Coffee table book

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Coffee table book on a coffee table Domestic coffee table in a residential setting.jpg
Coffee table book on a coffee table

A coffee table book, also known as a cocktail table book, is an oversized, usually hard-covered book whose purpose is for display on a table intended for use in an area in which one entertains guests and from which it can serve to inspire conversation or pass the time. Subject matter is predominantly non-fiction and pictorial (a photo-book). Pages consist mainly of photographs and illustrations, accompanied by captions and small blocks of text, as opposed to long prose. Since they are aimed at anyone who might pick up the book for a light read, the analysis inside is often more basic and with less jargon than other books on the subject. Because of this, the term "coffee table book" can be used pejoratively to indicate a superficial approach to the subject.[ citation needed ].

Contents

In the field of mathematics, a coffee table book is usually a notebook containing a number of mathematical problems and theorems contributed by a community meeting in a particular place, or connected by a common scientific interest. An example of this was the Scottish Book created by mathematicians at Lviv University in the 1930s and 1940s.

History

According to different estimations, 1992's book Sex by Madonna (pictured) is both the fastest-selling and best-selling coffee table book in publishing history. Madonna Live 8 (cropped).jpg
According to different estimations, 1992's book Sex by Madonna (pictured) is both the fastest-selling and best-selling coffee table book in publishing history.

The concept of a book intended essentially for display over perusal was mentioned by Michel de Montaigne in his 1581 essay "Upon Some Verses of Virgil": "I am vexed that my Essays only serve the ladies for a common movable, a book to lay in the parlor window..." [3] Almost two centuries later, Laurence Sterne in his 1759 comic novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman advanced the more lighthearted view that "As my life and opinions are likely to make some noise in the world, and... be no less read than the Pilgrim's Progress itself- and, in the end, prove the very thing Montaigne dreaded his Essays should turn out, that is, a book for a parlour window..." [4]

Beginning in the late 1940s, publisher Albert Skira and a few others, such as Cailler and Editions Tisné, Éditions Mazenod, and Harry N. Abrams, began producing large folio and quarto (4to) format art books, illustrated with tipped-in color plates, that were significant in the development of coffee table books as known today. [5] [6] [7]

David Brower is sometimes credited with inventing the modern coffee table book. [8] While serving as executive director of the Sierra Club, he had the idea for a series of books that combined nature photography and writings on nature, with, as he put it, "a page size big enough to carry a given image’s dynamic. The eye must be required to move about within the boundaries of the image, not encompass it all in one glance." The first such book, This is the American Earth, with photographs by Ansel Adams and others and text by Nancy Newhall, was published in 1960; the series became known as the "Exhibit Format" series, with 20 titles eventually published. [9]

The term "coffee table book" appeared in Arts Magazine in 1961, [10] and in the title of The Coffee Table Book of Astrology, published in 1962. [11]

They have also found uses in propaganda, such as a book on the life of East German leader Walter Ulbricht [12] and another on Albanian leader Enver Hoxha. [13]

As of 2011, Madonna's 1992 book Sex remained the most searched for out-of-print coffee table book. [14]

Coffee table books have been featured in several areas of popular culture.

See also

Book sources

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michel de Montaigne</span> French author, philosopher, and statesman (1533–1592)

Michel Eyquem, Seigneur de Montaigne, commonly known as Michel de Montaigne, was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre. His work is noted for its merging of casual anecdotes and autobiography with intellectual insight. Montaigne had a direct influence on numerous Western writers; his massive volume Essais contains some of the most influential essays ever written.

<i>How to Read a Book</i> 1940 book by Mortimer J. Adler

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<i>Sex</i> (book) 1992 book by Madonna

Sex is a 1992 coffee table book written by American entertainer Madonna, with photography by Steven Meisel Studio and Fabien Baron. It was edited by Glenn O'Brien and published by Warner Books, Maverick and Callaway. The book features adult content including softcore pornography and simulations of sexual acts including sadomasochism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barry Windsor-Smith</span> British graphic novelist (born 1949)

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<i>The Dinner Party</i> Installation artwork by feminist artist Judy Chicago

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The Essays of Michel de Montaigne are contained in three books and 107 chapters of varying length. They were originally written in Middle French and were originally published in the Kingdom of France. Montaigne's stated design in writing, publishing and revising the Essays over the period from approximately 1570 to 1592 was to record "some traits of my character and of my humours." The Essays were first published in 1580 and cover a wide range of topics.

<i>Minotaure</i> French surrealist magazine

Minotaure was a Surrealist-oriented magazine founded by Albert Skira and E. Tériade in Paris and published between 1933 and 1939. Minotaure published on the plastic arts, poetry, and literature, avant garde, as well as articles on esoteric and unusual aspects of literary and art history. Also included were psychoanalytical studies and artistic aspects of anthropology and ethnography. It was a lavish and extravagant magazine by the standards of the 1930s, profusely illustrated with high quality reproductions of art, often in color.

Albert Skira (1904–1973) was a Swiss art dealer, publisher and the founder of the Skira publishing house.

