On the Nature of Significance of the Crafts

Three short essays on the architect W. R. Lethaby, the calligrapher Edward Johnston and the writer Ananda Coomaraswamy, with an introduction by Keith Critchlow. The undelying theme is the effect of a climate of mechanistic materialism and functionalism on the arts and crafts, using the three subjects as a lens. Work has more or less lost its sacred dimension and the attention is dissipated by a onrush of ephemeral sensations and stimulations so that we lose our connection with being and are wholly caught up in doing. These essays provide an anchor and a necessary antidote to the tyranny of the machine.