Tuesday 14 May 2013

Loss of Pubic Hair

It's always pleasant to see a mostly forgotten author you love be brought back into print for other people to rediscover. The latest example of this I have is Alfred Hayes, who the ever-wondrous NYRB is resurrecting later this year.

The downside to such a resurrection is that the nice new editions almost always look much better than the mouldy old tattered second-hand copies of the books I already own.




Oddly, there was a much different cover for My Face For the World to See originally mooted, and shown on some bookshop sites. I'm not sure if it was ditched because of pubic hair concerns, or because it didn't match the style of the In Love cover.



All three photos are by Saul Leiter.




Given the intro to My Face... is being written by David Thomson, I'm intrigued to see how he's going to work his embarrassing Nicole Kidman obsession into it.

And to conclude, here's my old Penguin edition of In Love.


5 comments:

Georgie George said...

Hey. Sorry it's taken me so long to remember to check your blog! Have been back in the mode of journalling myself and always love your book analysis.

JRSM said...

Thanks, George! Posting has been a bit sporadic round here, for reasons I'm sure you appreciate.

jb said...

I'd already been looking forward to these (NYRB, you know), but even more so since they have the CCC seal of approval...

That is a nice old Penguin, but it definitely needs replacing/supplementing with this new edition.

JRSM said...

I fear you are right. If you can, get Hayes's 'The Girl on the Via Flaminia', also excellent, which Europa Editions has resurrected.

charles said...

And still to be resurrected, 'The End of Me'. Alfred Hayes is the bee's knees, wonderful. My copy of 'My Face for the World to See' is a 1960 Arrow paperback: no pubic hair, but a dress very low cut at the back.