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GIMME SHELTER – February, 2024

For those of you getting this for the first time:

Over the years, the list has grown — I’ve added anyone I thought might be interested — and there are now about 6,500 people getting these infrequent emails.

If you’re not signed up on the list to receive (that is, if you are reading this on Instagram or my blog), you can sign up for email delivery of the Gimme Shelter newsletter here.


I like getting back to emails. Completely different from social media. These come in to you; you don’t have to open anything up. Old school, in a way.

When I send these out, some older people say “I got your blog,” They’re not going to my real blog, and I can reach them this way.

Like a lot of technical advances, we all rush in, and then step back and figure out what’s missing with the new technology. And then try to figure out how to incorporate some of the old stuff (that’s missing) in the mix. Like recording music — the limitations of digital recording vs. vinyl or tape.

It’s a chance for me to tell people what’s going on in my world, in a direct and more personal way than Instagram or my blog.

Sorry for the length of this. (The last one of these was over a year ago.) As I’ve said many times before, paraphrasing Blasé Pascal (1647): “I’d have written a shorter letter, but I didn’t have enough time.”


A Sad Year

I’m not big on broadcasting my personal life, but events of the past year have had such an impact on what I’m doing — now and in the future — that I thought I’d explain a bit here. I’m writing this for people who follow me in one way or another, so you’ll know where I’ll be “…coming from.”

In 2023, I lost my wife Lesley, my brother, and my two best friends, so I’m heading into new territory.

I’m coping — it’s a gradual process and I’m OK, but — without going into details — things are definitely different in my life.

Coincidentally with all this, I had decided I was weary of running a publishing business and was looking for someone to buy Shelter Publications — and this has just happened:


AdventureKEEN Takes Over Shelter Publications

Richard Hunt and Molly Merkle of AdventureKEEN in the Shelter studio.
Photo by Elise Cannon

As of January 1st, 2024, AdventureKEEN is taking over the operation of Shelter Publications, which I have been running for 53 years. Another big change in my life.

They will keep everything functioning and I’ll be able to step away from the (ever-increasing) business and technical details of running a publishing company, and go into a new phase of communicating. AdventureKEEN will be the publisher, and distribution will still be by my beloved Publishers Group West book lovers.

AdventureKEEN is a great fit for Shelter. Some of their other publishers are Wilderness Press, Adventure Publications, and Nature Study Guides. Hiking, canoeing, cooking, gardening, backpacking, animals, tracking — all stuff I’m into: adventure. I feel very sympatico with everyone at AdventureKEEN.

And a big tip of the Hatlo hat to PGW’s Kevin Votel for shepherding this deal along.


A New Way to Communicate

When I finally disentangle myself from all the responsibilities of running a business and being an employer, I plan to start posting on Substack, doing better Instagram posts, and making videos for my YouTube channel — reporting on tools, how to do stuff, the beaches, the hills, skateboarding, cool people, and all the amazing things going on in cities.

I’m excited to be shifting gears. Like when I switched from insurance broker to carpenter in 1965. Or when I gave up after building domes for five years and discovered real building in the ’70s. A fresh outlook on work and life.

For some reason, disengaging myself from the business of running a company made me think of the ropes of entanglement in this drawing (by J.J. Grandville) in Gulliver’s Travels (1756). Cutting the ropes and bounding into a new phase of life.

On Substack, I can write, and as well post images larger than Instagram’s 3 by 4 inches. (I want my photos on a bigger screen.) Substack is for writers, and is kind of a combination email and blog. And that I can er, ahem, hopefully get paid for (by subscriptions).

I’ve been a communicator since the age of 3. “Hey Mom, look at this butterfly.” I’m a reporter at heart — have been since my high school journalism class, and then running a newspaper for two years on an Air Force Base in Germany (1958–60). I shoot photos constantly and everywhere.

I find the world — in spite of all the darkness nowadays — fascinating. People doing great (and often unnoticed and unheralded) things, plus homes, tools, vehicles, art, signs, etc. that I’ll record. I want to take you along with me — riding shotgun — seeing what I see.

In the ’80s, I loved journalist Charles Kuralt’s TV program “On the Road,” his 12‑year motorhome adventures traveling the back roads of America and filming people and places. I’m gonna get out in the world and report on what I run across.

I’ll be going into full journalistic mode, not just the intermittent reporting I’ve been doing in recent years.

Thanks to Christopher Ryan, writer extraordinaire (Sex at Dawn, Civilized to Death), prolific podcaster, and more recently Substacker (chrisryan.substack.com) for turning me onto Substack.

“I’m a man who likes to talk to a man who likes to talk.”

