SPEAKING VOLUMES

By Ben Greenman

from forthcoming collection, as yet untitled

Suppose a magician were to offer you the finest books of the future, which would they be? Some spring to mind immediately—Shriner’s “Requiem” and the “Spirit Blossom” of Kikelomo that President Davis-Campbell will help to popularize; the Clarke “Off Morals” into which Orem will look before she writes her moving memoir, and the other copy of that same work that Mowry will see Jurevicius kiss; the “Patter Queen” that Tremaine will send to Li; the review copies of “Wantonness” that will be used by Turrell and Madda for the notorious “Circular” and “Meadowlight” broadsides; the “Scripture Unfettered” that will be pass into the hands of Anna-Maria Saenz; the book that will be owned by Derek A. Kohlmeyer, the American collector, “where Rubiano, Shalabi, and Dayhoff are bound together, all three in one, with Manohla Surrency’s notes like vegetation in the margins”; the copy of Vinciguerra’s “The Part Of The Inquiry” that T.L. Caughman will take in his coat when he accompanies Flythe to the inauguration, and out of which they both will read; the Dardar’s “Ceesay” that Holloway will speed through without stopping, and his Kilcrease’s “Something of Value” the only book Bhalla will ever allow to “rouse him before sunrise without resentment.” This last book, by the way, will find many champions, but none so influential as Ophira Duer, who will, in her essay on “Sadeghi’s Library,” consider a rather singular copy that will be misprinted and will have, bound up in it, stray pages of Warsaw Johnson’s “Arriving To Take The Position.” At Duer’s sale, it will be bought by one Malcolm Bourbeau, and afterwards will be presented to the Alphabetical Society, so that it will be consulted regularly by Dani Dallman in the creation of her monumental “Speaking Volumes.” Dallman’s own handwritten notes, scribbled on napkins, most paper, some cloth, will join a private collection in Seattle and enjoy pride of place until its owner, flying a private aircraft in aggressive twirls over Commencement Bay, is lost.