Your Vigor for Life Appalls Me: Robert Crumb Letters 1958-1977

Seattle: Fantagraphics Books. Near Fine. 1998. 1st Edition (softcover issue). Softcover. [nice copy, virtually as new with just a touch of handling wear]. Trade PB (reproductions of R. Crumb drawings) From the introduction, by Gary Groth: "Robert Crumb is the most autobiographical and self-revealing of artists, so the extent to which these letters illuminate his life, specifically his early artistic and intellectual development, is perhaps surprising. Most of the letters cover a five year period from 1958 to 1964, with only a handful of letters between '64 and '77. The majority, therefore, chronicle his thoughts and preoccupations from the age of 16 to 21, certainly among the most volatile, bewildering, and formative years of a young man's life, particularly so for an artist as driven as Crumb was even then. All the letters are written to two friends, Marty Pahls and Mike Britt, who shared his passion for comics and cartooning, his interest in art and music, as well as his groping for a philosophy of life. It was also the time when Crumb was defining his sexual identity and formulating his attitudes toward romantic love." .