Editor’s Letter: Why No Wendell Castle

Spotlight
ISSUE NO. 318
August/September 2025 p. 20

Why no Wendell Castle?
I am a 50-year Fine Woodworking subscriber (yep, got them all) and a retired
40-year professional woodworker. I am astounded that you neglected to mention Wendell Castle in “Remarkable Mentors.” Besides Wharton Esherick, who influenced Castle, who influenced Silas Kopf . . . , with apologies to Nakashima and Maloof and Krenov, I still consider Wendell Castle to be the father of the American studio furniture movement. Castle had, and continues to have, a great deal of influence on a generation of woodwork/furniture design builders.
As evidenced by the fact that Wendell Castle’s work is featured in the permanent collections of many prominent art museums in our country and abroad, how FWW did not give credit to the entirety of Castle’s breadth of influence to American studio woodworking over the past 50 years was baffling and disappointing to this dedicated reader. —DAVID D. DOERNBERG, Warwick, R.I.

Editor replies:

I will take a hit on this one. At the risk of spoiling the surprise, we have more retrospectives in store for you as we continue to celebrate our 50th year. The original concept was to feature a pair of articles in our anniversary issue, one noting emerging makers and the other one long-time contributors to the craft. When deputy editor Jon Binzen set about identifying up-and-coming makers, he was confronted by far more worthy candidates than would fit in a single article. As a result, in this issue, we are featuring a second installment on the subject. Even so, I am confident that there are many more deserving makers we have missed.

In the same regard, when senior editor Anissa Kapsales began working on a list of woodworking giants of the 20th century, she came away with far more names than we had room for. Instead of a single article, we decided to break it into three installments. The first, which you referenced, focused on influential mentors. A second installment will focus on furniture makers who pushed the boundaries of the craft, and Wendell Castle is included in that group.

Finally, we want to recognize the particularly significant contributors to the magazine, and thus the craft, over the years. This, I fear, will be the most daunting of the tasks, considering the thousands of authors we have had. We will try to honor as many as we can, but rest assured, there will be many we are bound to overlook as well. Please keep your pen at the ready and let us know who we’ve missed!