Search results for ""Author Alan Govenar""
Deep Vellum Publishing Boccaccio in the Berkshires
Inspired by The Decameron and its dark and satirical novellas, Boccaccio in the Berkshires chronicles the foibles of seven women and three men, all in their twenties, who meet in an online chat room for asymptomatic pandemic survivors. They have all endured the deaths of loved ones and decide to shelter together for fourteen days in an Italianate mansion in the Berkshires, offered to the group rent-free. The vacant but furnished villa provides a luxurious, yet bizarre, setting for members of the chat room, who leave their homes in different cities around the United States. Over the course of their stay, they bond together in unexpected ways as they tell each other stories, ranging from the personal to the ludicrous, at times riffing on the absurdity of Boccaccio’s tales. A terrible storm fractures the group and forces the characters to come to terms with their own lives as they pursue love, faith, and the truth that medieval history ultimately reveals.
£21.00
Schiffer Publishing Ltd The Early Years of Rhythm & Blues
Benny Joseph made his living as a professional photographer in Houston’s black community during the crucial decades from the 1950s through the early 1980s, when the amplified pulse of rhythm and blues underscored the social changes sweeping the nation. Joseph photographed everything from parades and teen hops to impassioned speeches by civil rights leaders Martin Luther King, Jr., and Thurgood Marshall. Under contract to the pioneering black entrepreneur Don Robey, owner of the Duke and Peacock recording labels, Joseph photographed many of the popular recording artists of the day, including B.B. King, Mahalia Jackson, Buddy Ace, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, and Della Reese. With over 120 unique black and white photographs, this is a must have for all rhythm and blues enthusiasts, and a valuable historical resource for photography collectors. Writer, photographer, and filmmaker Alan Govenar met Joseph in 1984 when he was closing his studio in Houston’s Third Ward and worked with him over the next five years, sifting through thousands of negatives to identify and contextualize his most compelling images of this remarkable era.
£25.19
Schiffer Publishing Ltd Gus Wagner: Globe Trotter and Hand Tattoo Artist
A visual history of the life of Augustus “Gus” Wagner and his work as a hand tattoo artist, exploring a relatively unknown area of American art history from the 1890s to the 1930s. In 1897, Gus embarked on a four-year career as a merchant seaman. While traveling the world, he discovered the art of tattooing, learning to tattoo from tribesmen in Java and Borneo who showed him how to use traditional handmade tools. By 1901, Gus reportedly had 264 tattoos of his own (and over 800 by 1908), allowing him to promote himself as “the most artistically marked-up man in America.” Back home, Gus embarked on a 40-year career as a traveling tattooist, tattooed man, and circus performer. He largely eschewed the new electric tattooing machines that transformed the art form after 1890, and remained faithful to his handheld instruments. With other wandering artists, he carried tattooing inland from coastal ports, making it part of the culture of small-town America in the 20th century. This book includes • more than 100 examples of Gus Wagner’s tattoo flash as well as photos of his life and work, including his handheld tattooing tools; • excerpts from interviews with Gus, telling his story in his own words; and • selected passages from three of Herman Melville’s novels—Typee, White Jacket, and Moby Dick, to illuminate the context of the oral history of Gus Wagner; Melville was an astute observer of hand tattoo artists and their clientele. The tattoo flash in this book is a testimony to the richness of Gus Wagner’s image vocabulary, his life, and his artistic influences. This is the first in a series of three books exploring "the Last of the Hand Tattoo Artists." The next two books will focus on Gus's wife, Maud, and their daughter, Lovetta, renowned hand tattoo artists in their own right.
£28.79
Schiffer Publishing Ltd The Retablos of Jeronimo Lozano: From Peru to Utah
Dive into the life and work of master craftsman Jeronimo Lozano and his extraordinarily detailed retablos. Steeped in ancient Peruvian traditions, these small sculpted figures show religious and secular scenes housed in structures large and small, ranging from pistachio shells and matchboxes to handmade wooden boxes and freestanding installations. Lozano’s retablos are both traditional and innovative, visualizing the cultural life of people in the mountains of Peru, from ceremonies, processions, and market stands to fiestas, street performance, historical tableaux, and current events. Writer, documentarian, and folklorist Alan Govenar shares an in-depth interview with Lozano, tracking his childhood in Ayacucho, Peru, to his arrival in the US; how he's navigated his hearing disability; and his process from start to finish. Divided into My Story, My Life, and My Process, the interview is paired with colorful photographs of his work. A celebration of the form of the retablo, one of the many folk and traditional art forms that make up the American arts-and-crafts landscape.
