At The Bookbinders!

The Van Gogh Museum announced on Facebook today that the six volume new edition of Van Gogh's letters is now at the bookbinders. They've posted photos of the stacks and stacks o'manuscripts at Flickr. (Photo of a sample set from Amazon.com.)

Somewhere in those stacks is the set that will come to ME in October, preordered months ago from Amazon. I'm totally geeking out here.

:-) :-)

Banner Year for Van Gogh Books

The Van Gogh Museum has just released their 2009 publications programme (download it at their website), and I might as well write them a big check right now for the things I plan to buy. It's going to be a banner year in van Gogh studies!

The "big one," the publication that has the potential to reshape our understanding of Vincent (oh! how my pulse races!), is the Five Volume, Completely Annotated, Fully Illustrated, In-Process-Since-1994 new edition of van Gogh's complete correspondence. 2500 pages! 2000 illustrations! It is set to be released in October 2009 (about the time of my own book, I love it), in conjunction with a special exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum showcasing actual letter manuscripts, and in English, Dutch, and French editions. All editions include the original text of all the letters in brand new translations, annotated commentary on each letter, and illustrations of all works of art discussed in the letters. The English edition is being released through Thames and Hudson, which I hope means it will be easily available via Amazon stateside. According to the VGM's publication programme, the cost is 300 Euros until January 2010, at which point price goes up to 350 Euros (price in US dollars not given). The volumes will also be available digitally through a special website.

What makes this publication exciting is that the letters will be included and translated as Vincent wrote them: no euphemisms (so his sometimes salty language will stay in), no amendments, and no excised passages. Johanna van Gogh-Bonger's original collection of the letters, quite understandably, left out some passages that might be sensitive to the family or that she felt might be otherwise inappropriate. What could those be?! (Ten bucks says I will be shouting "Gah! I want that in my novel! And it's too late!" many times while perusing the five volumes.)

As if that weren't enough to get me giddy, two more 2009 publications from the VGM will definitely make it to my bookshelf:
*Louis van Tilborgh and Ella Hendriks, Vincent van Gogh Paintings, 2: Antwerp and Paris, 1885-1888: the next volume of catalogues of the VGM's permanent collection. 500 pages, listed at 99 Euros. The recent volumes of the drawings catalogues have been available via Amazon, so this one may be too. Otherwise it can be purchased through the VGM website in autumn 2009.

*The latest volume in the slim-but-packed-with-good-research Van Gogh in Focus series, entitled "Van Gogh and Montmartre." These, unfortunately, are only available at the VGM or through its website. I have three of the five earlier titles, and they're terrific.

Happy Reading in 2009!

New on the Bookshelf

It is a truth universally acknowledged that I am an obsessive-compulsive book-buyer and could probably use a twelve-step program. The arrival of my birthday last week and the resumption of regular paychecks as the academic year began meant a flurry of Amazon activity and multiple visits from the nice UPS man. My Van Gogh library got a particular boost with two new books that were released this week...

Bogomila Welsh-Ovacharov, "Van Gogh in Provence and Auvers" (Universe 2008): This is actually a reprinting of an older volume that had been out of print for a while. A fairly large coffeetable-type volume with text written by one of the top van Gogh scholars, this is a fabulous addition to my VvG shelves. The layout is handsome, the illustration quality top-notch. I love the inclusion of illustrations of vintage postcards from Arles, Saint-Rémy, and Auvers-sur-Oise, some of which I'd seen before, some I had not. Vintage photographs of some of the people Vincent knew, including Dr. Félix Rey, the postman Joseph Roulin, and Roulin's wife Augustine, are also featured. This is not a 'scholarly' book with footnotes, etc. -- it is accessible to any reader interested in van Gogh.

Sjraar van Heugten, Joachim Pissarro, and Chris Stolwijk, "Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night" (Museum of Modern Art/Van Gogh Museum 2008): the English-language edition of the exhibition catalogue. A slim but very handsome volume, designed and produced by the Van Gogh Museum's publications staff (my graphic design colleagues on campus tell me the Netherlands is a mecca for graphic design, and it's true that anything the VGM produces is absolutely stunning). The book features essays on the themes of the exhibition, authored by MoMA and VGM curators. The essay I read last night, for example, concerns "The Formation of Crepuscular [I love that word, try saying it out loud] and Nocturnal Themes in Van Gogh's Early Writings" by Joachim Pissarro and is incredibly interesting. A checklist of the works included in both the MoMA and VGM venues of the show appears at the back in the form of a list of illustrations (with an asterisk by the exhibited pieces). For all the sound scholarship of this catalogue, I have to say, I miss the days of exhibition catalogues that have individual entries for each piece in great detail. The tendency now is to have catalogues that don't seem so much like catalogues, I presume so they will find a broader audience. Even so, this book is first-rate and adds a great deal to the Van Gogh literature. It also makes me wish I could go see the show: my plan was to fly up for a day to NY, but the airlines have cut the early-morning flights out of Tampa (eg the 6 am, my past flight for such a venture) and raised the fares so much that it's just not possible. I take consolation in the fact that most of the paintings in the show I have seen before in their original homes; many of them are from the Van Gogh Museum and the Kröller-Müller Museum. The drawings and letters, though, I'm bummed to miss!

Speaking of VGM produced books...they got me good last week by sending out an email offering 20% off everything in the online shop for three days only, for their online newsletter subscribers. Sometime probably in this next week, the nice US Postal Service man will bring me Volumes 1 and 2 of the VGM's catalogue of their van Gogh drawings, which will complete my set (I have 3 and 4 already). Even with the exchange rate and shipping costs, it was far cheaper to obtain these books from the VGM than Amazon, *and* proceeds go towards VGM acquisitions. It's an altruistic thing to buy them, I told myself. Hooyeah!