Tériade is the pen name of StratisEleftheriades, a native of Mytilene who went to Paris in 1915 at the age of eighteen to study law, but who instead became an art critic, patron, and, most significantly, a publisher.

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To celebrate its 60th anniversary circa 1995, Penguin Books released several boxed sets of "Penguin 60s", miniature books about sixty pages in length. The books were also sold individually.

In the book trade, a tipped-in page or tipped-in plate is a page that is printed separately from the main text of the book, but attached to the book. The page may be glued onto a regular page or even bound along with the other pages. There are various reasons for tipped-in-pages, including photographic prints and reviews.

<i>Selfish</i> (book) Book by Kim Kardashian

Selfish is a coffee table book written by television personality Kim Kardashian. It was released on May 5, 2015, by the Universe imprint of the art bookseller Rizzoli. The book features Kardashian's personal selfies, collecting various images previously posted on Kardashian's social media accounts. The photobook received positive reviews from critics.

Pascal Bonafoux is a French writer, novelist, art critic and art historian, a specialist in self-portraiture. He collaborates with various newspapers and magazines, he is the author of numerous essays dedicated to art and was a resident at the French Academy in Rome. He is professor of art history at Paris 8 University, and is also a curator who organises exhibitions either in France or abroad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skira (publisher)</span> Swiss publishing firm

Skira Editore and Editions d'Art Albert Skira, also known as Skira, is a publishing firm founded by Albert Skira in Switzerland in 1928 and now based in Italy. The firm is known particularly for its art books of "vastly improved quality of colour reproduction".

Jacques Lassaigne was a French art historian, an art critic who served as president of the International Association of Art Critics from 1966 to 1969, and a museum curator acting as chief curator of the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris from 1971 to 1978. He was a prolific author who wrote numerous volumes of scholarly books on the subject art history, notably in collaboration with the publisher Albert Skira and his publishing house Editions D'Art Albert Skira in the 1950s and 1960s, many of which have been translated into English, Italian, German, and Spanish and published internationally. Jacques Lassaigne's books and museum exhibitions, with accompanying catalogues and essays, constitute a significant contribution to art history and have consistently been reference and cited by innumerable subsequent researchers and historians for decades.

Anton Zwemmer (1892–1979) was a Dutch-born British bookseller, book distributor, art dealer, publisher and collector who founded Zwemmer's Bookshop and the Zwemmer Gallery in London. He was a "friend and patron of many leading artists", from Picasso to Henry Moore and Wyndham Lewis, and he played "an important role in spreading knowledge and appreciation of modern art" in Britain during the 1920s and 1930s.

Livres d'art, otherwise referred to as livres de galerie, are books in which the illustration holds a predominant place in relation to the text. They often require high quality papers as they belong in the category of high quality publications.

References

  1. Morton 2002 , p. 54
  2. Horswill, Ian (September 25, 2015). "Madonna's Sex remains the most wanted out of print book". News.com.au. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved January 20, 2021.
  3. "Essays by Michel de Montaigne". Oregonstate.edu. Archived from the original on 2013-10-08. Retrieved 2014-03-28.
  4. "The novels of Laurence Sterne (Volume 1)" (PDF). 1873. Retrieved 2014-03-28.
  5. Chilvers, Ian and John Glaves-Smith (2015) A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art (3 ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN   9780191792229 https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100510260 (accessed 25 August 2019)
  6. Dufrêne, Bernadette (2002) L'édition d'art des années 1950-1970 : des promesses non tenues ?, Communication et langages. No. 134, 4 ème trimestre 22-38 pp. [Dufrêne, Bernadette (2002). The Art Edition of the 1950s and 1970s: Unfulfilled Promises? Communication and Languages, 134(4): 22-38.]
  7. Corisande Evesque. Albert Skira et ses livres d’art (1948-1973). Histoire. 2015. ffdumas-01256888. PDF: https://dumas.ccsd.cnrs.fr/dumas-01256888/document (accessed 25 August 2019)
  8. "Harold Wood Presentation on H.R. 2715 - LeConte Memorial Lodge". Sierraclub.org. 2003-11-15. Archived from the original on 2012-09-10. Retrieved 2014-03-28.
  9. "Natural Visions - Nature on the Coffee Table".
  10. Arts Magazine, Volume 36. Art Digest Incorporated. 1961.
  11. National Review, Volume 13. National Review, Incorporated. 1962.
  12. "Walter Ulbricht — ein Leben für Deutschland, excerpts from the German Propaganda Archive, Calvin University". Calvin.edu. Retrieved 2014-03-28.
  13. Enver Hoxha: 1908-1985. Tirana: Institute of Marxist-Leninist Studies at the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania. 1986.
  14. Flood, Alison (30 August 2011). "Madonna's Sex most sought after out-of-print book". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
  15. Jones, Griff Rhys; P. R. McGrath; Clive Anderson (1986). The lavishly-tooled Smith and Jones Coffee Table Book. ISBN   0-00-637123-X.