An Architectural Life: Memoirs and Memories of Charles W. Moore

Postmodernist maverick Charles W. Moore (1925-1993) was an indefatigable, globe-hopping ""architectural nomadic monk"" from Battle Creek, Michigan, who seldom stayed in one place for longer than two weeks, observes Keim, the architect's longtime friend and collaborator. Rejecting the uncompromising doctrines of modernism as a Princeton grad student, and later as chair of Yale's architecture department in the mid-1960s, Moore willfully plunged into eras, cultures and styles, absorbing what he could from Piranesi, Spain's Alhambra palace, Balinese villages, chaos theory, Palladian villas, Fellini, Japanese Zen architecture. This generously illustrated dossier, combining Moore's reminiscences, travel diary excerpts, letters and essays plus recollections by friends and collaborators, all woven together by Keim's biographical narrative, provides a surprisingly intimate portrait of a driven, irreverent innovator who cloaked his strong ego in self-deprecation and shyness. (June)