MARK’S WRITING IN HIS OWN WORDS
Through the years, I’ve nurtured my love of musical instruments and song. I learned to write by scripting four-minute theses, which benefited by the addition of melody, harmony and rhythm. Still, when asked in 2020 if I would be interested in writing a book, it seemed to me that I lacked all qualifications to do so. I have no degrees beyond a high school GED. Writing always seemed like a chore someone foisted on me without my consent. No one ever asked me to write songs, so they came more freely, unspoiled by the label “homework”. Songs offer the freedom to say a great deal in compressed time, and they need not be cogent or grammatically correct.
When I eventually allowed myself to be talked into writing a book, I thought of each section like a song, not literally, but in spirit. It’s up to readers to decide if the effort succeeded, but as the writer, it kept me interested and organized my thinking in a way I could sustain.
Writing has now found a place in my life as a central pursuit. It’s not one anyone who knows me would have ever predicted.
Building: A Carpenter’s Notes on Life &
the Art of Good Work
By Mark Ellison
The story of an unconventional education and how fulfillment can be found in doing something well for decades. Ellison takes us on a tour of the lofts, penthouses, and townhomes of New York’s elite, before they’re camera-ready. In a singular voice, he offers a window into learning to live meaningfully along the way. From staircases that would be deadly if built as designed and algae-eating snails boiled to escargot in a penthouse pond, to the deceptive complexity of minimalist design, Building exposes the tangled wiring, scrapped blueprints, and other outlandish demands.
Finale
A new Tarot for the end of the Age
Your companion to “Building- A Carpenter’s
Notes on Life and the Art of Good Work”
FINALE came into existence of its own accord. It began with my son’s Martin’s illustrations which lead off each chapter of “Building”.
When the book was nearly complete, my editor, Mark Warren, asked me to write a final chapter summarizing all that had come before. I wrote one or two paragraphs more about each chapter’s topic using Martin’s iconic images rather than the chapter titles. The page looked like a zodiac, or a tarot.
In a few weeks, Markus Hartel at Raghaus and I made twelve-sided dice and printed cards so we could interpret the rolls we threw. Those dice have been on my counter ever since. I’ve used them for everything from deciding where to go on a date to finding guidance in my future endeavors.
Martin helped me design the 52 cards that now accompany the dice. They can be used to play modified versions of Concentration, Poker, Crazy Eights, Whist or anything else that can be dreamed up. The dice add an element of Chance to games which are mostly statistical in structure. A bad roll can be a real heartbreaker. A good roll can swing the odds in your favor.
The most meaningful letter I have ever received regarding any of my work came from an acquaintance who found the dice during a time of trouble. She sent me a beautiful note telling me the roll she threw helped her to carry on. That alone justified the work that has gone into FINALE.
A New Suit
A Short Story By Mark Ellison
I wish I were a snappy dresser. I like good fabric, unusual color combinations and the occasional compliment, but no shirt, tie or blazer has ever fit me in a way I could tolerate for more than an hour. I’m too sloped in the shoulder, too barreled in the chest, too long in the arms and stubby in the legs to make suitable stuffing for off-the-rack suits. Shaped more like Ferdinand the Bull than Fabio, I choke at the neck, bind in the armpits, overshoot my cuffs and undersling at my waist. I’d like to feel natty, but I don’t think I ever have. In a twenty-five-year-old man, this predicament might be piteous and endearing. In a man of sixty, it breeches the pathetic.
PRAISE FOR MARK AND HIS WORKS
Who knew Mark Ellison’s handiwork would include a book this exquisite, purposeful, and absorbing? Building merits reading and rereading—it’s a book with much to teach us all.”
—Ayad Akhtar, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Homeland Elegies
Reading this amazing book is like listening to a very wise and funny man share the best stories in the world, wound up with wisdom, craft, and hard-won philosophy, and told with such eloquence. Clearly, Ellison had this book waiting inside him for years. I’m so glad that it’s out in the world, where it will find its readers for years.”
—Burkhard Bilger, author of Fatherland
“Mark Ellison is an amazing polymath and an Olympic-level aesthete. Unlike many polymaths and aesthetes, when he gets up in the morning, it’s to make real, physical things. Some lucky people get to live in them. Now the whole world gets to share in his wisdom.”
—Craig Nevill-Manning, engineering director, Google