Architecture Mysticism and Myth
by W.R. Lethaby
1892

"This delightful book describes the symbolism of real-world architecture, as well as architecture described in fiction, myth and folklore. Lethaby believed that architecture reflected the macrocosm. He speculated that many of the seemingly ornamental details of classical buildings actually represented aspects of the land, the sea and the sky. This is one of those books like the Golden Bough or the White Goddess (albeit shorter and a less challenging read) that will turn you on to the mythopoetic side of reality, no matter whether you agree with its conclusions."

About the Author:

"William Richard Lethaby (January 18, 1857 - July 17, 1931) was an English architect and architectural historian whose ideas were highly influential on the late Arts and Crafts and early Modern movements in architecture, and in the fields of conservation and art education.

Lethaby was born in Barnstaple, Devon, the son of a fiercely Liberal craftsman and lay preacher. After an early apprenticeship with a local architect he found work in London in 1879 as Chief Clerk to architect Richard Norman Shaw. Shaw quickly recognized Lethabys talent as a designer and Lethaby was to contribute significant pieces of work to major Shaw-designed buildings such as Scotland Yard in London and Cragside in Northumberland.

While working for Shaw, Lethaby became involved in the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, which campaigned to preserve the integrity and authenticity of older buildings against the Victorian practice of improving them to the point of almost completely rebuilding and redesigning them. Through this he became a personal friend of Arts and Crafts Movement pioneers William Morris and Philip Webb, becoming a significant and influential member of their circle and acting as co-founder of the Art Workers Guild in 1884.

The Guild was formed from a nucleus drawn from two separate groups, the St Georges Art Society, a group of architects who had seen service in the offices of Norman Shaw, including Ernest Newton, Mervyn Macartney, Reginald Barratt, Edwin Hardy, Lethaby and Edward Schroeder Prior, and the Fifteen, founded by the designer and writer Lewis Day and the illustrator and designer Walter Crane. Prior wrote the prospectus for the Guild. It initially met in Newtons chambers by St Georges Church, Bloomsbury"