In Kropsberg Keep and Other Stories

Ralph Adams Cram (1863--1942) was a master builder and architect who is known for his dozens of Gothic revival churches, college outbuildings, and public civic houses as well as making his mark as a pioneer of the Art Deco movement with the Federal Building in Boston, MA. Born to a Unitarian minister, he lived most of his youth as an agnostic until he had a dramatic conversion experience during a mass in Rome on Christmas Eve, 1887 and thereafter became a devout Catholic. He also had a penchant for the magical arts, and had a somewhat secret life as a writer of occult fiction, and his stories reflect his attention to architectural details.