Lost Art Press

Mechanical Library: John Brown & Charles Hayward

Posted on by fitz
To the left is mostly our John Brown stuff; to the right is Charles H. Hayward/The Woodworker compilations.

This Covington Mechanicals Library post feels like a sales pitch; sorry ’bout that. We’re up at top center of the shelves now, and that’s where we keep the stuff that’s incredibly important to Lost Art Press but – now – rarely needed. That’s all of John Brown’s columns from Good Woodworking magazine, and yearly compilations from The Woodworker magazine…the ones we didn’t cut apart to scan for our five-book Woodworker series. (The ones we did cut apart are in the white file box.)

Let’s go in publication order – both as far as the originals and the Lost Art Press books to which that shelf contributed: right to left.

In 2007, after at least one beer too many, Christopher Schwarz and John Hoffman discussed acquiring the rights to reprint some of Charles H. Hayward’s fantastic writing from The Woodworker magazine, of which he was editor from 1936 to 1966. There had been unauthorized reprints before (shame on those people), but nothing legit.

Possibly the most important thing shown in this picture is the L-bracket (and there are many others not shown here). We certainly don’t want this massive shelving unit falling over.

Long story short: We got the rights to use some of Hayward’s writing in physical books only – that’s why there are no pdf versions available of any of “The Woodworker: The Charles H. Hayward Years” volumes.

I can’t remember exactly when the project began in earnest, but I do recall sitting around the trestle table in Chris’s dining room in Ft. Mitchell, Ky., circa 2010 to discuss the project, then going down to the shop in the basement of his old house to slice off the spines on all The Woodworker compilations from 1936-66 – because that made the pages a heck of a lot easier to scan. (And I remember the canvas bag full of the sliced-off spines that Chris kept around for years. They might have been tossed in the move to Willard Street. Or possibly they are in a box in the basement.)

Yes, we felt a bit guilty. But it was for an excellent cause.

It took six years or so for the acquisition, selection, scanning, editing, layout and printing – and hundreds of hours of work from Chris, John, me, Phil Hirz, Ty Black and Linda Watts to get from idea to the publication of Volume I (which covers tools) and Volume II (which covers techniques) in early 2016.

This is what the binder read-through looks like on a complicated project – all those Post-Its are corrections or questions.

Volume III (on joinery) was released late in 2016, and Volume IV (on the shop and furniture) followed in early 2017.

It is to date the most labor-intensive project – by a long shot – undertaken by Chris, John and the rest of the folks at Lost Art Press. And in 2020, we added a fifth volume: “Honest Labour,” because Hayward’s editor’s notes were too good to not share. That project was completed in large part thanks to Kara Gebhart Uhl, who selected the columns we reprinted for each year, and wrote introductions for each annual division.

To learn more about Hayward – who I would hazard a guess is Chris’ most important woodworking/editing hero (mine is Chris) – check out two posts from 2016: “Get to know Charles H. Hayward, Part I“: and “Part II.”

Chris’ chairmaking hero, John Brown (aka JB), is represented on the left side of the shelves. Chris has written on this blog about his introduction to Brown, and his acquisition of all of John Brown’s columns. Well, there they are – and some of his and Chris Williams’ favorites were reprinted (with permission, of course) in Chris Williams’ book “Good Work: The Chairmaking Life of John Brown.” (Chris W. spent about a decade with Brown in Wales, and “Good Work” recounts their work together, from the day that Chris called JB until the day his mentor died in 2008.)

Some of Molly Brown’s prints of the illustrations she made for “Good Work.”

Tucked alongside the Good Woodworking issues and photocopies are prints of Molly Brown‘s illustrations for “Good Work” – gorgeous drawings that honor her father’s passion for chairmaking and for Wales. 

While “Good Work” wasn’t a crazy project like Hayward, getting the rights to reprint JB’s “Welsh Stick Chairs” was a personal investment for Chris Schwarz. “My affection for Brown was three-fold. First, it was about the Welsh stick chair. He introduced me to the form that has guided my taste in chairs since 1996,” wrote Chris. “Second, it was about hand tools. I’d been using hand tools almost exclusively since age 11, and it was shocking that someone else I admired did the same thing. I didn’t do it by choice (my parents wouldn’t let me use power tools), but thanks to Brown I decided that I was OK. And third was how he declared ‘I am an anarchist’ in one of his columns. (In fact, his column was labeled “The Anarchist Woodworker” for a period of time.)”

I remember a lot of metaphoric hair pulling as he negotiated rights with all of JB’s heirs – it was Matty Sears (one of JB’s sons), who finally made it happen. And I remember how happy Chris was to bring this book back into print.

