Vamps & Tramps: New Essays

Tight, square, uncreased spine has some sunning. Clean, unmarked interior. A one-inch crease to the front cover at the foot, but no other notable shelf-wear. Paglia is supported by an all-star Italian-American cast in the production of this book, with a cover by typographic master Louise Fili featuring an image by fashion photographer and former Lauren Hutton–paramour Luca Babini. Fili first found her enthusiasm for design as a child, when she etched letterforms into her walls, and then taught herself calligraphy in her teens, using Bob Dylan lyrics as the inspiration for a hand-illuminated manuscript. She later discovered European modernists such as Lucian Bernhard and A.M. Cassandre, and in her mid-20s, became senior designer for Herb Lubalin before migrating to Random House's Pantheon Books, where her jacket for Marguerite Duras's The Lover cemented her success. A highlight of this collection is its Cartoon Personae Appendix, a typically egomaniacal and completely delightful testament to the splash Paglia made in the media, including an array of caricatures depicting the celebrity intellectual as opera diva (Charles Hefling), as Marlon Brando (Zach Trenholm), and as the Big Bad Wolf (John Callahan). 532 pp.