In May 2005, Philip Johnson’s landmark Glass House was honored, along with eleven other significant buildings, on the Masterworks of Modern American Architecture stamp pane. Johnson designed the Glass House in the mid-1940s. It was built on a bucolic rambling estate in New Canaan, Connecticut in 1949. He used the house as a retreat until he died in 2005.

In 1986 Johnson donated the Glass House to the National Trust for Historic Preservation with the stipulation that he and his partner, David Whitney, be allowed to use the property until their deaths. In 2007, the house became a National Trust Historic Site and was opened for public tours. Now admirers of mid-century modern architecture can see the famed glass and steel pavilion, as well as several other buildings Johnson designed for the property.

I visited the property for the first time in July of last year. After seeing the house in photographs, I was thrilled to walk in and around it. It’s a magnificent building. Surrounded by trees on four sides and with an unobstructed view to the west, it was almost like standing in a tree house gently released from its branches to land on the perfect spot for reverie. The house sits on a promontory from which a number of other buildings and structures are visible. Diminutive and imaginatively shaped, Johnson referred to them as his “follies.”

One of my favorites in the mix of follies was the small library Johnson built for himself in a wide meadow a few hundred feet from the glass pavilion. I’m always curious about personal libraries because they offer insight into a person’s character and interests in a very special way. It’s no surprise that Johnson surrounded himself with books about his favorite architects and architectural styles, some of which he championed before they were widely known. As the first director of the Museum of Modern Art’s architecture department, he introduced the work of the Bauhaus to America in a landmark exhibition, “The International Style.” It was thrilling to see well-worn dust jackets of books on this and numerous other subjects tucked securely into the shelves lining almost every wall.

Of course over time, Johnson and his work have been the subjects of many books. I’ve added three to my collection in recent months. One of my favorites is The Library of Philip Johnson: Selections from the Glass House. Another two are primarily photographic in nature. Glass House features photographs by Michael Moran. The pictures—highlighting the house and surrounding property as they interact with the changing seasons—are evocative and poetic. A forward by architecture critic Paul Goldberg and an essay by Johnson, as well as pictures of Johnson and friends at the house, distinguish The Glass House.