MODERN MECCA | Modern & Mid Century Modern Staging + Design

Books for a Rockin’ Mid Century Modern Library

Inspired by my good friends Carl Henderson and Martha Newlin Kirkpatrick, two of the most loving and supportive people I have met on Twitter, I have started a list of books for a home library on modern and mid century modern design and architecture.

This is my own list of books I think anyone and everyone interested in the subject should read before they die. Some of them are already part of my library, the others are on my ever evolving wish list. This list however, is by no means complete and I welcome everyone’s suggestions. Feel free to explain why you like a certain book and the book that had the most impact on you. It makes for interesting and good discussions! : )

Here we go…

Mid Century Modern Architecture, Furniture and Design Books every Mid Century Modernista should read before they kick the bucket:

• Case Study Houses (Jumbo) (Hardcover)
by Elizabeth Smith

• Case Study Houses: 1945-1962 (Paperback)
by Esther McCoy

• Case Study Houses: 1945-1966: The California Impetus (Taschen Basic Architecture) (Paperback)
by Elizabeth Smith

• The Presence of the Case Study Houses (Hardcover)
by Ethel Buisson and Thomas Billard

• Julius Shulman: Palm Springs (Hardcover)
by Michel Stern and Alan Hess

• Julius Shulman: Architecture and its Photography (Hardcover)
by Julius Shulman

• Modernism Rediscovered (Hardcover)
by Pierluigi Sorriano and Julius Shulman

• Modernism Reborn: Mid-century American Houses (Paperback)
by Michael Webb

• Palm Springs Weekend: The Architecture and Design of a Midcentury Oasis (Hardcover)
by Andrew Danish and Alan Hess

• Palm Springs Modern: Houses in the California Desert (Hardcover)
by Adele Cygelman, David Glomb, Joseph Rosa

• Charles and Ray Eames: Designers of the Twentieth Century (Paperback)
by Pat Kirkham

• The Work of Charles and Ray Eames: A Legacy of Invention (Paperback)
by Donald Albrecht

• Charles & Ray Eames: 1907-1978, 1912-1988 Pioneers of Mid-Century Modernism (Paperback)
by Gloria Koenig

• Eames Design (Hardcover)
by John Neuhart

• An Eames Primer (Paperback)
by Eames Demetrios

• The Eames Lounge Chair: An Icon of Modern Design (Hardcover)
by Martin Eidelberg

• Eichler: Modernism Rebuilds the American Dream (Hardcover)
by Paul Adamson

• Eichler Homes: Design for Living (Hardcover)
by Jerry Ditto, Lanning Stern, Marvin Wax, and Sally B. Woodbridge

• Fifties Furniture by Paul McCobb: Directional Designs (Schiffer Book for Collectors and Designers) (Hardcover)
by Paul McCobb, Jennifer A. Lindbeck, Pina. Leslie A., and Michael Ellison

• Complete Kagan: Vladimir Kagan–A Lifetime of Avant-Garde Design (Hardcover)
by Vladmir Kagan

• George Nelson: The Design of Modern Design (Paperback)
by Stanley Abercrombie and Ettore Sottsass Jr.

• George Nelson: Compact Design Portfolio (Compact Design Portfolio) (Hardcover)
by Michael Webb

• Arne Jacobsen: Compact Design Portfolio (Hardcover)
by Christopher Mount

• Eva Zeisel (Hardcover)
by Lucie Young

• Atomic Ranch: Design Ideas for Stylish Ranch Homes (Hardcover)

by Michelle Gringeri-Brown

• Mid-Century Modern: Furniture of the 1950s (Paperback)
by Cara Greenberg

• Mid-Century Modern: Interiors, Furniture, Design Details (Conran Octopus Interiors) (Hardcover)
by Bradley Quinn

• NorCalMod: Icons of Northern California Modernism (Hardcover)
by Pierluigi Serraino

• Richard Neutra: Complete Works (Architecture & Design) (Hardcover)
by Barbara Lamprecht

• Richard Neutra, 1892-1970: Survival Through Design (Taschen Basic Architecture) (Paperback)
by Barbara Lamprecht

• Richard Neutra: And The Search for Modern Architecture (Hardcover)
by Thomas S. Hines

• Frey (Basic Architecture) (Paperback)
by Gloria Koenig

• Between Earth and Heaven: The Architecture of John Lautner (Hardcover)
by Nicholas Olsberg

• The Architecture of John Lautner (Universe Architecture Series) (Paperback)
by Alan Hess

• Lautner, 1911-1994: Disappearing Space (Basic Art) (Paperback)
by Barbara-Ann Campbell-Lange

• A. Quincy Jones (Paperback)
by Cory Buckner

• Raphael Soriano (Hardcover)
by Wolfgang Wagener

• Gregory Ain: The Modern Home as Social Commentary (Architecture) (Hardcover)
by Anthony Denzer

• Pierre Koenig: 1925-2005: Living with Steel (Taschen Basic Genre Series) (Paperback)
by Neil Jackson

• Mies Van Der Rohe: 1886-1969 (Taschen Basic Architecture Series) (Paperback)
by Claire Zimmerman

• Le Corbusier, 1887-1965: The Lyricism of Architecture in the Machine Age (Taschen Basic Architecture) (Paperback)
by Jean-Louis Cohen

• Marcel Breuer: 1902-1981: Form Giver of the Twentieth Century (Taschen Basic Architecture Series) (Paperback)
by Arnt Cobbers

• Jean Prouve, 1901-1984: The Dynamics of Creation (Taschen Basic Architecture Series) (Paperback)
by Nils Peters

• Cliff May and the Modern Ranch House (Hardcover)
by Daniel P. Greg

• Oscar Niemeyer: Curves of Irreverence (Hardcover)
by Ms. Styliane Philippou

• Oscar Niemeyer: Houses (Hardcover)
by Alan Hess and Alan Weintraub

• Oscar Niemeyer: Buildings (Hardcover)
by Alan Hess and Alan Weintraub

• Oscar Niemeyer and Brazilian Free-Form Modernism (Paperback)
by David Kendrick Underwood

• The Harvard Five in New Canaan: Midcentury Modern Houses by Marcel Breuer, Landis Gores, John Johansen, Philip Johnson, Eliot Noyes, and Others (Hardcover)
by William D. Earls

• Forgotten Modern: California Houses 1940-1970 (Hardcover)
by Alan Hess

• L.A. Modern (Hardcover)
by Tim Street-Porter and Nicolai Ouroussoff

• Classic Modern Homes of the Thirties: 64 Designs by Neutra, Gropius, Breuer, Stone and Others (Modern House in America) (Paperback)
by James Ford and Katherine Morrow Ford

• Architecture Without Rules: The Houses of Marcel Breuer and Herbert Beckhard (Paperback)
by David Masello

Now all you need is an expandable Mid Century Modern bookcase that grows with your book collection.

Cheers,

~Claudia

© ‘The above information, authored by Claudia A+D of MODERN MECCA, appeared as an INFORMATIONAL POST on Saturday, October 10, 2009.’