“This book is such a pleasure to read. Each of the writers here spins an intimate, one-page mini-movie that sticks in your mind as much as their lost object has stayed locked in their memory.” — Air Mail
From Hat & Beard Press: A new book, co-edited with Joshua Glenn.
LOST OBJECTS: 50 Stories About the Things We Miss and Why They Matter.
Is there a “Rosebud” object in your past? A long-vanished thing that lingers in your memory—whether you want it to or not? As much as we may treasure the stuff we own, perhaps just as significant are the objects we have, in one way or another, lost. What is it about these bygone objects? Why do they continue to haunt us long after they’ve vanished from our lives?
In Lost Objects, editors Joshua Glenn and Rob Walker have gathered answers to those questions in the form of 50 true stories from a dazzling roster of writers, artists, thinkers, and storytellers, including Lucy Sante, Ben Katchor, Lydia Millet, Neil LaBute, Laura Lippman, Geoff Manaugh, Paola Antonelli, Margaret Wertheim, and many more. Each spins a unique narrative that tells a personal tale, and dives into the meaning of objects that remain present to us emotionally, even after they have physically disappeared.
To bring this collection of essays even more vividly to life, the editors gathered a similarly impressive array of artists to illustrate these meaningful things that have gone missing. Visual contributors include Seth, Kate Bingaman-Burt, Oliver Munday, Lisa Congdon, Matt Wuerker, Anita Kunz, Alex Eben Meyer, Gary Panter, and Kelli Anderson.
- Read the book’s foreword, by the legendary Debbie Millman, in PrintMag.com
- Here are three pieces from the book — by Alex Gerasev, Lea Hennesy (art by Dean Haspiel), and Stephen O’Connor (art by Oliver Munday — with a short intro by Josh, in The Boston Globe.
- Here are two pieces from the book on Lithub: by Nina Katchadourian (art by Lisa Congdon) and by Alex Balk (art by John Lowe)
- Here’s another piece from the book on The Millions: by Lydia Millet (art by Berta Vallo).
- And here’s a piece from the book in Harper’s, by Lucy Sante (with art, in the book, by Kate Bingaman-Burt).
Here’s Josh and I talking about the book, and about creative collaboration, with June Thomas on the Slate podcast, Working.