The Memoirs of Ruth Anne Fairchild Espoir 1958
- Hardcover. Leatherette. Velvet dust jacket
- New York: Parlor Press Book, 1981
New York: Parlor Press Book, 1981. First Edition. Hardcover. Leatherette. Velvet dust jacket. Fine/Fine. Ruth Anne Fairchild. No. 9 of 50 copies. A wonderful and peculiar "Artist's Book", self-published, or so it would appear, by an author, artist, graphic designer who playfully suffuses his work with misdirection. Indeed, misdirection is at the heart of the work, for although "Memoirs" form part of the title, this isn't a true memoir for Ruth Anne Fairchild, since Ruth Anne Fairchild is a fictional creation of the author. 4to. 29 by 22 cm. Unpaginated, 91 leaves, by our count, including a few blank leaves and leaves that are a fraction of the full height of the book, with deliberately jagged edges, meant to look like they were torn. Most of the leaves are on fairly thick copier paper, but there are also exceptions -- one leaf on a tissue guard-like paper, one, a translucent colored mylar. The book has no shortage of physical novelties and gimmicks -- an actual teabag on its felt dust jacket, but one with doodles on it, filled with pink paper, suspended by red felt ribbon; a loose die-cut hand; etc. The author draws obvious inspiration from "Alice in Wonderland" and its tea party; characters from the classic appear throughout the work. He also is riffing about a whole shebang of things, such as Southern dainty propriety, a lace curtain gentility, that crested in the 1950s, and he parodies the fictional presentations of it. His targets are many, and the book reminds us of a comedy skit that is free associative, a bit scattershot, and fast paced. Ostensibly depicting the fifties, it is also very much a product of its iconoclastic, cynical times. There are no copies listed on OCLC First Search at the time of this description.
Details
Title
The Memoirs of Ruth Anne Fairchild Espoir 1958
Author
Switzer, Larry Jay
Binding
Hardcover. Leatherette. Velvet dust jacket
Condition
Fine
Publisher
Parlor Press Book: New York
Date
1981
Edition
First Edition