“He that lives upon hope, dies farting.”—Ben Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1736
Low- and highbrow humor are two sides of the same magnificent dunghill. Benjamin Franklin is world-famous as the man who helped write the Constitution, founded the U.S. Postal System and created numerous inventions, such as the bifocal lens. It is less well-known that Franklin couldn’t help but occasionally access the bad little schoolboy side of himself. He loved pranks and toilet jokeseven as he was helping to found this country with his political acumen. Foregoing formality and convention for earthy shock effect, Franklin (a known member of England’s notorious Hellfire Club) comes across as a quintessential, fearless American in these hilarious essays. Franklin proposed creating fart pills “to find means of making a Perfume of our wind.” A pellet “no bigger than a pea, shall bestow on it the pleasing Smell of Violets.” Move over, BreathAssure. He never came across as being “filthy” or “obscene.” Instead, he liked to tell it as is. This would be one dangerous book to place in the hands of a visionary fifth grader with a book report due. For that matter, this would be the ideal book to place in the hands of a visionary fifth grader with a book report due! CS

Publisher: Enthea
Paperback: 128 pages
Illustrated

Bok’s illustrations grow on you, like alien mold spores. Like Mervyn Peake, a superb illustrator who also wrote, Bok penned several fine fantasy novels including The Sorcerer’s Ship. Unlike Peake, though, his writing is now nearly forgotten. [Ballantine Books published those fantasies years ago, and sadly they are out of print.] But this book will do while we wait for future reissues. Here are over 100 pages of prime, charming strangeness. Bok’s style is the essence of ‘40s-’50s pulp-fantasy illustration. Very cool. Obsessive pointillism and cross-hatching à la Virgil Finlay, but often zanier, cartoonier. It’s the occasional big-eyed “sprites” reminiscent of Keane which at first leave one a bit wary of Bok. But don’t let this stop you. When he gets grotesquely bizarre, no one can top him. CS

Publisher: Miller
Paperback: 104 pages

Bok’s illustrations grow on you, like alien mold spores. Like Mervyn Peake, a superb illustrator who also wrote, Bok penned several fine fantasy novels including The Sorcerer’s Ship. Unlike Peake, though, his writing is now nearly forgotten. [Ballantine Books published those fantasies years ago, and sadly they are out of print.] But this book will do while we wait for future reissues. Here are over 100 pages of prime, charming strangeness. Bok’s style is the essence of ‘40s-’50s pulp-fantasy illustration. Very cool. Obsessive pointillism and cross-hatching à la Virgil Finlay, but often zanier, cartoonier. It’s the occasional big-eyed “sprites” reminiscent of Keane which at first leave one a bit wary of Bok. But don’t let this stop you. When he gets grotesquely bizarre, no one can top him. CS

Publisher: Miller
Paperback: 112 pages

Hollerin’ is one of the most primitive forms of folk music. When folks in North Carolina and elsewhere had to communicate across great distances, such as multi-acre cornfields or swamps, they developed a way of singing/shouting that is a wonder to hear. This is how information was passed in a friendly, neighborly way. At times barbaric, other times like an angelic yodeling, this is wonderful, weird, touching music. This returns the listener back to a time before telephones and radios, when the chief sounds heard were human voices, hand tools and an occasional passing train. It’s like an audio time capsule from a lost America. Hollerin’ gathers together masters of this quickly vanishing folk-form in 24 mind-blowing tracks. Songs sung out of love of life, of work, of necessity. Startling sounds you never knew the human throat could make. Music in its purest form. CS

Publisher: Unknown
Audio CD

This book is a collection of rare, firsthand material written by Houdini. The first section deals exclusively with handcuffs and restraints. Houdini was so closely associated with these devices early in his career that he advertised himself as “Harry Handcuff Houdini.” Nearly every other page is packed with great illustrations including the master in action, secrets revealed, handbills and dozens of bizarre skeleton keys, picks and locks. One chapter presents Houdini’s fascinating portraits of other great magicians in history. Here we meet such eccentrics as Dr. Katterfelto, “one of the most interesting characters in the history of magic. Magician, quack doctor, pseudophilosopher.” An article covers fraudulent spiritualists and mediums that Houdini dauntlessly crusaded against as a debunker. Included are instructions for 44 stage tricks. CS

