The Wilderness Cabin [antikvár]

The Cabin in Perspective The cabin as a distinct American style, or as a means to a unique and rewarding way of life, is apparently here to stay. Its simple, elemental form in our complex modern civilization has retained its color and its meaning. It persists as one of the best of our living traditions. While the modern cabin is often so elaborate as to be classified as a house, and the modern house, because of its owner's wish for simple living, can sometimes be mistaken for a cabin, the overlap has fostered, if anything, the basic architectural idea. The influence of the pioneer's cabin is still very evident. We have retained much of the picturesque quality of the early cabins and some of their structural principles. Here the similarity seems to end. Cabins built under pioneer conditions, contrary to modem-day needs, were for immediate shelter. There was little opportunity to indulge in architectural vanity. The task of pushing back the wilderness to make a living from the soil was a full-time job, and too often a grim one. To begin with, the area around the settler's cabin usually was denuded of every tree as a precaution against the ever-present hazard of