£20.69
Schiffer Publishing Ltd Stoney Knows How: Life as a Sideshow Tattoo Artist, 3rd Edition
In this updated edition, the extraordinary life of Stoney St. Clair—circus performer turned tattoo artist—comes to life in photos, tattoo flash, and his own words, edited by writer and filmmaker Alan Govenar. Born Leonard St. Clair in 1912 in West Virginia, Stoney discovered his passion for drawing at Johns Hopkins, where he was being treated for rheumatoid arthritis. Not deterred by his disability, he joined the circus at 15 as a sword swallower and then learned tattooing from other circus performers. From traveling with the circus to setting up tattoo shops in Tampa and Columbus, Stoney met, tattooed, and worked with some of the greatest. Vincent Canby, writing in the New York Times, described Stoney as “an ebullient little man with the gab of a circus tout (spoken in the accents of Appalachia) and a fund of bizarre stories about tattooing and unrelated matters.”
£36.89
Schiffer Publishing Ltd Anne Morgan: Photography, Philanthropy, and Advocacy
An extraordinary woman. An extraordinary time. Here is an inspiring story of Morgan (1873–1952), the youngest daughter of financier J. P. Morgan, and her pioneering use of photography to advance her social work and philanthropic mission. Time and again, Morgan used photographs to muster support for her relief efforts and charitable activities. The thousands of photos she commissioned during World War I stand as her enduring achievement. But it is the press images showing her social advocacy, the snapshots chronicling her private life, and the studio portraits displaying her poise, stature, and fascination with dressing up in costumes and uniforms that illuminate the context of her public work. Together, these offer an intriguing view of her world during the early and mid-20th century, when the photographic image emerged as one of the most pervasive means of mass communication. Coauthored by Guggenheim Fellow Alan Govenar and UCLA professor emerita Mary Niles Maack, Anne Morgan is a must-have addition to any library, whether personal or public.
£28.79
Deep Vellum Publishing Deep Ellum and Central Track: The Other Side of Dallas/Where the Black and White Worlds of Dallas Converged
A new edition of the biography of Dallas' own Deep Ellum. Just outside of downtown Dallas lies a section of the city called Deep Ellum, where graffiti and murals decorate the walls of trendy shops, loft apartments, restaurants, nightclubs, art galleries, and tattoo studios. The area has been home to a remarkable array of businesses, creatives, and artistic practices since its birth 150 years ago as a Black center of business. Because of the area’s long association with blues and jazz musicians, Deep Ellum has been shrouded in myth and misconceptions which obscure its actual history. Alan Govenar and Jay Brakefield—using oral histories, old newspapers and photographs, city directories and maps, as well as more traditional public records and secondary sources—reveal another side of Deep Ellum which includes Central Track (formerly called Central Avenue), an area lined with Black-owned businesses which served both Black and white patrons during its heyday in the 1920s and 30s. In the Deep Ellum and Central Track areas, African Americans and whites, primarily Eastern European Jews, operated businesses from the late 19th to the mid-20th centuries, creating a unique social climate where cultural interaction took place. Much of the information in the book is presented through the stories of remarkable individuals, including professionals, pawnbrokers and other merchants, police officers, criminals, and the blues and jazz musicians who had a lasting impact on American popular music.
£20.70
Deep Vellum Publishing See That My Grave is Kept Clean: The World and Music of Blind Lemon Jefferson
A new biography of the beloved but mysterious Blind Lemon Jefferson, famous blues musician. Born in 1897, Jefferson was a blind street musician who played his guitar at the corner of Elm Street and Central Avenue in the Deep Ellum area of Dallas, Texas, until a Paramount Records scout discovered him. Between 1926 and his untimely death in 1929, Jefferson made more than 80 records and became the biggest-selling blues singer in America. Although his recordings are extensive, details about his life are relatively few. Through Govenar and Lornell's extensive interviews and research, See That My Grave is Kept Clean gathers the scattered facts behind Blind Lemon Jefferson's mythic representations.
£20.70
