The Lost Carving

By David Esterly,

Book cover of The Lost Carving: A Journey to the Heart of Making

Book description

“A beautiful, intricate meditation on creativity and discovery, on fire and rebirth.” —Elizabeth Gilbert

Awestruck at the sight of a Grinling Gibbons carving in a London church, David Esterly chose to dedicate his life to woodcarving—its physical rhythms, intricate beauty, and intellectual demands. Forty years later, he is the foremost…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Lost Carving as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This is a book that I’ve returned to again and again over the years. Each time I seem to discover an aspect of the story that transforms it into something new. That’s a thrilling sensation, almost as if I’ve found a magical volume that hides an entire library of novels, philosophy, and history in just two hundred and eighty pages. 

On the surface, it ought to be a very simple piece of biography: a record of David Eastly’s work to recreate a decorative woodcarving that was consumed by a fire at Hampton Court Palace. Though that alone is gripping enough.…

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