Author: Lost Art Press

This week we pushed out updates to almost all of our books that are available via pdf. So…

No. 1: Please don’t worry, the emails aren’t a scam. They are indeed from us.

No. 2: What changed? This is a technical update – we didn’t change the editorial content. Instead, we added Bookmarks and interior navigation links to make the pdfs easier to use. When you open the pdf, you can click on the icon that looks like a bookmark on the left side of the screen and you’ll see all the chapters listed there. Click on a bookmark and you’ll jump to that point in the text.

We also added interior links from each book’s Table of Contents. Go to the Table of Contents in any of the new pdfs. Click on the chapter you want to read. You will go there.

We also added the image of the book’s cover to the pdf (if it was missing). This is a cosmetic change.

No. 3: Why did you do this? To make the pdfs easier to use for you and us.

No. 4: I bet you added DRM or other sneaky stuff to watch me in the shower. No, we did not. We just made the pdfs easier to use. We also reset the counter for your downloads. So if you had reached your limit, it’s now reset to zero.

No. 5: What if I didn’t get an email for a pdf I own? Chances are that the notice was sent to an email you aren’t using now. You can log into your account at our store and you’ll see all your downloads that are available. If that doesn’t work, you can send a note to help@lostartpress.com.

— Christopher Schwarz

Editor’s note: It’s difficult to pinpoint the moment that John Brown became a personal hero. Was it when I first saw his chairs? When I read his early columns for Good Woodworking? Or was it when I read his book “Welsh Stick Chairs?”

During the weekend, Toronto carpenter Marc Stonestreet mentioned how inspired he was by the conclusion to “Welsh Stick Chairs.” He even insisted that his wife read it. Of course, I went back and read it again as a result. I’ll never forget the line about asparagus.

If you have ever wondered if John Brown’s writings are for you, this short chapter is likely the answer.

— Christopher Schwarz

Conclusion

We are approaching the de-Industrial Revolution, or New Age. Empires disintegrate. Nations re-emerge. We must look back and see how it was done before, not to copy, but to learn. Some of us hope that Wales will again become a Nation. We must look at our history, and each of us in our way pluck something from it and revive it. How did my forefathers go about their life? What equipment did they possess? What was the spirit of the making? I have no doubt the word ecology was as strange to them as it was to me a few years ago (what is the Welsh for ecology?). They preserved their environment because they didn’t have the monster tools to wreck it. No flails for them, they laid their hedges. Now I have the knowledge they didn’t have and I try to preserve my environment. Science is destructive, it has wrecked the land, but only those old fundamentals, agriculture and handicrafts, can restore it.

We have come full circle. Good quality goods can be made as cheaply by hand as in a factory. The ‘March of Time’ has overtaken the tycoons. The costs of production, rent, rates, wages, holiday pay, maternity pay, insurances, and above all capital plant, have soared. The craftsman with small workshop, some good tools and a woodstove can compete. The industrialist’s answer is to make nastier and cheaper goods, with less labour and more automation. People are beginning to despair about the rubbish; they want better and are willing to pay for better.

We are entering the age of the craftsman, where skills will be what matters. An age when the man who can grow asparagus will be more important than the man who can spell asparagus.

You may think that this is a long way from the Welsh stick chair, but I have plenty of time to think about things. I live in a beautiful place, I work at some­ thing I love, I make enough money to live, and my demands on the world’s resources are very meagre. What is so unusual about this idyllic circumstance is that there is plenty of room for more to join.

— John Brown, “Welsh Stick Chairs”

Quick note: We have replenished our inventory of Robert Wearing’s “The Solution at Hand” and Christian Becksvoort’s “With the Grain.” Both are now available in our online store and will soon be available again through our retailers.

“The Solution at Hand” hand was our sleeper hit of 2019. We love Wearing’s writing, but we weren’t sure how people would react to a book comprised entirely of his jigs for handwork (you sold the sucker out in record time). And “With the Grain” is now in its fifth printing with us. That book has been a huge hit with people who are interested in getting into woodworking and want to learn about trees and how they work.

In other news: Our fingers are crossed that “The Anarchist’s Design Book” will ship from the printer this week. There’s still time to get a free pdf of the book if you order it before this new edition ships out.

After the book ships, it will cost $12.25 more to purchase both the hardbound book and the pdf. Long-time customers know that this is the only discount we offer on our books.

— Christopher Schwarz