand softcover book through Amazon, and as a softcover book and Ebook via the Blurb Bookstore (30% free preview) and in the Apple iBooks Store (free sample preview). We donate $3 to The Stone Trust for every copy of The Solitary Stoneworker sold.
In The Company Of Stone and Listening To Stone are no longer available for purchase from the publisher. It is possible that your local bookseller may have a copy on their shelves, and with more than 30,000 copies sold over the years, it is possible to find used copies locally and online. And because they can be found in 250 libraries, they continue to circulate through the hands of those interested in the art and craft of dry stone.
We are currently working to find a publishing home for Dan’s new book, With Stone Alone.
“The prose weaves between practical and poetic with the same gentle twists as an old field wall, inspiration to armchair waller and budding artisan alike.”
“What a pleasure to have the tales of these new wonders told, and in such lovely prose.”
“This is a haunting and remarkable book—one that I will read again and again. Gentle and wise, with a precise understanding of the author’s place in this precarious universe, Listening to Stone deserves a wide audience.”
STONE RISING
Stone Rising: The Work of Dan Snow
Stone Rising, a film directed by Camilla Rockwell, captures the spirit of Snow’s constructions and chronicles the process of their creation.
Directed by Camilla Rockwell, 2005, USA, 57 Minutes
To purchase, contact Fuzzy Slippers Productions via email at rockwellcamilla@gmail.com.
HOLE IN THE UNIVERSE
Reikä Avaruudessa – Hole in the Universe Exhibit Catalog. Kerava Art Museum, May 2011
PLACE OR SPACE: Environmental Art. Markku Hakuri, editor
ARTS Books, publisher Aalto, Finland.
GARDENING ON GRANITE
Gardening on Granite – Teddy and Peter Berg’s Thirty Years on Rice Mountain
Gordon Hayward with Dan Snow