Roy Kuhlman: Reluctant Modernist [Paperback]

The legacy of Grove Press is well known within literary circles: how Barney Rosset bought a fledgling but failing publishing company in the early 1950s and changed the world of letters in America, and perhaps the very culture as well. Grove Press brought to national prominence the writers, art, and artists of the avant-garde. Equally innovative, and ultimately as influential, Grove Press book covers reflected not only the work inside, but also the prevailing zeitgeist. The iconoclastic writing was echoed in the packaging, a marriage of imagery and the written word that had not been seen before, or, perhaps, since.The first ever collection of the groundbreaking design of Grove Press designer Roy Kuhlman. Kuhlman was known as a great teacher and an inspired artist but could also be notoriously stubborn and uncompromising... Judging by the sheer number of brilliant designs collected in Roy Kuhlman: Reluctant Modernist, we are lucky that he managed to have his way. With more than 300 reproduced works, many shown for the first time, Reluctant Modernist reveals the full scope of Kuhlmans output and argues for his place as a vital, if underrecognized, author of visual culture. This impressive, oversized paperback deserves to be displayed on oneironically, the very kind of living room fixture popular during the 1950s to early 80s, when Kuhlmans often controversial paperback designs were ephemeral and rarely coffee-table fare. Steven Browers book isnt a biography so much as a thoughtfully curated visual archive of Kuhlmans striking cover art, spanning the high arc of his career....So, it begs the question, can you judge a cover by its book? Roy Kuhlman: Reluctant Modernist contains the sublime answer.