The Wheelwright’s Shop

Although first published in 1923, to the reader newly acquainted with its pages, The Wheelwright’s Shop may seem like a revelation. It describes the life and work of third-generation English wheelwright George Sturt near the end of the nineteenth century-a time shortly before efficiency and economies of scale became the sole factors governing the craftsman’s methods of production and personal values. Like a visitor from a long-past age, Sturt describes a social milieu where craft, work, art, and life were still intertwined-and not separated into isolated spheres. The Wheelwright’s Shop provides both a technical analysis of its protagonist’s craft and a picturesque account of the daily life of such craftsmen in turn-of-the-century England-while also quietly lamenting the loss of both. May this book’s stirring account of the “true work” that we abandoned, and the quiet peace and simplicity that accompanied it, inspire growing numbers to seek out creative alternatives to our numbing work landscape and a revival of the spiritual dignity of work.