Inside the Golden Days of Missing You is a small edition of letterpress books that tell the story of a relationship in three parts. Although the book begins with a prologue that lays out the story, the reader still goes through the chapters the way many go through a relationship despite knowing the most likely outcome.
 

The first chapter, Into a Story, Into a Dream, is about meeting someone and feeling totally overwhelmed with excitement. Unfortunately, this is a short chapter and the one that follows, It’s a Fox Hunt, It’s an F-Stop, It’s a 12-Acre Wood, is far more complicated. The third and final section, No, I Don’t Really Want to Die, I Only Want to Die in Your Eyes, has two parts, including a surprise ending that is not included in the prologue. This last section describes the unexpected shift from pain to peace, finally stating, “Final words are so hard to devise; I promise I’ll always remember your pretty eyes, your pretty eyes.”

 

This book was designed, printed, and bound in May of 2013 in Manhattan and Brooklyn, NY. All the text was borrowed, and reorganized to create a narrative, from the discography of the Silver Jews, a now defunct band that were together from 1989, the year of my birth, until 2009. These lyrics were in all likelihood written by David Berman, but it is hard to know for sure. This book was letterpress printed using Garamond Bold 10, 12, 14, and 18 point lead type as well as hand-cut linoleum blocks onto Mohawk Superfine white text weight paper in the Parsons Print Shop. The first five photos in the book were taken using a disposable Kodak camera in the summer on the Amtrak Coast Starlight train. The final photo is a passport photo, also taken during the summer, by a Walgreen’s photo department employee in Saint Louis, MO. All photos were printed on Epson Matte Presentation Paper using a Canon Pixma MG3120.