John Kelsey

John Kelsey has spent 50 years writing and editing books and maga­zines about wood­work­ing and furni­ture design. But in the 1970s Kelsey almost became a furni­ture maker instead, until his skills as a news­pa­per jour­nal­ist pushed him back into publish­ing, to special­ize in unexplored terrain. 

“In the begin­ning every­thing we wrote about was new, we could open windows for wood­work­ers every­where,” Kelsey recalls of his eight years as Fine Wood­work­ing magazine’s first editor in chief. ​“We were riding a cultural moment, there was huge inter­est in crafts.”

In 1974, at the height of the drop-out-and-go-back-to-the-land move­ment and after 10 years as a news­pa­per reporter and editor, Kelsey had decided to make a new career of his wood­work­ing hobby. He enrolled that autumn in the School for Amer­i­can Crafts­men at Rochester Insti­tute of Tech­nol­ogy, one of the very few colleges that taught furni­ture making. The young jour­nal­ist found it an exhil­a­rat­ing immer­sion and natu­rally kept notes, sketches and photos. ​“I wanted to open a cabinet shop, make tables and chairs, and maybe I could make a little side money writing, though who knew where to publish — there weren’t any perti­nent maga­zines and not many books either,” he recalls.

Mean­while, the Connecti­cut busi­ness­man Paul F. Roman was moving on his own career change from corpo­rate exec­u­tive to maga­zine publisher. Taunton Press was his new venture, and his big idea was Cabinetmaker’s Journal, soon renamed Fine Wood­work­ing. Roman needed mate­r­ial, RIT was a good place to look. Kelsey wrote for the first issue and every issue for years there­after, soon began editing arti­cles so Roman could concen­trate on the fast-growing busi­ness, and within a year was named FWW’s editor-in-chief. 

This turn derailed Kelsey’s furni­ture-making plans and set him on his long career as writer, photog­ra­pher, editor, publisher, and book­seller special­iz­ing in all things wood-making. After FWW, high­lights included estab­lish­ing Threads maga­zine in 1985, found­ing Cambium Press publish­ers and the special­ist book­seller Cambium Books in 1995, and launch­ing the Furni­ture Society’s Furni­ture Studio series of books in 1999. 

“While my career was focused on helping others write and publish about their craft work,” he hastened to add, ​“none of it would have been possi­ble without remark­able teams of people notably includ­ing my sons Morgan and Ted Kelsey and daugh­ter Jennifer Camp­bell; the late Paul F. Roman who was Taunton Press founder and publisher; edito­r­ial colleagues Rick Mastelli, Laura Tringali, and David Sloan; design­ers Roger Barnes, Deborah Fillion, Peggy Bloomer, and Maura ZImmer; and adven­tur­ous publish­ers includ­ing Phil Macdon­ald of the Amer­i­can Asso­ci­a­tion of Wood­turn­ers and Andrew Glasgow of The Furni­ture Society. Among many many others.”

“I’ve been lucky,” Kelsey says today. ​“I was in the right places at pivotal moments, with the skills needed to get stuff done, plus a lot of help from other crafts artists with stories of their own to tell. It’s been a long and bumpy ride, but a ton of fun.”

And what of being named one of the Furni­ture Society’s 2024 honorees? ​“I was flab­ber­gasted, just blown away, and humbled. Over the years I’ve worked with more than half of the past honorees, they are my heroes. To sit among them, what a gift!“

Kelsey worked for Taunton Press, publish­ers of Fine Wood­work­ing, Fine Home­build­ing and Threads maga­zines, for 17 years, 1976 thru 1982. After that free­lance edito­r­ial work on books and maga­zines across the wood­work­ing and crafts domains, for clients that included GMC Publi­ca­tions (UK), Linden Publish­ing, Rodale Press, Amer­i­can Asso­ci­a­tion of Wood­turn­ers, and The Furni­ture Society. He founded and oper­ated Cambium Press from 1995 until 2006 and published titles that included David Pye’s two books on design and work­man­ship, Stephen Hogbin’s ​‘Appear­ance & Reality,’ and Robert W. Lang’s collec­tions of measured shop draw­ings for Crafts­man-era furni­ture and acces­sories. In those years the Connecti­cut-based busi­ness also oper­ated Cambium Book­sellers, special­ists stock­ing 1,500 titles sourced world­wide on wood­work­ing, furni­ture making, boat­build­ing, and related subjects broadly defined. ​“During the Furni­ture Soci­ety’s early years we set up book­selling kiosks at the annual confer­ences,” Kelsey recalls. ​“Good way to meet a lot of people.”

As Fine Wood­work­ing maga­zine approached 100,000 subscribers, the publish­ers invited readers to send in photos of their best work in wood, with this black-and-white book the eye-popping result. No-one had seen a range of work like this before. 

Learn more about John:

https://​www​.youtube​.com/​@​JohnK…

Frame/​arch:
-outer sheath Tasman­ian Blue Gum Euca­lyp­tus from Los Angeles Arbore­tum
-inner liner Holly

Base and post — Lemon Scented Gum 

Glass with Laser etched text from John’s FW #29 essay on Wood­work­ing in Mendo­cino, Plates- Engraved Brushed Nickel

Ticon­deroga Erasable CarmineRed 425T editing pencil

A ​“Book Arch” to repre­sent John’s work in writing, editing, and publish­ing with a Holly liner repre­sent­ing pages and a mottled 150 y.o. Tasman­ian Blue Gum book cover sliding dove­tailed onto the outside of the Holly.

Glass was etched with a cropped text of John’s Fine Wood­work­ing article Wood­work­ing in Mendo­cino, A close look at the new gener­a­tion of artist-crafts­men
By John Kelsey #29 – July/​Aug 1981 Issue.

Glass Laser etched with guid­ance at Bain­bridge Islands Barn artist facil­ity Tech Lab.

Contri­bu­tions to the Award of Distinc­tion program enhance The Furni­ture Soci­ety’s Educa­tional Grants offer­ing finan­cial assis­tance to TFS members for professional development.

We hope you will consider support­ing this worthy cause in John’s honor!