The week began with chimps in space and ends with chimps in love. Actually, this one is a somewhat embarassing tale of a photograph of two chimps ending up on two book covers for two different books published during the same publishing season (neither, incidentally, having anything to do with monkeys).
Francis Levy was elated when he found the “perfect” photo (above) for the cover of his first novel, Erotomania: A Romance (published today). These romantic primate-mates served as an ironic entry point for his comic sexual epic. Little did he know, however, that the same image was aped for the cover of Susan Squire’s I Don’t: A Contrarian History of Marriage (Bloomsbury), an epic about unconventional domestic bliss published last week. So what’s an author to do? Well, I hope the publicists are no baboons; this coincidence can easily be spun into a human (or shall we say, simian) interest story that, with a little imagination, could turn this loving couple into the poster children for contemporary romance and family values.
About Steven Heller
Steven Heller is the co-chair of the SVA MFA Designer /Designer as Author + Entrepreneur program, writes frequently for Wired and Design Observer. He is also the author of over 170 books on design and visual culture. He received the 1999 AIGA Medal and is the 2011 recipient of the Smithsonian National Design Award.View all posts by Steven Heller →