What a fabulous book ''CLAUDE BRAGDON AND THE BEAUTIFUL NECESSITY'' Edited by Andres Reithmayr and Eugenia Ellis offered by RIT Press. Claude Bragdon (1866-1946) was a first-generation modernist architect, as well as an illustrator, critic, theorist and theater designer. Bragdon practiced architecture in Rochester, New York throughout the Progressive Era. Although his masterpiece, the New York Central Railroad Station, was demolished in the 1960s-70s, the First Universalist Church, the Bevier Memorial Building, the Peterborough Bridge near Toronto, and nearly 100 residences remain today. A prolific and influential writer, Bragdon published more than twenty books and hundreds of articles. He was nationally known for his graphic art, his writing on the fourth dimension, his Song & Light Festivals of 1915-1918, and his role in theaters New Stagecraft.He had technical and artistic expertise in many disciplines, making it difficult to categorize his work into a specific stylistic trend. Bragdons work as an early modernist is important both in its own right and as a key to other 20th Century architects work. The book includes a complete bibliography of Bragdon's published work, a timeline and an index.