"The mystery that attracts Howard Mansfield{u2019}s attention is that some houses have life{u2014}are home, are dwellings, and others aren{u2019}t. Dwelling, he says, is an old-fashioned word that we{u2019}ve misplaced. When we live heart and soul, we dwell. When we belong to a place, we dwell. Possession, they say, is nine-tenths of the law, but it is also what too many houses and towns lack. We are not possessed by our home places. This lost quality of dwelling{u2014}the soul of buildings{u2014}haunts most of our houses and our landscape. Dwelling in Possibility is a search for the ordinary qualities that make some houses a home, and some public places welcoming." -- from publisher.