Scream at the Librarian

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Scream at the Librarian, limited edition

Sketches of our Patrons in Downtown Los Angeles

Now half out of print and in the collections of the Library of Congress, New York Public Library, Stanford University, University of California: Berkeley, LA, the Cleveland Institute of art and many more!

2007, 94 printed pages, edition of 50, signed by author and illustrators, $1,800.

By Joel J. Rane
Illustrations by Raymond Pettibon & Cristin Sheehan Sullivan

After five years at the central library, I seriously doubted the humanity of my peers.
—Joel P. Rane

An instant cult classic, Scream at the Librarian sucks you into the flop house grime of downtown Los Angeles at a time when it was abandoned by all but the terminally desperate. The Screamer, Mr. Brain Damage, The Devi . . . these are just a few of the unforgivable characters that people Rane’s real-life accounts from deep within the stacks of a library which had become a refuge for squatters, drug addicts, and the mentally deranged.

Each story is accompanied by stunning new illustrations by native Californian Cristin Sheehan Sullivan and Raymond Pettibon, progenitor of LA's punk rock art scene.

Printed in two-color silkscreen, the deluxe, hardcover edition is an elaborate art object, loaded with novel idiosyncrasies throughout. The front of the “inside out” cover sports a circulation card signed by author and artists, alongside an amalgam of library stickers, stamps, cataloging numbers, and thumb divots.

9-3/4 x 7 x 3/4 inches.

Designed by Amy Mees and Mark Wagner
Silkscreen printing by Kayrock, Brooklyn, NY.
Letterpress printing and binding by Sara Parkel
Production assistance by Eliana Perez, Cat Glennon, Candice Sering, and Jamie Munkatchy

A more diminutive chapbook version of Scream at the Librarian is also available, (bringing Rane, Pettibon, and Sullivan's vigor to a wider audience at a proletarian price) look for it on the Buy Booklyn portion of our website.

To inquire about availability, price, reserve or approval orders please call or email Marshall Weber & Felice Tebbe Lau.

This page is maintained by Marshall Weber.