Wharton Esherick: The Journey of a Creative Mind Hardcover – October 1, 2010

Love the book, story, life’s work and history of the artist and fine craftsman that Wharton Esherick has brought into this world. Written by his son in law, it is a great tale of his life struggles and genius style brought to Earth, as only a true gifted master is capable of. There is no other style, craftsmanship or passion in any other furniture maker’s work such as Wharton Esherick’s! He is a GOD among furniture makers as Michael Angelo is to sculptures! His famous dining room table is to wood; like the is to Pieta is to marble! No one comes close to his visions of what the wood has to give to a piece. A master of masters!

This biography is written by Wharton's son-in-law who has spent 40 plus years observing and accumulating information about the life of his father-in law. The text of the book is enhanced by photos of Wharton's artistic work from drawing to painting to sculpture to furniture. Not just a coffee table book to be casually looked at, it is a life enriching reading experience about a pioneering artist.One caution, the book will inspire you to visit the Wharton Esherick Museum. For me it was only a 3 hour drive and a wonderful experience.

I had the good fortune to visit The WE Studio/Museum in 1972. I was visiting with the daughter of one of his patrons/customers, who is pictured in the book playing chess with WE. The photographic study of Esherick's work in this book is outstanding. Typically, this type book becomes a "coffee table" picture book, but it is the story and life of this artist that is really so inspiring. It's a page turner! I cannot recommend this book strongly enough to anyone who has an interest in the arts, or who simply wants to put two pieces of wood together. Visit the studio if you possibly can. It is wonderful!

A handsome book with a lot of pictures and text too. Fora furniture maker Esherick is a tremendous inspirationand I noted that there isn't a terrific variety of photographson the internet. Once I saw pictures of his furniture piecesI wanted to see it all... took me awhile to get around tobuying the book. Very much worth the investment, imo.

highly recommend this book to anyone interested in W. Esherick! His son son in law did a great job in giving background information and guiding through Wharton's exceptional work - just love looking at the photos alone, only feeling the woodwork for yourself at the little but wonderful museum is better. I must admit I don't understand the complaints about the print, to me it's perfect.

This book is a must have for those woodworker, furniture makers/designers and sculptors. Wharton Esherick is one of the most influential and yet little known artists in the 20th century.The book is very well written and the photographs leave little unstated. As a furniture designer/maker, I knew of Wharton and his work, yet I did not know the man, this book reveals the essential artist.Through this book my awareness and influence by Wharton has increased ten fold... I recommend this book for the pure pleasure of being made aware of a great American artist.

A book so full of beautiful images and inspiring art work and a true disappointment, because the body copy is so small and the color of the print so dim against the page that it's almost unreadable. I bought a page magnifier and if I put the book in full sunlight I can struggle through a few pages at a time. I do not have vision problems. I've encountered these tiny type sizes in other art books, but I bought this book especially because I wanted to read more about Wharton Esherick. If you want to look at his work, fantastic five stars, but if you want to read about his life, be warned about this problem.

I purchased this book as a gift. I knew that the recipient was familiar with Wharton Esherick and had mentioned that this was a fantastic book. After purchasing it, I sat down and started reading. It is a fantastic book ................ it did finally make its way to the person it was intended for :)

A very nice book for all applied arts lovers. Very nice pictures and thorough bibliography work. Esherick was definitely a driven person.