James Laughlin—poet, ladies’ man, heir to a steel fortune, and the founder of New Directions—was still at work on his autobiography when he died at 83. He left behind personal files crammed with memories and memorabilia. Early on, the editors Barbara Epler and Daniel Javitch decided to present this material in alphabetical order with the occasional photograph. When Rodrigo Corral and Gus Powell got involved with the book’s design and got access to the wealth of physical material in the files, the nature of the book quickly evolved into a four-color scrapbook in which the ephemera would serve as evidence of Laughlin’s eccentric and prolific life.

“The non-autobiography told A to Z by a maverick man of American letters. A real dip-into-at-any-stage book whose design encourages that.”