ArchivesSpace at the University of Iowa

The cover design depicts the title and its mirror image. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

The Sackner Archive holds an English language version of the book, "Meanwhile Life Went On." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

The Sackner Archive holds a French language edition of the book, "Cependant la Vie Continuait." The theme of this absurd tale is the senses gone awry. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

The pages are designed to appear like embroidered quilts. The funny, macabre story is about Mary Ann who becomes a veritable human human torch as the tale unravels. The illustations and typography are both plays on the ideas of quilt-making. So named because each sheet looks like an old fashioned, cross-stitched sampler. It is about Mary Ann, born 1909. We meet her on the first page surrounded by dozens of cross-stitched pictures which later reappear as her gloomy story unfolds. They include a flatiron, a goat, a pig, a sinister man on a bicycle, etc., in a wide range of pastel colours: black is absent until her obituary on the last page. From her life and hard times, Mary Ann could have appropriately been called Calamity Jane but while her tale is desperate, its telling and illustrating is a frivolous delight. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.