For Sale, Baby Shoes, Never Worn: Six Words, Six Stories, Six Writers by [Foolscap Press] Alix Christie, Michael Palin, Susan Straight, Michael Katakis, Nataly Adrian, & Lawrence G. Van Velzer, Peggy Gotthold (illustrator) - 2010

Santa Cruz: Foolscap Press, 2010. Hardcover. Fine. Hardcover. Number 19 of 200 copies of which 140 were offered for sale. Signed by each author. "As a journalist Ernest Hemingway was trained to cut to the story's essentials, leaving out those words that stand between the writer and his intent. And so we have a Hemingway principle of good writing-the well-hewn sentence. It is said that Ernest Hemingway was challenged to write the shortest of short stories: the ultimate example of brevity in storytelling. Though perhaps apocryphal-no one can tell us who challenged him or on what occasion-this was the result: "For Sale, Baby Shoes, Never Worn." Writers have attempted to equal this six-word short story with six of their own, but no one has clearly beaten the master. Those six words are just too good. Foolscap Press commissioned six writers each to write a six-page story where only the title was supplied. The writers were free to do whatever they chose within those parameters. We invited three women and three men in order to balance personal experiences and writing styles. The response is these six extraordinary stories stocked with a captivating cast of characters. And, yes, there is a distinction between the men and women writers. And what happens when it comes to dealing with an unmitigated loss (as the title might suggest)? You can read for yourself these six creations spun from six very different imaginative worlds, all in response to those six tantalizing words" (Foolscap Press). A large book bound in light blue Japanese cloth with paper title label on front cover. The book is sewn in an modified accordion structure designed so that each story is presented individually. Each story has its own title page which has been signed by the author. Each title page features a different collaged print of a pair of shoes by Peggy Gotthold on Kitakata paper. Letterpress printed on Frankfurt Cream text paper using hand-set Garamond type. Unpaginated. [60 pages.] PRI/031011.