-Sidney Greenstreet to Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon


I figure to be rolling in these new modes by March–April, 2024. And I’ll try to do these newsletters at least every few months.

I figure I’ve got a year or so to see if this is gonna work.


The Real Baja

I’m heading to Baja Sur in my 2003 Tacoma 4×4 (5-speed, 2.4 L, 4‑cylinder engine), with tent on top and foldable tarp for beach camping. Taking my old ten-foot Doug Haut Surftek three-fin surfboard and I’m gonna try to start getting back up on the board. Once I’m up, I’m OK. Looking forward to warm water. Also taking boogie board and fins. I’m gonna ride waves one way or another. Plus work on my crawl stroke, and some diving.

This will be my first road trip to Baja in 20 years. Los Cabos (the southern tip of Baja) has grown exponentially, but I plan to — as in the past — get outside the very narrow regions of heavy tourism — into the real Baja. Camping on remote beaches and in water-filled arroyos, visiting old mission sites, hot springs, remote ranchos.

For about a dozen years, I went to Baja whenever I got the chance, hanging out with my Mexican friends, and I came to love the people and the tropical desert of the Los Cabos area.

“It is impossible to account for the charm of this country or its fascination, but those who are familiar with the land of Baja California are either afraid of it or they love it, and if they love it they are brought back by an irresistible fascination time and time again.”

–Erle Stanley Gardner


I’ll be posting on Instagram as I travel. (I left on January 30.)

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Shelter Publications Joins AdventureKEEN

Here’s the big news from around here. A whole new ball game. These are wonderful people we have teamed up with.

I’ll be covering this change and my future mode(s) of communication in one of my Gimme Shelter newsletters soon.

If you want to receive these (infrequent) newsletters about what’s going on here, send your email address to lloyd@shelterpub.com.


AdventureKEEN is excited to share the news that Shelter Publications has become the publishing group’s seventh imprint, effective January 1, 2024. Shelter Publications was founded by Lloyd Kahn and based in Bolinas, California.

“We are honored and appreciative to be able to shepherd the Shelter list going forward. Lloyd’s books have always been distinctive and smart. We’re pleased that we can continue his legacy of creating first-rate books that inspire and benefit readers around the world,” says Richard Hunt, president of AdventureKEEN.

Shelter Publications is a 50-year-old independent publisher known for its high-quality books about home building and personal fitness. With Lloyd’s start in the Whole Earth Catalog, Shelter’s building books (many written by Kahn), detail topics including small houses, campers, road rigs, houseboats, and much more. The long-selling fitness titles include Bob Anderson’s Stretching and (Jeff) Galloway’s Book on Running.

Publisher Molly Merkle adds, “Lloyd (aka “The King of D.I.Y. Dwellings”) has a voice and perspective that continues to resonate with readers. We are thrilled to carry forward his work and influence for future generations.”

ShelterBookImage“I’m more than excited to be working with AdventureKEEN in this next phase of my career. Our goals and aspirations are in sync, and I’m looking forward to this new relationship that will give me time to communicate via Instagram, Substack (to be created soon), and YouTube (and with an occasional book). We also look forward to having AdventureKEEN’s expertise and skills in marketing our Shelter Library of Building Books,” says Lloyd Kahn, Shelter founder.

Shelter’s administrative functions will transfer to AdventureKEEN’s Birmingham, Alabama headquarters. Lloyd will continue to author and promote the Shelter list.

Shelter Publications Logo
AdventureKEEN logo

“PGW has had a wonderful history with both publishers, and their shared sensibilities will allow Lloyd to continue to explore his many publishing ideas with an ideal and supportive partner,” says Kevin Votel, vice president of business development at Publishers Group West.

Publishers Group West (PGW) will remain the trade distributor of Shelter Publications. Established in 1976, PGW, an Ingram distribution company, is one of the top book vendors in the country, representing about 100 independent publishers, who together are publishing some of the most topical, innovative, literary, and award-winning books available today. PGW has been AdventureKEEN’s sales and distribution partner since 2007.


AdventureKEEN, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, with offices in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Cambridge, Minnesota, publishes 50–60 new titles annually, primarily on the subjects of nature, outdoor recreation, regional interest, and travel. The company has a backlist of 1000+ titles.


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Interview in The Last Straw Magazine

TLS: “Can you describe your book making process?”

Excerpt:

LK: “The way I do books is I assemble a lot of information and then I start doing layout. It’s kind of based on the principle of ‘if you don’t quite know what to do, just get started and the momentum will carry you along and you’ll figure out what to do.’ That’s kind of the way I’ve been with building as well. Unfortunately I never got to work with a master carpenter. I started out building my own home and had to figure it out as I went along.

