Laura Schenone

The first monograph on the work of the designer of the iconic 40/4 chair The American industrial designer and inventor David Rowland is best known for his signature 40/4 chair. Released in 1964, it is so named because it is possible to stack forty chairs in just four feet – an unprecedented achievement that established an entirely new category of versatile seating. Rowland’s wife Erwin and writer Laura Schenone reveal the inspiring story of how he brought his ground-breaking design to market. Initially, it was rejected by all the major furniture brands, including Herman Miller and Knoll, but Rowland persevered, and ultimately, the 40/4 chair became one of the most successful chairs ever produced, winning numerous accolades and selling over 8 million by the early 21st century. Today it is found in the permanent collections of museums worldwide, and gracing public and private spaces of every type – from cathedrals to cultural centres, corporate and municipal buildings, to places of worship, schools, healthcare, hospitality and homes. This fascinating biography of David Rowland and his 40/4 chair, featuring more than 250 photographs and documents (many never seen before), tells the compelling story of his design practice and a singular chair, whose design, through the determination of its designer, became the commercially successful and influential classic that it is. The first monograph on American designer, David Rowland: 40/4 Chair, is published to mark the 60th anniversary of this timeless design and includes the wide range of Rowland’s work before and after the development of his masterpiece. David Rowland was a pioneering Mid-Century designer. Born in 1924 in Hollywood, California, he studied at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. His elegant, perfectly engineered 40/4 chair is one of the most significant and masterful designs of the 20th century.

Greyhounds were bred to be the fastest dogs on earth. Yet for decades tens of thousands were destroyed, abandoned and abused each year when they couldn’t run fast enough. Scrappy Marion Fitzgibbon became obsessed with saving these dogs when she became head of the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Along with an American greyhound rescuer, a foxhunter’s wife, a British Lady and a powerful German animal advocate, she fights to create a sanctuary where animals heal and thrive. Their pioneering work is part of a global movement to close race tracks and find homes for these misunderstood dogs. In this David versus Goliath story (including the rescue of her own dog, Lily), Schenone takes us into a complex world of impassioned people who stood up for millions of animals.

Laura Schenone's original goal was simple enough: to find her great-grandmother's recipe for ravioli. But things get more complicated as she reunites with relatives and digs up buried family stories. Taking readers from New Jersey's industrial wastelands and fast-paced suburbs to the coast of Liguria—homeland of her ancestors and of ravioli—The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken is a story of the comedies and foibles of family life, of love and loss, of old homes and new, and of the mysteries of pasta, rolled on a pin into a perfect circle of gossamer dough.

Filled with classic recipes and inspirational stories, A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove will make you think twice about the food on your plate. Here is the first book to recount how American women have gathered, cooked, and prepared food for lovers, strangers, and family throughout the ages. We find native women who pried nourishment from the wilderness, mothers who sold biscuits to buy their children's freedom, immigrant wives who cooked old foods in new homes to provide comfort. From church bake sales to microwaving moms, this book is a celebration of women's lives, homes, and communities. Over fifty recipes, from Federal Pancakes to Sweet Potato Pie, are beautifully presented along with over one hundred images from artists, photographers, and rare sources. A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove is the shared history of all American women and the perfect gift for anyone who ever put food on the table.