Re: Newbie
Tim O'Connor (tim@roughdraft.org)
Sun, 21 Nov 1999 14:11:21 -0500
At 5:32 PM +1100 on 11/19/1999, you wrote:
> I've always heard how corny the photo on the first American edition was.
> What did it look like?
Ironically, it was an illustration by one of the foremost American
paperback designers of the time, James Avati, who was a hot commodity
at the time. Salinger, it is said, blew his stack when he saw it --
perhaps a tad too literal for him or too tawdry. I don't know, and
since he's not talking, I can't really guess. I know only that he
loathed it.
It showed an innocent boy with a suitcase that had travel stickers on
it, in what looks like an imaginary part of Times Square, with peep
shows and a newsstand and lots of people, and he looks lost amidst
the crowd.
(I have always been entranced by paperback art, lurid or not, and, as
luck would have it, my brother's wife is the James Avati of the 1980s
and 90s, so I have a vested interest in following the field and its
trends.)
You can read more about Avati at:
http://www.ils.unc.edu/rarebooks/avati.html
and see the original Catcher paperback cover at:
http://scam.com/avati.html
Ironically, Avati was born about five minutes from where I'm living
right now. And sadly, he's in his late 80s and suffering from
macular degeneration, which for a visual artist is akin to a runner
losing his legs or a writer the part of the brain where her words
originate. Life is cruel that way, eh?
--tim o'connor