Publisher: Dover
Paperback: 277 pages
Illustrated

Many of us have a tendency to rank Norman Rockwell with apple pie and Mayberry. Yet Rockwell’s vision of a homespun America-that-never-was is important. His work reveals an inherent need to supply the public with a meticulously envisioned, nostalgic vision of a quaint America. These magazine covers range from 1916 to the early 1960s, and display a stubborn reluctance on the artist’s part to adapt to the changes induced by progress and technology. Rockwell remains frozen in his own golden milieu. As with Twain and Dickens, with whom he is at times compared, the artist presents a lovable rogues gallery of classic character types—old musicians, kids dreaming of the sea, hoboes, quaint druggists, spooning sweethearts, small-town soldiers, choirboys, etc. Rockwell’s composition and attention to poignant human details set him apart from other artists who were merely first-rate technicians. CS

Publisher: Abbeville
Paperback: 356 pages
Illustrated

An excellent, thick little guide to the history and world of hot rods and custom cars. Crammed with 277 color photographs and accompanying text that take us from the “stripped and channeled” ‘28 Model A roadsters of the early ‘40’s to elaborate early ‘60s creations. Car freaks, artists and connoisseurs of pop culture will consider this book a must-have for the killer pix alone. The author does a fine job explaining why the hot rod is a “uniquely American phenomenon.” Also included is a really cool and potentially useful glossary that explains the difference between an “A-Bone,” a “beater,” a “T-bucket” and a “street rod.” CS

Publisher: Abbeville
Paperback: 336 pages
Illustrated

In 1936, the French newspaper Paris-Soir sent the popular poet and novelist Blaise Cendrars to write on Hollywood. He stayed at the then ultraluxurious Roosevelt Hotel and thrilled his countrymen with each canny report. These articles were reworked and gathered together that same year, but have only now been translated into English. In them Cendrars explores Hollywood in its golden years, presenting a fun series of journalistic encounters on the streets of Tinseltown. His attempts to interview the powerful studio heads were often thwarted by Cerberus-like studio guards, but Cendrars still managed to cover a lot of territory. And much of what he uncovered still applies today, as is made evident by his chapter titles: “In Hollywood anyone who walks around on foot is a suspect” and “If you want to make movies, come to Hollywood, but unless you pay the price, you won’t succeed!” CS

Publisher: University of California
Hardback: 256 pages
Illustrated

A wonderful, unforgettable novel by Surrealist painter-sculptor Leonora Carrington, back in print at last. The story chronicles the beautifully strange and, indeed, surreal adventures of Marian Leatherby, a 92-year-old woman whose family has placed her in an old-ladies home. It’s a mysterious old place, full of odd crimes, occult manifestations and, finally, murder. Our heroine is determined to unravel the truth. In doing so she encounters the secret of the Holy Grail, the Leering Abbess and other bizarre marvels. The ensuing cosmic upheaval and evocation of the old gods by Marian and her “co-inmates” will never be forgotten by the reader. As Luis Buñuel once wrote, “Reading The Hearing Trumpet liberates us from the miserable reality of our days.” CS

Publisher: Exact Change
Paperback: 199 pages
Illustrated

A nicely printed booklet which presents photographs and detailed descriptions of 34 works by the artist including small sculptures such as the anticommunist Russian Face, a perverse work of whimsy. Among other major creations cataloged herein are The Rooster of Gaul and Bor Kamorowski, a Son of the Merman. Also includes an excellent essay by Jim Woodring, “The Neglected Genius of Stanislav Szukalski.” CS

Publisher: Archives Szukalski
Pamphlet: 34 pages
Illustrated