From the top of the Clent Hills in England, one can look out over
the Black Country to the north and the Forest of Arden to the south. As a boy
Humphrey Carver looked at these two landscapes – one synonymous with the harsh
ugliness and dehumanization brought by industry, the other with idyllic harmony
between man and land. At the start of the depression Carver came to Canada where, in
many and varied ways, he has tried to bring the qualities of humanity and compassion
to the landscape shaped by the man. His career has involved him in the initiation
of, and contact with, almost everything that has happened in the last forty years in
the field of housing, planning, design, and urban and community action. This book is
a history of the development of an awareness, of institutions, and of policies on
the shaping of the man-made environment. It is however more than that. Mr Carver
describes his own life and sensibilities, his family and his colleagues, with a
trained and compassionate eye and a taut and careful prose. Rarely does one
encounter an autobiography of such perceptive and satisfying craftsmanship. Those
who know him will not be surprised; those who do not will be delighted to discover a
work of such a warm and sympathetic humanity. Humphrey Carver has a message for us
all.

Humphrey Carver (1902-1995), before he retired in 1967, was on the staff of the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation, as Chairman of the Advisory Group. He is the author of Houses for Canadians, Cities in the Suburbs, and numerous journal articles.

Humphrey Carver's profile page