Wizard of the Dome: R. Buckminster Fuller, Designer for the Future

by Sidney Rosen

Throughout his life, Fuller was concerned with the question "Does humanity have a chance to survive lastingly and successfully on planet Earth, and if so, how?" Considering himself an average individual without special monetary means or academic degree, he chose to devote his life to this question, trying to find out what an individual like him could do to improve humanity's condition that large organizations, governments, or private enterprises inherently could not do. Pursuing this lifelong experiment, Fuller wrote twenty-eight books, coining and popularizing terms such as "spaceship earth", ephemeralization, and synergetics. He also boasts numerous inventions chiefly in the fields of design and architecture, the best known of which is the geodesic dome. Late in his life, after working on his concepts for several decades, Fuller had achieved considerable public visibility. He traveled the world giving lectures, and received numerous honorary doctorates. Most of his inventions, however, never made it into production, and he was strongly criticized in most of the fields that he tried to influence (such as architecture), or simply dismissed as a hopeless utopian. Fuller's proponents, on the other hand, claim that his work has not yet received the attention that it deserves.

189 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1969

About the author

Sid Rosen, a UI professor emeritus of astronomy (1958-94), grew up Jewish in Boston’s West End, and his father worked in the garment industry.

Married to Dorothy Rosen they write the mystery series starring Belle Appleman, a Jewish immigrant who lives in Boston's West End during the 1930s.

Sidney Rosen wrote the popular children’s book "Galileo and the Magic Numbers," published in 1958 and which still remains in print and in libraries all over the country. Rosen also has a series of children’s science books.