[WEST STOCKBRIDGE, M
A]—Berkshire-based writer Gladys Montgomery has authored two new books about architecture, which are being published this year: Storybook Cottages: America’s Carpenter Gothic Style (Rizzoli) and An Elegant Wilderness: Great Camps and Grand Lodges of the Adirondacks, 1855-1935 (Acanthus Press, in collaboration with The Adirondack Museum).
Weaving together contemporary color photography, illustrations from historic pattern books, and photographs, drawings and floor plans from the Historic American Buildings Survey, Storybook Cottages tells the story of America’s Gothic Revival and the houses trimmed with decorative “gingerbread” scrollwork, a style that we now call Carpenter Gothic.
An Elegant Wilderness, a stunningly beautiful coffee-table volum
e, is the first book to combine architectural, social, cultural, and environmental history with biography and brilliant black-and-white archival photographs to evoke the life of the wealthy urban elite who summered in the Adirondacks during the Gilded Age.
Montgomery, a resident of West Stockbridge, will be speaking and signing books in the area. These events include the West Stockbridge Public Library on June 24 from 7 to 9 p.m.; at the Kinderhook Group office at 10 Elm St., Stockbridge, on July 22 from 4 to 6 p.m.; and at Ventfort Hall in Lenox on August 17 at 4 p.m.
The founding editor of Berkshire Living Home + Garden, Montgomery has authored five books and more than 200 feature articles for international, national, and region
al magazines, winning awards for her writing and editing. Her writing specialty has been architecture, design, historic preservation, and lifestyle topics. A former resident of Manhattan and former expatriate in Japan and the Philippines, she moved to the Berkshires from the Boston area, where she restored two historic homes. Prior to her writing career, she worked in the non-profit arts and corporate sectors, with a focus on public relations and marketing. Montgomery is currently a real estate agent with the Kinderhook Group (www.thekinderhookgroup.com); her real estate forté is architecturally distinctive properties, including historic ones, in all price ranges.