A Place in Time: The Shakers at Sabbathday Lake, Maine (Pocket Paragon)

Sabbathday Lake, one of the 19 original Shaker sites in America, was founded in 1794. While all the other sites are now historical re-creations, this hamlet in Maine continues as the vital center of the faith in the 21st century. The photographer Stephen G. Williams has been visiting these Shakers since the early 1970s, drawing spiritual strength from their habits of work and prayer, and artistic inspiration from their quest for harmony, economy, and perfection. "This book," says Williams, "is an endeavor to convey in photographic form my idea of Shakerism: simplicity, beauty, and grace." In its splendid spareness - a beauty borne of stripping away the inessentials - it fully achieves that end.