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Through an Uncommon Lens:
The Life and Photography of F. Holland Day
By Patricia J. Fanning, 2008; 304 pp.
University of Massachusetts Press; Hardcover

As a Boston publisher from 1893 to 1899, F. Holland Day (1864-1933) was a proponent of the Arts and Crafts style, issuing books with hand-made papers, wide margins, beautiful fonts, and tooled bindings; he also served as the American representative for Oscar Wilde and for Aubrey Beardsley’s periodical The Yellow Book, and encouraged the young Kahlil Gibran. When he discovered photography, he advocated it as fine art, and was friends with Gertrude Kasebier, Edward Steichen and Alvin Langdon Coburn (though, sadly, much of his work was lost in a 1904 fire). Independently wealthy, Day gave much-needed support to struggling artists, and on his death left his home to the village of Norwood, Massachusetts. Now open to the public, it houses the historical society and Day’s papers, which author Patricia Fanning, a university professor and archivist of the collection, has mined to produce this necessary and informative biography, written in an easy, enjoyable style. More than 60 reproductions of Day’s photographs reveal his artistry.