NORTH ADAMS â Joe Manning, who observed, wrote about and cherished the city of North Adams for more than two decades, has died. Manning chronicled the people and places of North Adams with a fascination for the cityâs history and an eagle-eyed view of its future. He called North Adams âhis spiritual homeâ and involved himself deeply with the community, with endless curiosity for a place he loved but never lived in. Drawing on hours of interviews, he wrote about the cityâs transformation in two books, âSteeples: Sketches of North Adamsâ and âDisappearing Into North Adams,â and excerpts of his writings and oral histories he collected from residents are on display at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.