# Creating American Beauty in New Shapes and Materials by Mary and Russel Wright > “We too can create beauty, but in new shapes and materials, without nostalgic associations but with something added that the old forms do not have—the excitement of newness and the reality of belonging to us, our own creation out of our own way of life.” > **— Mary and Russel Wright**, *Guide to Easier Living, 1950* ## Sources and Context - **Primary text:** [Mary and Russel Wright’s Guide to Easier Living (1950) — Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/mary-and-russel-wrights-guide-to-easier-living) — opening chapter, “Be It Ever So Humble.” The preceding sentences contrast the beauty of the eighteenth-century drawing room and the “Old Dream Home,” based on formal design and the shapes and materials of the past, with the beauty of informal design, “the apt expression of our own times.” - **Context:** “We” refers to the authors’ American readers building homes for their own time. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Simple Reminders|Simple Reminders]] - **Collection:** [[collections/American|American Collection]] - **American route:** [[american/American Aesthetic - Interior Design and Space Composition|Interior Design and Space Composition]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/American Material Culture|American Material Culture]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “We too can create beauty, but in new shapes and materials, without nostalgic associations but with something added that the old forms do not have—the excitement of newness and the reality of belonging to us, our own creation out of our own way of life.” — Mary and Russel Wright, Guide to Easier Living, 1950 https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-russel-wright-beauty-new-materials ```