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A blog posting describing what happened to the title of a book of illustrations that shows what happens on each page of a novel by Thomas Pynchon

Thinking about illustrating a favourite novel, then publishing the illustrations in book form? Be prepared to get longwinded with the title.

Artist Zak Smith created a series of illustrations for Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow that featured one drawing for every page of the novel. Publisher Tin House Books, efficiently and elegantly, was calling the book Gravity’s Rainbow Illustrated: One Picture for Every Page. But, as GalleyCat points out, once Penguin, Pynchon’s publisher, found out about the title, they made some noises of dissatisfaction that resulted in this: “Tin House is changing the title back to what Smith called his exhibition of the artwork during the 2004 Whitney Biennial, Pictures Showing What Happened on Each Page of Thomas Pynchon’s Novel Gravity’s Rainbow, and is slapping stickers on as many of the 5,000 paperbacks they still have sitting in a PGW warehouse.”

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Read the GalleyCat post here

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