Melville House Books

Christopher King

Christopher King is the Art Director of Melville House.

• How to redesign a classic, or, The Bell Jar strikes back

  Book designers are used to working quietly behind the scenes. If authors are the star athletes in publishing, designers are more like the training staff—there to make sure the stars… Read more »

• Writing a novel? Don’t quit your day job.

  In his new book Daily Rituals, Mason Currey examines the creative processes that have kept writers, composers, and artists going throughout history. One secret to success? Keep your day job. As… Read more »

• Can a typeface make you hungry?

  This month we’re celebrating the release of The Duke’s Table, a collection of more than 1,000 vegetarian recipes compiled in 1930 by an Italian nobleman named Enrico Alliata, the Duke… Read more »

• Melville House’s art director is actually an Amazon robot

  Greetings. If you’ve ever read a Melville House book, you may have noticed my work. In fact, the cover I designed may have enticed you to read it in the… Read more »

• The history of gay rights according to magazine covers

  Media coverage of the ongoing fight for gay rights reached a fever pitch last week as the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases which will determine the future… Read more »

• FRIDAY SOMETHING-OR-OTHER-TO-DO-WITH-BOOKS MUSIC VIDEO: Belle and Sebastian

  In a new documentary produced by Pitchfork, the members of the Scottish band Belle and Sebastian talk about the production of their classic 1996 album If You’re Feeling Sinister. The… Read more »

• VIDEO: Drop and give me 20… card catalog files!

  The weather’s finally turned warmer this week in New York, and spring is a few short weeks away. Soon we’ll have to shed our bulky coats and reveal the damage… Read more »

• SHIRTLESS SIGHTING: Mark Twain

  Faithful readers of MobyLives may recall last year’s sultry slideshow of writers in their underpants, including figures like Allen Ginsberg, Ernest Hemingway, Ray Bradbury, William Carlos Williams, and William Faulkner.… Read more »

• It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s … homophobia!

  Last summer we reported on the joyous scene in Central Park where Jean-Paul Beaubier married his longtime boyfriend Kyle Jinadu before an audience that included Jinadu’s parents, New York mayor… Read more »

• When Russian broadsheets go abroad

  High-resolution scans of long-forgotten magazines and newspapers published by Soviet exiles… Read more »