Craig Ellwood: Remembering the Thin Man

Craig Ellwood: Remembering the Thin Man, the second book of a trilogy on Ellwood, by author Keith York serves as a unique biographical sketch of Ellwood’s early years and a strong rebuke of posthumous claims by his employees that they were in fact the designers of his projects.

Based on a manuscript by Ellwood’s first full-time employee, Ernie Jacks, Craig Ellwood: Remembering the Thin Man is illuminated by previously unpublished drawings, photographs, and personal correspondence. Including photographs by Julius Shulman, Marvin Rand and Jacks, the book describes a decades-long friendship between the two architects. Jacks left Ellwood to work with Bruce Goff, Edward Durell Stone, as well as establishing his own practice and teaching alongside E. Fay Jones at the University of Arkansas.

Craig Ellwood: Remembering the Thin Man follows Craig Ellwood: Furniture (released in 2024) the first book on the architect’s furniture designs. This book expanded on York’s essay “Designing Elegance: The Furniture of Craig Ellwood” featured in Making L.A. Modern: Craig Ellwood - Myth, Man, Designer (Rizzoli, 2018), by unveiling previously unpublished, photographs and drawings tracing the trajectory of Ellwood’s interiors.
Craig Ellwood, among other progressive designers across Southern California, pushed for unique architectural solutions to meet the increased demands for homeownership in the postwar years. Craig Ellwood Associates grew from a home office that produced small private homes to a busy firm responsible for the design of commercial, civic, and educational buildings before closing in 1977. During Ellwood’s time as a lecturer at Yale University, students dubbed him “The Thin Man” in acknowledgement of his unwavering pursuit of lightness in every design solution.