…the almost right word

As the print media continue to be overtaken by the Internet, and pundits declare that all writers in the service of ink and paper should put down their quills and fire up their TypePad blogs, there remain some true believers who keep the flame of print-lit alive. Stoked by sheer pluck, determination and the magical properties of their wayward imaginations, many of these folks work for McSweeney’s.

You may or may not have already realized – I’m a McSweeney’s fan. I read Dave Eggers‘ first couple books and continued to follow McSweeney’s authors and publications. Oh the Glory of it All, written by Sean Wilsey, a McSweeney’s author, is one of my favorite books of all time. McSweeney’s is creative, original, and continually pushing the boundaries. Eggers says, regarding the name of the american publishing house:

[My family] would always get letters from someone named Timothy McSweeney … He claimed to be my mother’s long-lost brother…[Letters] would always include flight plans, like he was planning on coming to visit. I don’t know if he’s real or not. My relatives deny it, but who knows?

In May, L.A. Weekly published an article describing the success of McSweeney’s. In fact, they call the american publishing house, “the most important publisher of independent fiction today.” In a world that is grappling with the onset of the e-book, McSweeney’s forges ahead in an effort to keep the physical manifestation of literature alive. The article describes the wide range of artwork that can be found on McSweeney’s covers, from books like What is the What?, to their monthly magazine, The Believer (edited by Vendela Vida, Eggers’ wife). The artwork is an attempt to do away with book covers and create a work of art in the book itself.

Discussion of the electronic revolution is prevalent (check out a friend’s post on the topic) — we’ve seen vinyl come and go (for the most part) and c.ds went with it. Now, we approach a time in which books are actually under questioning. Will they survive? Or will they turn into mp3s, easily downloadable from the interwebs and virtually nonexistent in a physical form? Will McSweeney’s have a vital impact on the future of publishing? After all, you can’t have an embossed tri-fold jacket on a Web site, states the L.A. Weekly article.

p.s. Take a look at this site, which I also added to my sidebar: a blog that chronicles book cover artwork, some of which happen to be from McSweeney’s (thanks to SEAN, who blogged about this site awhile back).