Howard Mansfield was born on June 14, 1957 in Huntington, New York, and graduated from Syracuse University in 1979. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife, the writer Sy Montgomery.

Author

Turn and Jump: How Time and Place Fell Apart. Down East, 2010.

The Bones of the Earth. Shoemaker and Hoard, 2004.

The Same Ax, Twice: Restoration and Renewal in a Throwaway Age. University Press of New England, 2000.

Skylark: The Life, Lies and Inventions of Harry Atwood. University Press of New England, 1999.

In the Memory House. Fulcrum Publishing, 1993.

Cosmopolis: Yesterday’s Cities of the Future. Rutgers, Center for Urban Policy Research, 1990.

Editor

Where the Mountain Stands Alone. University Press of New England, 2006.

Contributed Essays

Brian Vanden Brink, Ruin: Photographs of a Vanishing America. Down EastBooks, 2009. Introductory essay.

William Morgan, Yankee Modern: The Houses of Estes/Twombly. Princeton Architectural Press, 2009. Foreword.

James Aponovich: A Retrospective. Currier Museum of Art, 2005.

David Rothenberg and Wendee J. Pryor, eds., Writing on Air, The MIT Press, 2003.

For Children

Hogwood Steps Out. Barry Moser, illustrator. Roaring Brook Press, 2008

Selected publications

Essays and articles on history and architecture have appeared in:Doubletake, American Heritage, Orion, New Letters Quarterly, Washington Post, New York Times, Metropolis, International Design, Yankee, Small Press, Places Quarterly, West Hills Review, SITES, Design Book Review, Historic Preservation, Inland Architect, Christian Science Monitor, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Kansas City Star, Oakland Tribune, Newsday, Arizona Republic, Chicago Tribune, Des Moines Register, ElleDecor, Air & Space Smithsonian, International Herald Tribune, New Hampshire Home, The Magazine Antiques, Creative Nonfiction.

“As an excavator and guardian of our living past, Howard Mansfield is unmatched. This decent, unpretentious, wonderful writer possesses the sensibility of a poet combined with boundless curiosity and deep, deep knowledge. In its quiet, persistent, honest search for timelessness and truth amidst the clamor of our uncertain times, Turn & Jump takes us to the very soul of America.” —John Heilpern, Vanity Fair

"Now and then an idea suddenly bursts into flame, as if by spontaneous combustion. One instance is the recent explosion of American books about the idea of place.... But the best of them, the deepest, the widest-ranging, the most provocative and eloquent is Howard Mansfield's In the Memory House." -The Hungry Mind Review