Judith Schalansky is my latest delight. I bought The Atlas of Remote Islands during the middle of winter. Exotic island escapes seemed in order. I was vulnerable to a seductive, yet sparse, cover. The subtitle: 50 Islands I have Never Set Foot On and Never Will conjured another favorite author. In The Art of Travel Alain deBotton tells us of Duc des Esseintes who, in order to escape the hassles of oversea travel, made an aquarium so that ‘the imagination could provide a more-than-adequate substitute for the vulgar reality of actual experience.’ The Atlas was an easy sell.
I was more than a month into this bedside escape when I finally read about the author and made the shocking discovery … she’s the same designer behind Fraktur Mon Amour, another valentine from an earlier post of mine. I should have detected her signature use of spot color and adoration of unusual typography. Now I am as envious as I am grateful for Judith Schalansky.
I might not have stumbled on the about the author page were I not seeking a note on the type. There was none, but a little research led me to the quirky, yet sublime, Sirenne. You should read about it here. I have no idea how this book came to be, but I imagine Judith said to herself one day “I’d love to make maps”; and then she did just that.
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