Synopses & Reviews
Buckminster Fuller, inventor, thinker and architect, was one of the best known Americans of the twentieth century. Often compared to Leonardo da Vinci and called "the planet's friendly genius," he was the inventor of the geodesic dome, the man who coined the term "spaceship earth," and an educator without parallel. Yet, most of his books are out of print today.
To remedy this situation, his longtime friend and architectural partner, Thomas Zung, has compiled a Bucky Fuller reader. This anthology consists of chapters selected from twenty of Bucky's many books, each with a new Introduction by such notables as Arthur C. Clarke, Steve Forbes, Calvin Tomkins, Dr. Martin Meyerson, Sir Harold W. Kroto, Arthur L. Loeb, E. J. Applewhite, and others.
Altogether, this book provides an overview of a remarkable intellectual career and the best possible introduction to the man and his thought. Bucky Fuller was one of the most original thinkers and builders that America has ever produced, and this book makes his work available to a new generation at the beginning of a new millennium.
Review
"Stimulating and provocative . . . Like a Francis Bacon charting the course for future generations to pursue, Fuller anticipates the need for the 'comprehensive designer,' who would be a 'synthesis of artist, inventor, mechanic, objective economist, and evolutionary strategist.' Such a man, he says, would be an initiator of design, able to anticipate all of man's needs and provide new and advanced standards of living for a steadily increasing percentage of the world's population."—
Chicago Tribune"Zung's anthology traces the development of Fuller's intellectual life and provides an excellent introduction for a new generation to the life and work of this brilliant thinker."—Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
Buckminster Fuller, inventor, thinker and architect, was one of the best known Americans of the 20th Century. Often compared to Leodardo da Vinci and called the "planet's friendly genius,' he was the inventor of the geodesic dome, the man who coined the term "spaceship earth," and an educator without parallel. Yet today, most of his books are out of print.
To remedy this situation, his longtime friend and architectural partner Thomas Zung has compiled a Bucky Fuller reader. This anthology consists of one chapter written by such notables as Arthur C. Clarke, Steve Forbes, Calvin Tomkins, Dr. Martin Meyerson, Sir Harry Kroto, Arthur L. Loeb, Ed Applewhite, and others. Altogether, this book provides an overview of a remarkable intellectual career and the best possible introduction to the man and his thought. Bucky Fuller was one of the most original thinkers and builders that America has ever produced, and this book makes his work available to a new generation.
About the Author
Thomas Tse Kwai Zung was born in Shanghai, China. He was a student of Buckminster Fuller and, with Fuller's Synergetics, Inc., designed the elongated geodesic dome in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1968. He has worked on various geodesic domes, including the Jitterbug sculpture, Tensegrities, the Fly Eye's dome, and Fuller's last invention, the Hang-It-All. Zung is president of Buckminster Fuller, Sadao, and Zung also serves as a board member of the Buckminster Fuller Institute.
Table of Contents
AcknowledgmentsAn Introduction to Bucky by Thomas T.K. Zung
Chronology
1. Richard Buckminster Fuller, by architect Lord Norman Foster
We Call It "Earth," from Nine Chains to the Moon
2. A Brief History of Geodesic Domes, by Shoji Sada
Geodesic Structures, from The Dymaxion World of Buckminster Fuller
3. Bucky as a Leonardo-like World Fellow in Residence, by Professor Martin Meyerson
Education, from Education Automation
4. R. Buckminster Fuller: Cosmic Surfer, by Dr. Glenn A. Olds
Comprehensive Designing, from Ideas and Integrities
5. Bucky Fuller—Nine Epiphanies, by the Very Reverend James Parks Morton
Introduction to Omnidirectional Halo, from No More Secondhand God
6. Bear Island, by Calvin Tomkins
Emergent Humanity: Its Environment and Education, from R. Buckminster Fuller on Education
7. Buckminster Fuller and the Game of the World, by Michael Gabel
The World Game—How to Make the World Work, from Utopia or Oblivion
8. The Fountains of Paradise, by Sir Arthur C. Clarke
Spaceship Earth, from Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth
9. The Path of Social Evolution, by Barbara Marx Hubbard
The Lord's Prayer—First and Second Version, from Intuition
10. Bucky: Citizen of the Universe, by Valerie Harper
Revolution in Wombland, from Earth, Inc.
11. My Best Friend's Father, by Marian Seldes
Prologue and Tricap Stone 1 & 2, from Tetrascroll: Goldilocks and the Three Bears
0
12. Continuity, Discreteness, and Resolution, by Dr. Arthur L. Loeb
Discoveries of Synergetics, from Synergetics: Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking
13. Black Mountain College, by Ruth Asawa
What I am Trying to Do, from And It Came to Pass—Not to Stay
14. Macro-, Micro-, and Nano-scale Engineering, by Sir Harold W. Kroto
Definition: Universe, from Synergetics 2: Further Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking
15. Bucky, by Charles Correa
Part XXIX, from Untitled Epic Poem on the History of Industrialization
16. The Future According to Fuller, by Steve Forbes
Can't Fool Cosmic Computer, from Crunch of Giants
17. Bucky's Apologia, by Michael Denneny
Introduction, Guinea Pig B., from Inventions
18. R. Buckminster Fuller Archives, by Professor Emer. Allegra Fuller Snyder
Working with Buckminster Fuller, by Don L. Richter, from The Artifacts of Buckminster Fuller
19. The Naming of Buckminsterfullerene, by E. J. Applewhite
The Mind of Buckminster Fuller, from Synergetics Dictionary
20. Ekistics and R. Buckminster Fuller, by Herbert E. Strawbridge
Integrity, from Cosmography (posthumous)
21. Fuller as a Poet of Technology, by E. J. Applewhite
22. A Fuller Family
23. Frank Lloyd Wright and Nine Chains to the Moon
24. Isamu Noguchi & E=mc2
25. The United States Postage Stamp Campaign
26. Fuller's Last Diary Entry
Epilogue
Books by R. Buckminster Fuller
Suggested Reading List
Index