do me a ffaber

in the early 90s faber & faber published books with truly wonderful covers
for a long time i was buying faber publications almost exclusively, tempted by the covers
some of my top 5 authors were found via faber's art work:

milan kundera, immortality
(review, selective affinities, ny review of books)

paul auster, leviathan
(second hand, signed copy available)

achel ingalls, the pearlkillers or any of her
rachel ingalls, the pearlkillers (or any of her short stories)
but there were also non-fiction faber fin
find
but there were also non-fiction faber finds,

an intimate history of humanity, by theodore zeldin a book i loved reading, so i lent it to someone and it's since disappeared
i found an 1994 review of zeldin's book in the independent, by alain de botton, the opening paragraph of which suggests (to me at least) that this book may have helped de botton choose his future literary directions,
THE Oxford historian Theodore Zeldin has taken the academically unfashionable step of writing a book which aims to change our lives. It is an accessible, audacious and thought- provoking work which presents history as a liberating force, one which can reveal the multiplicity of human possibilities, and thereby free us from the impasses of the present.
Zeldin's title is somewhat misleading. This is no history in the chronological sense, nor is it specifically a study of love and friendship. Rather, the book asks a host of questions about the nature of human needs and desires, amounting to a grand survey of the ends of life. It is divided into 25 essays, with such titles as 'men and women have slowly learned to have interesting conversations', 'How people have freed themselves from fear by finding new fears', and 'How even astrologers resist their destiny'.

i recently came across the work of psychoanalyst adam phillips. flipping through his latest book*, on balance, i became curious about his (many) earlier texts, with fascinating titles such as
on kissing, tickling and being bored: psychoanalytic essays on the unexamined life.
published by faber in 1993, i soon found a second hand copy and sure enough, the cover art did not disappoint.
(another independent review)


*it was in fact, this very act of flipping that reminded me of my faber & faber obsession. because i was standing in the very same area of the brunswick street bookstore where i had found zeldin, an intimate history ... so many years ago.