Ceremony and theater
9 months ago – Fri, Jun 17, 2022 at 09:03:22 PM

Dear Family of Backers,

First of all, thank you again for supporting this project. Please continue to spread the word so we can fund the remaining 25%!!

Some of you who own my biography of Dwiggins will already know what I’ll describe below. And some of you who follow me on FaceBook or Instagram will have seen my post earlier today (to you my apologies for the redundancy). But for the rest of you, here's a bit more about Dwiggins’s love of drama:

This illustration (pasted below) comes from the series of stencil prints that Dwiggins made for the Society of Calligraphers in the mid 1920s. Although those prints depicted the voyages of Sinbad, the image fits perfectly into the narrative of the new Athalinthia book: in the story “Syrillion,” the Queen of Ageb sends an official delegation to the capital city of Zaar in the neighboring kingdom of Athalinthia, to make a request of the King.

In capturing both the gravity and splendor of the occasion, this image shows Dwiggins’s love of pageantry, ceremony, and drama. Throughout the Athalinthia book you can see Dwiggins’s fascination with costumes and dramatic events; it’s easy to visualize how these interests later blossomed into his building an entire private marionette theater next to his house in Hingham, Massachusetts. WAD wrote the plays, engineered and built the marionettes, designed the costumes, imagined and constructed fantastic and elaborate sets, designed all the stage lighting, and carved furniture and props. His productions even had live music: the performances were accompanied by varying combinations of organ, piano, clarinet, recorder, and/or voice.

Dwiggins was a volcano of creative energy, so naturally this attracted friends and neighbors who wished to be a part of the fun. Some members of the troupe operated the actual marionettes during performances by “acting down the strings” while others lent their skills to electrical work, sewing costumes, set-building, or the writing of music and lyrics. Dwiggins’s wife Mabel was a key member, as were Elizabeth Coatsworth (the celebrated writer of children’s books) and her husband Henry Beston (naturalist and author of “The Outermost House”).

Steven Heller on Athalinthia, with tons of pictures from the book
9 months ago – Thu, Jun 16, 2022 at 05:21:40 AM

Author and teacher Steven Heller has just posted about Athalinthia in his column for Print magazine:

 https://www.printmag.com/daily-heller/the-daily-heller-from-the-printer-who-reenergized-dwiggins 

Steve’s article includes many additional examples of two-page spreads and illustrations from the new book — beyond what I had put onto the Kickstarter page — so go have a look!

I have a favor to ask of you:

The up-front costs of making this full-color book the right way required the goal to be as high as it is. I could have made a lower goal, printing the book on a digital press and making it perfect-bound, as so many short-run editions are produced these days. However, wishing to honor Dwiggins in every way possible, I didn’t choose that path, and instead opted to make a book with highest-quality production values and long life.

As is evident from the group of backers that’s already gathered together to support this project, many of us long to see this book in print. But in order for that to happen, we need additional backers in order to reach the goal. Please talk up the project in your own circle of friends and colleagues, and send them the Steve Heller link. If you happen to use social media, and feel comfortable doing this, please post about the project there. If we can spread the word far and wide, we’ll garner enough support to make this happen.

Heartfelt thanks,

Bruce (and WAD!)

Increasing your pledge
9 months ago – Wed, Jun 15, 2022 at 04:46:15 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Arranging for additional rewards after an initial pledge has been made
9 months ago – Tue, Jun 14, 2022 at 03:11:41 PM

I've had some communications with backers about the difficulty of adding to a pledge later on, after you have already made an initial one. 

Here's what seems to be the best solution: If you would like to pledge to receive another book or books, and have already made a pledge, just get in touch with me via message. Although you cannot change the reward quantity of your *original* pledge, you can always add some dollars to your pledge and I'll take care of sending you the corresponding reward at the time everything mails out. 

Just send me a message and we'll work out the details. No need for you to re-register with Kickstarter under a new identity.

Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Bruce

More than halfway!
9 months ago – Mon, Jun 13, 2022 at 02:03:45 PM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.