A Clutch of Fables

Title

en_US A Clutch of Fables

Description

en_US Teo Savory

Creator

en_US Antonucci, Emil

Contributor

en_US Antonucci, Nine Emil

Date

2016-01-25T19:11:43Z

en_US 1999-08

en_US 1979

Date Available

2016-01-25T19:11:43Z

Date Issued

en_US 1977

Abstract

en_US There are several strange things about this book. First, the title-page puts Unicorn Press in Greensboro, but then the verso puts Unicorn in West Stockbridge, MA. Next, the date spoken of generally for this book--e.g., in the booklist facing the title-page--is 1977. It also gives a copyright date of 1977 for Schwartz' forward. Still, the verso of the title-page lists a first printing in September, 1976. In any case, this is the third printing (1979). I expected that this would be yet another book using the concept fable very loosely, and I was wrong. This is a book of fables. They are like the works of Monterroso, but developed one stage further. So they are often four pages in length rather than two. They are certainly thought-provoking. Social satire is evident in The Alley Cat and the Laws of Status (13). One of the most trenchant is Little Brown Burros (25), and one of the most provocative is The Birds: A Fable With Alternative Endings (29). Maybe the saddest is A Dried Mermaid (33). Great for its category-jump at the end is The Purple Martin And His Cook (39). My final award, for most poignant, goes to The Silver Swan (73). Savory has fun throughout with the transformation of standard speech to fit the particular animal world of an individual fable. Thus in the battle between tyrannical mutant buffaloes and drab indigenous buffaloes, a white-harness (rather than white-collar) class of drabbians grows up serving the mutants (43). Further examples include humanpox (57) and local birds who belong to a Man-Watchers Club (65). The illustrations are reminiscent of Thurber, but Antonucci shows a less definite sense of line than Thurber does. The Ants and the Grasshopper (9) builds directly on the Aesopic fable. I like Savory's work here very much.

Identifier

en_US 0877750432 (cloth)

en_US 4335 (Access ID)

uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/80007

Language

en_US eng

Publisher

en_US Unicorn Press

en_US Greensboro, NC

Subject

en_US PZ4.S268 Clu 1977

en_US Teo Savory

en_US Title Page Scanned

Type

en_US Book, Whole