Scope and Contents

This is Johnson's second novel. It recounts the life of Albert Angelo, a school teacher in several styles of writing and varied page layouts. The novel comprises five chapters, viz., prologue, exposition, development, disintegration, and coda. The prologue is mainly laid out like a drama. The first section of the chapter 2, exposition, is written in first person singular. The second section, that is written in second person singular, also includes some unusual punctuation marks. The third section is written in the third person singular, the fourth in first person plural, the fifth in second person plural, and the sixth in third person plural. Chapter 2, development, is mainly printed in two columns, the left sided tells the main story, the right sided has comments that are printed in Italics. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents

This is a later printing of the book sometime after 1986. The first edition which is identical in layout and also held by the Sackner Archive, was published in only 126 copies. The layout of the text has unusual spacing and a variety of fonts. In one chapter, the spaced words take on a concrete poetic appearance and in another, the spaced letters almost appear like a letter picture. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents

This is the first edition of the book limited to 100 copies for sale and 26 for distribution by the author. The layout of the text has unusual spacing and a variety of fonts. In one chapter, the spaced words take on a concrete poetic appearance and in another, the spaced letters almost appear like a letter picture. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents

This is semi-biographical novel of Johnson's mother. It was last novel written by Johnson who committed suicide shortly after its release. Michael Bakewell wrote an introductory essay that provides an explanation of the story. The shaped, concrete poems portray a breast as a metaphor for the cause of Johnson's mother's death from breast cancer. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents

This novel consists of a first and last section, four and six pages in length, respectively. The other sections range from one to 12 pages in length. The reader is instructed to read the first and last sections of the book in their order while reading the other 25 sections in random order. The story revolves around a football reporter who visits a city and regains lost memories of the time he spent there many years before with a friend and his wife. Insofar as the page layout, Johnson utilizes wide spacing between words for paragraphs or dashes. Marc Saporta also published a novel, "Composition No.1," (1963) translated from the French in the same format as this book, unbound pages meant to be read in any order. Saporta's book is also held by the Sackner Archive. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents In the prelude to his first novel, Johnson states that he wanted to write a novel that would expose its mechanism. He realized that it would be desirable to have interludes between chapters in which "I could stand back, so to speak, from my novel, and talk about it with the reader, or with those parts of myself which might hold different opinions, if necessary; and in which technical questions could be considered, and quotations from other writers included, where relevant, without any question of destroying the reader's suspension of disbelief, since such suspension was not to be attempted." He adds, "I should be determined not to lead my reader into believing that he was doing anything but reading a novel..."Such interludes are placed between chapters in this book and are marked by poetically designed layouts (the book was designed by Johnson) and liberal use of Italic typeface. The eight interludes comprise the descriptions mentioned in the prelude including among others...