– Fitz

p.s. This is the 14th post in the Covington Mechanical Library tour. To see the earlier ones, click on “Categories” on the right rail, and drop down to “Mechanical Library.” Or click here. NB: I have used the same picture at the top of every post, simply circling the cubby I’m covering in a given post. For the close-ups, I’ve taken new pictures each time. The odds on that cubby still containing all the same books in the same order as the main image are slim indeed (in case you zoom in and see discrepancies).

18 thoughts on “Mechanical Library: John Brown & Charles Hayward”

  1. I’m so glad I recently bought all 5 volumes of Hayward’s work, thank you for all the work in bringing this to new readers. And I vividly remember talking with Chris about JB at a Woodworking Show in Springfield, MA I bet close to 20 years ago now and thinking I had found a (weird) kindred spirit. It’s been a fun journey (says me!) and all the respect in the world for what LAP, Chris, and team have accomplished.

  2. Thanks for another Library post. The back story, this time from your perspective, is priceless. Many thanks.

    I think this is the first time that I didn’t run off to order a book I did not have.

    For anyone that doesn’t have any or all of the Hayward volumes, you really, really, really should.

  3. I enjoy hearing about the LAP library, thank you!
    Any chance you will publish an index for the 4 Hayward volumes? It sure would make them more useful as a reference set!

    1. I cannot say for certain. It is a complicated situation.

      Hayward’s work for Evans Bros. was “work for hire.” So those rights belong to the publishing company that purchased Evans Bros. Hayward published several books under his name that were based on his work at The Woodworker. The copyright assignments look like this:

      “Cabinet Making for Beginners,” Hayward
      “Tools for Woodwork,” Evans Bros.
      “The Complete Book of Woodwork,” Hayward
      “Light Machines for Woodwork,” no copyright listed
      “Carpentry for Beginners,” Evans Bros.
      “Charles Hayward’s Carpentry Book,” no copyright listed
      “Woodwork Joints,” no copyright listed
      “The ABC of Woodwork,” no copyright listed
      “Staining & Polishing,” no copyright listed

      The pamphlet you linked to does not list a copyright. But somebody almost certainly owns the rights, likely Evans Bros.’s successor or the Hayward estate. It is unlikely to be in the public domain. Claiming fair use, as the host does, is one strategy.

      We have communicated multiple times with the Hayward family. We want to do it the right way, with the family’s authorization. But the talks to date have gotten nowhere.

      1. Gary Roberts, Toolemera Press publisher here. Link backs at my blog brought this post to my attention. Allow me to provide some background on the Hayward booklet and Evans. Bros. The Hayward booklet exists on multiple online repositories, all providing public access for educational purposes. That too is the purpose of Toolemera Press. This pdf has never been offered for sale, only as a free download expressly for educational and personal use. Such use expressly falls within Fair Use limitations, both US and international. Copyright is not a complex issue. The legality of both copyright and Fair Use are well defined and available for review on numerous university sites. Stanford in particular is an excellent resource.

        As a retired research librarian and archivist whose speciality was the digitization of texts, theses and journals, copyright is something I take seriously. Having digitized hundreds of thousands of pages of books and journals for library use, copyright was always a factor in deciding how, when and where to produce both print and digital editions. I was fortunate to have worked in that field during the decades long transition from card catalogs to MS-DOS to GUI to the creation of massive PDF DB archives.

        Before digitizing the original William Fairham editions of The Woodworker Series texts, which predate the Hayward books of the same titles, I contacted Evans Bros. Their archivist informed me that all of their records had been destroyed during WWII. They retained no copyright over the earlier William Fairham editions nor did they over any Hayward books published during WWII. The booklet in question was published by Evans Bros during WWII. Having transitioned to publishing children’s books, Evans Bros. had no interest in the Woodworker Series titles. At the time of that conversation, they had no information as to how to contact the Hayward estate. My reprints are of the William Fairham and J. C. S. Brough books, in no conflict with the later Hayward books of the same titles.

        I do get questions on occasion about the connection between Fairham and Hayward. Evans Bros. engaged Charles Hayward to edit re-issues of the Woodworker Series texts that had proved popular pre-WWII. William Fairham, a practicing turn of the century carpenter and Manual Arts educator, was no longer available, the assumption by Evans Bros. was that he had passed. Fairham and James C. S. Brough were the editors and writers of the Evans Bros. woodwork related books and journals. Hayward used much of the original Fairham text content for the Woodwork Tools and Woodwork Joints editions before going on to edit and write the later titles under this imprint.

        Hopefully this comment clarifies some of the questions about the Hayward booklet.

  5. Are there any plans to make a book of all of the articles John Brown wrote for Good woodworking?

  6. This may be an odd question. However, I’m contemplating this exercise on a few books of mine.

    What method(s) were employed to remove the spines from the books?

    I’ve seen a few; including cranking up the table saw. However, that might prove a bit much.

    Many thanks.

    Hope everyone is doing well.

    Matt

  7. So how did Chris manage to put together a complete set of the Woodworker annual compilations fro 1936 through to 1966?

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