George Nakashima

Nakashima built the original version of this writing desk when Dr. Krosnick was the editor of the Medical Society of New Jersey, and it was featured on the cover of that society's journal in May 1981. In that issue, Dr. Krosnick wrote, "The Editor's Desk, on which these words are being written, appears on the cover of this issue to symbolize a principle of conscious life which is very important to the medical profession--independence."  He went on to compare the "second life" that Nakashima gives trees to the "second life" that orthopedic surgeons, whom Nakashima eventually learned to trust despite his skepticism towards Western medicine, give to joints.

The original editor's desk was used as a lectern for all the speakers at the opening reception of the George Nakashima:  Full Circle retrospective at the American Craft Museum, and in his remarks, Dr. Krosnick referred to the piece as his best friend "with which I have shared many of the 'wee hours' of the morning trying to convert a blank sheet of paper into something worth printing."  Never intended to be included in the exhibition as the piece was so dear to Dr. Krosnick, they took the desk home where it would be consumed by the fire just days later.