The Way It Wasn’t: From the Files of James Laughlin

Discipline: Book design
Format: Book
Design firm: Rodrigo Corral Design
Art directors: Rodrigo Corral, Gus Powell
Photographer: Copyright © 2006 by The Estate of James Laughlin
Production coordinators: Thomas Keith, Jennifer Van Dalsen
Author: James Laughlin
Editors: Barbara Epler, Daniel Javitch
Pages: 288
Typeface: Mercury
Printer/binder: South China Printing Co.
Paper: Japanese Matte C2S,128 gsm
Binding method: Sheet-fed Offset
Publisher/client: New Directions

James Laughlin—poet, ladies’ man, heir to a steel fortune, and the founder of New Directions—was still at work on his autobiography when he died at 83. He left behind personal files crammed with memories and memorabilia. Early on, the editors Barbara Epler and Daniel Javitch decided to present this material in alphabetical order with the occasional photograph. When Rodrigo Corral and Gus Powell got involved with the book’s design and got access to the wealth of physical material in the files, the nature of the book quickly evolved into a four-color scrapbook in which the ephemera would serve as evidence of Laughlin’s eccentric and prolific life.

Juror Notes
“The non-autobiography told A to Z by a maverick man of American letters. A real dip-into-at-any-stage book whose design encourages that.”