I love putting books together. One of my favorite things to do is the layout of a book.

I do it with scissors and scotch tape, the old school way. Then it goes to Rick who does the work in Photoshop and InDesign. He prepares the files for the printers.”


Full interview here:
www.thelaststraw.org/getting-loose-with-lloyd-kahn

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Shelter for Humans

Lloyd Kahn (born 1935) is arguably the most influential pioneer of the DIY building movement that emerged in the counterculture of the 1960s. Besides being trained as a carpenter and having built many homes by hand, he also has a special talent for presenting information in an easy-to-understand form, a skill he puts to use as editor-in-chief of Shelter Publications, where he releases books on building and fitness.

His first contact with the craft of publishing was in 1968 when he became a key contributor to the creation of the Whole Earth Catalog, which led him to publish two books on dome building and then, in 1973, the book Shelter (which went on to sell over 300.000 copies).

The name Shelter is significant here, as it describes the essence of why we build. When we speak of architecture we think of monumental structures or at least buildings for an elite, and not of the homes built to meet our most human needs. This is what I find so empowering about Kahn’s emphasis on building traditions outside the architectural canon: The message that you can still create your own home, without being rich or a professional. Much of what is presented to us today under the label #cabinporn has little to do with this utopian spirit that encourages a forgotten self-efficacy beyond what money can buy.

doorofperception.com/2023/02/lloyd-kahn-shelter

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RIP Lloyd House

Photo of Lloyd’s “Leaf House” on Hornby Island by Jan Janzen. The roof shape was due to the curve of a piece of driftwood that Lloyd used for the ridge beam.

When I met the builder of my dreams 17 years ago, his name was Lloyd — House!

We became great friends and he was the main inspiration for my favorite of all our building books: Builders of the Pacific Coast.

Lloyd passed away about two weeks ago on Hornby Island, BC, Canada.

Michael McNamara (who first introduced me to Lloyd) sent this, which is posted at the Hornby Island Co-op. (A few of the phrases are borrowed from the Robert Louis Stevenson poem, “Requiem.”)

There’s a very complete list of his buildings, along with photos and interviews with him in the book: www.shelterpub.com/building/builders-of-the-pacific-coast

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Shelter’s First Five Books

Last week, Kyle Theirmann, surfer, skater, journalist, and pal of Chris Ryan’s came here to do a podcast of me talking about the ’60s, about which he is doing a book based on the fact that a lot of millennials (he’s 32) are aware that something happened then, but don’t know exactly what.

To start out, I gave him a thumbnail description of our first books, and I got him to shoot this video on my camera.

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Shelter Exhibition Opens This Friday in Berlin

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The exhibit, which was originally at the Architettura Biennale in Venice last year, is moving to Berlin and opening at the German Architecture Center this Friday, October 28.

Our books, Domebook One, Domebook 2, and Shelter are also on display in a large glass case. These models are based on drawings from those books.

Our exhibit was one of the first things you saw when entering the Arsenale di Venezia, the huge ship building complex in Venice (which was the largest industrial complex in Europe before the Industrial Revolution), now converted to exhibition space. Over 300,000 people visited the exhibition. When I was there with Lukas, there were crowds of people checking out our books and the models.

I’m flying to Berlin this Wednesday and will be doing a discussion with architect Leopold Banchini and curator Lukas Feireiss on hand-made housing and alternatives to traditional methods of building and living together. (And exploring Berlin — my first visit there.)

The title of the exhibit, There Are Walls That Want to Prowl is a line from the poem “Let’s Voyage Into the New American House” by Richard Brautigan, which was reprinted in Shelter.

More info at www.daz.de.

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Exhibit of Shelter Books and Models Opens This Week in Berlin

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From Lukas Feireiss in Berlin:

Friday evening October 28, we are opening our exhibition There Are Walls That Want to Prowl at the German Architecture Center (DAZ). Come, celebrate and discuss with us.

The exhibit was originally shown at the Biennalle Archittetura in Venice in 2021 and is an installation that combines building models from Lloyd Kahn’s books with architectural models by Leopold Banchini, interview footage, and photographs of Kahn’s home in California by Dylan Perrenoud. The exhibit was inspired by Kahn’s iconic books Domebook One, Domebook 2, and Shelter.

These three compendia of self-build architecture tell stories of alternative dwellings from nomadic structures in the Iron Age to contemporary mobile homes, consistently extolling ecological and self-reliant ways of living that liberate themselves from capital and production methods marked by alienation.

I’m pretty excited, taking off for a week in Berlin on Wednesday.

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