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A little while ago, someone asked us why we thought that publishers were still bringing out lavish, expensively-produced books at a time when more and more literature is becoming available for free online. Before you wonder where such a question might have come from, we guess we should say that it didn't come straight out of the blue, but via e-mail a couple of days after we'd sent someone issue 16 of the great American literary journal McSweeney's, the very best editions of which we proudly publish here in the UK. Issue 16 was certainly unlike no other literary magazine we'd been reading that month. From the outside it looks a little like a silkscreened, cloth-bound photo album, and it opens out into four sections, in which you find a booklet with stories by Denis Johnson, Roddy Doyle and whole host of newcomers; a novella by Ann Beattie in its very own notebook; a story by Robert Coover, written on the the thirteen hearts from a deck of cards that can be shuffled and read in any order; and an ordinary comb.
So, Issue 16 – like every issue of McSweeney's – is a real labour of love, and a work of art as much on the outside as it is on the inside. But in our digital age, a quick internet search will throw up all sorts of treasures from your favourite writers – right there on your computer screen whilst you're meant to be working, or at four in the morning, or even on your phone whilst you're waiting for the bus; and for free! Not only that, but it can lead you on a trail of discovery from one brand-new literary talent to another, with new blogs beginning every day and short stories as easy to send spiralling as jokes or junk mail. And yet our answer to the question of why lavish book formats are still being dreamed up was that whilst you can read words online, you can't experience those words in the portable, tactile form that we call a book. You can't pick them up, put them down, take them to bed or the bath, admire the way they've been conserved within their covers, show them off to your friends, or smell the distinctive scent of print on paper. One thing we really love about books is that sometimes they are more than the words they contain. This is obviously true of illustrated books but it also applies to works of pure literature. Part of the pleasure of reading can come from the way the book looks and feels and smells. That is what is so great about McSweeney's: they care about every aspect of a book's production. Co-producing these special issues with them and publishing them here brings a smile to everyone's faces: who else designs books with fold-out screen-printed covers, free combs, stories printed on playing cards?
This month, Hamish Hamilton is proud to bring you McSweeney's Issue 17. This, too, is no ordinary literary journal. It's not even an ordinary issue of McSweeney's, in as much that any issue of McSweeney's can be described as ordinary. It is, however, an ordinary-looking bundle of mail, stacked and rubber-banded, containing all the items you might expect to pick up from your doormat on an ordinary day: a recent issue of Yeti Researcher journal; a large envelope containing fine over-sized reproductions of new art; some personal correspondence; a sausage-basket catalogue; a flyer for slashed prices on clothes that can be worn by more than one person at a time... You know, the usual. We hope you enjoy it.
To win one of ten copies of The Best of McSweeney's Volume 2 e-mail us at hamish@hamishhamilton.co.uk and tell us about the best piece of mail you've received this week.
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