Over the years, Jim Dorsett and the writers and modelers of The Scale Cabinetmaker drew on a wide range of sources for inspiration and information. The Scale Cabinetmaker Reading List is the list of sources quoted or cited in the 20 years of TSC. In addition to being the publisher and primary author of The Scale Cabinetmaker, Jim Dorsett had an undergraduate degree in English (Wichita City College, now University of Wichita) and was a former Presbyterian minister (trained at McCormick and preached in Montana, his home state, and Missouri) and a Sociology professor at Virginia Tech (PhD from Missouri), where he taught the Social Theory and the History of Social Thought. His background in philosophy, social history, and literature was reflected in the pages of TSC.

Adams, Charles Francis, Jr. (1892) Three Episodes of Massachusetts History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. (Riverside Press). pg. 802. Available online from Google books.

Adrosko, Rita J.(1971). Natural Dyes and Home Dyeing. New York: Dover.

Asher and Adams Commercial Atlas (1874)

Asher, Benjamin (1827). The American Builder's Companion. New York: Dover. (1969 Reprint)

Bacon, Francis (1605). Advancement of Learning. Available online from Project Gutenberg.

Bacon, Francis (1627). Silva Sylvarum. Available online from Google Books. (Book referenced by Jane Bernier, in TSC 2:1)

Bishop, Robert (1972). Centuries and Styles of the American Chair. New York: E.P. Dutton.

Boorstin, Daniel (1973). The Americans: The Democratic Experience. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, New Edition, 2000. Probably one of the best and most readable books on the social history of America in print.

Brazer, Esther Stevens (1940). Early American Decorations: A Comprehensive Treatise. Springfield, MA: Pond-Ekberg Co.

Bush, Katherine. Red-Headed Woman. Serial book published in the Saturday Evening Post in the 1930s.

Cescinsky, Herbert (1968). English Furniture From Gothic to Sheriton. New York: Bonanza Books.

Comstock, Helen (1962). American Furniture. Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Century Styles. New York: Viking Press.

Conrad, Joseph (1897). "Preface" to The Nigger of the 'Narcissus.' Available online.

Davidson, Marshall B. (1971). History of Notable American Houses. New York: American Heritage Publishing Co.

Demorest's Monthly Magazine. (1878)

Dickens, Charles (1843). A Christmas Carol. Available Online from the University of Virginia.

Downing, A.J. (1969). The Architecture of Country Houses. New York: Dover.

Drepperd, Carl W. (1952). A Dictionary of American Antiques. New York: Doubleday & Co.

Drepperd, Carl W. (1946). Primer of American Antiques. New York: Doubleday & Co.

Drinker, Cecil (1937). Not So Long Ago: A Chronicle of Medicine and Doctors in Colonial Philadelphia. New York: Oxford University Press.

Fields, Eugene (1912 ). "Grandma's Prayer." Available online. In Yale Book of American Verse. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1912. (Poem referenced by Kathy Sevebeck in TSC 2:1)

Forbes, Esther (1954). Rainbow on the Road. Boston. Houghtin Mifflin. (Cited by Shirley Hillhouse in TSC 2:3)

Frary, I.T. (1970). Early Homes of Ohio. New York: Dover.

Godey's Lady Book. Vol. LIX (1959).

Grahame, Kenneth (1908). Wind in the Willows. Note: the full text of Wind in the Willows is available online at The Literature Network. Also available from Penguin Classics (2005). A wonderful book if you have never read it.

Hall, Peg (1951). Early American Decorating Patterns. New York: M. Barrows.

Hallett, Charles (1952). Furniture Decoration Made Easy. Boston: Charles T. Branford Co.

Hanley, Hope (1964). Needlepoint. New York: Scribners.

Hepplewhite, George (1788). The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide. New York: Dover Press

Isham, Norman M. and Albert F. Brown (1965). Early Connecticut Houses. New York: Dover Press.

Jakes, John (1976). The Bastard. New York: Jove Publishing.

