LOS ANGELES: If a Nobel Prize were awarded to craftsmen, Sam Maloof would be a Nobel winner.This son of Lebanese immigrants is the only living craftsman to have his work in the White House collection of American furniture. In 1985, he became the first wood craftsman to receive the MacArthur Foundation's "genius" grant and in the same year, the California legislature named him a "living treasure."

In fact, California prizes its native son so highly, it designated the 23-room home he built as a registered historical landmark. The 8,500-square-foot temple of craftsmanship has been opened to the public as a living museum. Nearby are a two-story home he resides in, his workshops and lumber storage buildings The complex is surrounded by a lemon grove at the foot of the San Bernardino Mountains.

The setting, Maloof reckons, is not unlike the mountain village of Douma which his parents, Nasif Soliman Maloof and Anise Nader Maloof, emigrated from in 1905. They were among the first Arabic speakers in the agricultural area 80 kilometers east of Los Angeles.

Over the past half century, Maloof has earned a global reputation as America's most renowned contemporary furniture craftsman. A permanent exhibit in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts houses 12 pieces of Maloof furniture that visitors can sit in. The Smithsonian Institution's Renwick Gallery presented a full scale exhibition of 65 of his pieces in an exhibition and series of programs from Sept. 14, 2001, to Jan. 20, 2002.

His signature piece - the Maloof rocking chair - is recognizable for its low-slung seat and elongated curved runners. A single push will leave it rocking independently for four-and-a-half minutes. Even though there is a two-year waiting list, the chair sells for $20,000 and as much as $42,000 for a model crafted of zircote wood from Belize. Three former US Presidents - Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton - own the rocking chair, with Carter personally coming to pick up the chair and meet its creator.

All this recognition has not made Maloof an unapproachable man. He conducts several workshops a year and keeps in touch with each individual who has purchased one of his distinctive works of art. And though he denies that his signed and numbered pieces are sculptures, those lucky enough to have run their fingers over his smooth surfaces and nestled in his contoured seats would call them inspired creations.

A case in point is when Ray Charles first sat in a Maloof chair. The blind musician said he could feel the soul of the furniture and its maker. "I know this man," Charles said as he stroked the soft contours of the chair.

At age 88, Maloof still turns out 60 original pieces a year - at least three of these are new designs. Each of his three assistants have worked with him for more than 20 years; the relationship they share is almost like that of a father with his sons.

Maloof's beginnings were humble. His immigrant parents started their marriage with his mother Anise making lace and father Nasif peddling the handwork along with other goods. Maloof was the seventh of nine children. When the husband of Maloof's oldest sister died, she returned with her six children and 14 people lived in his parents' three-bedroom home. In this crowded household, young Maloof carved intricate wooden toys: pistols with spinning cylinders and trucks with moving wheels. A beautifully carved and much-used paddle he made for his mother nearly 80 years ago to retrieve flat Arab bread from the oven today decorates his kitchen wall.

There wasn't money for college, but Maloof's drawing abilities gained him a job as a graphic artist during the years of the Great Depression. When World War II erupted, he enlisted and served as a master sergeant in the Aleutian Islands where he often spent the long nights near the North Pole carving sculptures from spent shell casings.

He met his muse, Alfreda, in 1947 at Claremont College where she was applying for graduate school and he was an art studio assistant.

A far-away look stops Maloof in his tracks as he tries to describe how beautiful the blonde Freda was. The young Swedish-American had worked with American Indians in New Mexico, Montana and Wyoming, helping them organize arts and crafts cooperatives on their reservations.

It was love at first sight, and the couple married within months of their meeting. Freda encouraged Maloof to start designing furniture, and even though their annual income from furniture-making was $555 in 1949, she urged him to continue his modernist designs.

His first break came in 1952 when industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss commissioned Maloof for $1,200 to design all the furniture for his new home. It was a struggle for a few more years as he made furniture for designer showrooms, but word was spreading about Maloof furniture.

In 1955, the State Department was sending American craftsmen to help artisans in developing their indigenous works for export. Maloof was invited to conduct workshops in Lebanon, Iran and El Salvador.

"I was the first of my family to return to Lebanon," he smiled. "When I told the Lebanese I was a Syrian from Douma, they rapidly informed me I was a Leba was a Lebanese from Douma."

Maloof chuckles as he recalls that his i that his interpreter was not aware he spoke Arabic. As the translator expanded and enlarged upon Maloof's importance to the Lebanese carpenters, Maloof stunned him by admonishing him in Arabic not to exaggerate his abilities.

Sketches of each piece he designs are worthy of being framed. Characteristics are seats that slant downward to fit the human frame while supporting the lower back. Shellac and lacquer are unheard of in the Maloof domain. The buttery soft feel of his creations is produced by a formula of boiled linseed oil, raw tung oil and shredded beeswax that is rubbed into surfaces in three applications over three days.

Texture is uppermost to this craftsman whether its soft, burnished countertops or floors that crunch. The latter is achieved by laying loose paver bricks over industrial felt on a cement slab.

Walnut is his favorite wood, but cedar, lemon and even avocado lend accents to Maloof creations. His hallmark innovations are a half-loop joint exposed where legs meet the seat, a complex tongue-and-groove joint and decorative ebony plugs which cover steel screws used in joining legs, armrests, back and seat.

One of his most innovative designs is a spiral staircase with dragonfly wing-shaped steps. Another is a freestanding cradle he first designed for his son Soliman in 1949.

"When we get an order for a cradle, all other work stops because babies can't wait," he said. However, the baby must have well-off parents since the cradle's asking price is $35,000.

"I believe most people who work with their hands have a communion between themselves and their materials," he said. Wood, according to Maloof, is the ideal medium for

a craftsman.

"After a tree is cut down and sawn into boards, it continues to live because people are using it. The mediums of clay, fiber, glass and metal have their essence, but they don't have the beauty of a tree.

"The high school graduate received an honorary doctorate in 1995 from the Rhode Island School of Design. He gave most of his $350,000 MacArthur grant to an institute for woodworking.

Lectures, exhibits and get-togethers for the public are sponsored by his Sam and Alfreda Maloof Foundation. He is even planning to build an auditorium for small concerts. Shortly after their 50th wedding anniversary in 1998, his beloved Freda died. But the art work and Indian crafts the couple collected over five decades is on view in the museum house and the 4,500-square-foot house he moved into two years ago with his second wife, Beverly.

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