A couple years ago I printed a broadside for the Hungry Midnight Broadside Series with prose by novelist John Dufresne. The subject was Fluellon Fontana, whose job was making bottle trees. He collected empty bottles, dyed them wild indigo, and when the wind blew, you heard the captured spirits moaning inside the bottles. Interesting character. I introduced him into the world of my daughter’s bedtime stories, and he soon became a regular.

When I suggested we do a book together, John enthusiastically accepted. I Will Eat a Piece of the Roof and You Can Eat the Window is the result of our collaboration.

It is a book in three parts, the last of which is the story. The first two deal with where the story comes from, and offer a unique insight into the process of writing fiction. The text is written with the same keen perception as are his novels: Louisiana Power and Light (W. W. Norton, 1994), and Love Warps the Mind a Little (W. W. Norton, 1997).

The text was handset in Joanna with Delphian Open Titling. I made three full-page, multicolor wood engravings with initial letters to open the three sections, and also a two-panel engraving for the title page. I printed the book on Zerkall mould-made paper. It was hand-bound into boards at the Campbell-Logan Bindery, is enclosed in a slipcase, and is signed by John and myself. -Gaylord Schanilec

7 x 4 inches. 74 pages. 220 copies.