Johnson, Dorothy. "Small Town World Before Radio." In Montana: the Magazine of Western History. XXIV:2.

Kelly, J. Frederick (1924). The Early Domestic Architecture of New England. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Kluger, Phyllis (1975). A Needlepoint Gallery of Patterns from the Past. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Ladies' Floral Cabinet. Vol IV, No. 37 (January, 1875)

Mann, Thomas (1936 ). "Joseph in Egypt." Translated by H. T. Lowe-Porter. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1948.

McClintock, Inez and Marshall (1961). Toys in America. Washington: Public Affairs Press.

McClinton, K.M. (1966). Collecting American Victorian Antiques. New York: Scribners.

Moore, Clement Clarke (1823). A Visit from Saint Nicholas. Available online from Project Gutenberg.

Moore, Colleen. Source Unknown. Description of her dollhouse, located in Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry.

Morningstar, Connie (1971). Flapper Furniture and Interiors of the 1920's. Des Moines, IA: Wallace-Homestead Book Co.

Nast, Thomas (1863 ). Illustration of Santa Claus on the cover of Harper's Weekly, January 3, 1863. In 1871, Harper's Weekly published an article about Thomas Nast, who worked as an editorial cartoonist for the publication from 1859 to 1860 and from 1872 to 1886.

Nutting, Wallace. (1954). Furniture Treasury (Unabridge edition). New York: MacMillan Publishing.

Ormsbee, Thomas (1951). Field Guide to Early American Furniture. Bonanza Books.

Osburn, Burl and Bernice (1975). Measured Drawings of Early American Furniture. New York: Dover.

Otto, Celia Jackson (1965). American Furniture of the Nineteenth Century. New York: Viking.

Palliser, Palliser, & Company. (1887) Palliser's New Cottage Homes & Details. New York: Palliser, Palliser & Co / American Life Foundation. .(Dover Reprint, 2003). According to Dover, Palliser, a New York Architecture firm, " issued a catalog of 250 original designs, and some 1,500 detailed drawings, for cottages, villas, farmhouses, seashore residences, summer and winter resorts, block houses, barns, stables, and carriage houses.

Pope, Alexander (1717). "Preface to the Iliad." Available online.

Popular Mechanics (1909). Mission Furniture, How to Make It, Part I. Chicago: Popular Mechanics.

Riley, James Whitcomb (1912). "Knee Deep in June." (Poem). In The Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley. (1916). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Sabine, Ellen S. (1956). American Antique Decoration. Princeton, NJ: D. Van Nostrand Co.

Sabine, Ellen S. (1962). Early American Decorative Patterns and How to Paint Them. New York: Bonanza Nd.

Salomonsky, Verna Cook (1974). Masterpieces of Furniture. New York: Dover Press.

Schopenhauer, Arthur. (Date Unknown). Studies in Pessimism. Hardcopy reprint available from De Young Press, 1997.

Sheraton, Thomas (1803). Cabinet Directory.

Sheraton, Thomas (1802). Cabinet-maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book and Repository. New York: Dover.

Sidney, Sylvia and Alfred Allan Lewis. (1968 ) Sylvia Sidney's Needlepoint Book. New York: Galahad Books.

Siegler, Susan (1976). Needlework Patterns from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Slayton, Mariette Paine (1972)

Tarkington, Booth (1928). The World Does Move. New York: Random House.

Thomas, Dylan (1954--Published postumously)). "A Child's Christmas in Wales." Available online in print and in audio form. Dylan Thomas was one of Jim Dorsett's favorite poets in part because of the kinship of place. Despite an English last name, my father was predominantly Welsh and claimed that his love of language and cadence came from Welsh blood. For information on Dylan Thomas, take a look at the BBC tribute website.

Wegner Chair, cover. Better Homes and Gardens. October, 1970.

Wigginton, Eliot (ed.) (1973). Foxfire 2. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/ Doubleday.