By: Lucy Sante

What caused me to pick this item out of the trash heap was not its title — there are better editions of DeQuincey’s book out there (if none so pocket-sized) — but its publisher. Appeal […]

By: Lucy Sante

This was the view out my back window in New York City for more than ten years. That time (1979-1990) was the heyday of Wild Style, when graffiti truly became an artform, as is documented […]

By: Joshua Glenn

Michael Pollan, author of The Botany of Desire (2001), The Omnivore’s Dilemma (2006), and In Defense of Food (2008), is a highbrow. I say so not because he’s a graduate of Bennington, Oxford, and Columbia […]

By: Lucy Sante

Reminiscing about my early days in the used-paper trade, I find that I can become tender if not actually moist-eyed at the thought of the publications that were both produced and purchased by the raincoat […]

By: Lucy Sante

Just about as rare as if it had never been published at all, this may be the only extant copy of Dave Carluccio’s only book — typed, photocopied, folded, and stapled by its author in 1980 […]

By: Lucy Sante

THE SUBJECT, a recent immigrant approximately nine years of age, was asked to depict his mother. It was specified that he should present her in a particular context of his choosing: a setting or activity. […]

By: Lucy Sante

ASIDE FROM BRANDY and cigars, no product on the market is packaged quite as traditionally as cigarette papers. Nearly every item on your grocer’s shelf gets an image update every few years to make sure […]

By: Lucy Sante

THAT IS THE APT TITLE of the Columbia University fight song. It’s odd that I remember it, because I can’t have heard it more than once or twice — my time there was the absolute […]

By: Lucy Sante

ONE DAY VERY SOON it will happen that our heroes, having searched and studied ancient property maps on file at the bureau of records, having rented a basement storage space on the opposite side of […]

By: Joshua Glenn

“I am the sum of my small steps,” announce the handwritten-style notes in an advertisement torn from a recent issue of Oprah Magazine. Ecce Middlebrow’s ideal American woman, forever in pursuit of a clear (un-anxious, […]

By: Matthew Battles

FROM THE STRUGGLE between Cartesian science and the Classics lampooned by Jonathan Swift in his “Battle of the Books,” to the “Two Cultures” argument of physicist and novelist C. P. Snow, to the “nonoverlapping magisteria” […]

By: Matthew Battles

We know, we know: the Three Wolves Moon T-Shirt thing is old news: snarky hipster posts an Amazon “review” of one of those silk-screened t-shirts of the trippy druidic sort — others sport dragons, dolphins, […]

By: Matthew Battles

WASARA IS “DISPOSABLE paper ware for spiritual enrichment.” Made from sugar cane refuse and other low-footprint fibers, these high-concept paper plates and cups meld Japanese aesthetics, industrial disposability, and a touch of DIY panache (or […]

By: Joshua Glenn

This is the final installment in our HiLobrow Cover Art series. Thanks to Luc Sante, Jonathan Lethem, and everyone else who sent in examples. It’s been fun! Check out the entire series. *** *** *** […]

By: Joshua Glenn

Special edition in the HiLobrow Cover Art series! Not esteemed fiction, this time, but classical music with racy cover imagery. Check out the entire series. *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** […]