Emdashes. The New Yorker between the lines

Best of Emdashes: Hit Parade
Our Daily Comic: The Wavy Rule
Archive: Ask the Librarians

Send us a question!

Frequently:
Headline Shooter
Seal Barks
Eustace Google
Looked Into

The Squib Report
X-Rea: Irvin Type Watch
Letters & Challenges
On the Spot
Personal

Allen Shawn's Memoir, "Wish I Could Be There: Notes From a Phobic Life"

Filed under: Headline Shooter Tagged: Allen Shawn, books, design, Lillian Ross, music, William Shawn

From the Daily News today (link mine):

WISH I COULD BE THERE by Allen Shawn (Viking, $24.95). Shawn, a composer, writer and son of the legendary former editor of The New Yorker, William Shawn, suffers from both claustrophobia and agoraphobia - which means his fears mount both indoors and out. In a book that is a memoir as well as a scientific exploration of phobias, he searches his childhood and the workings of the brain for an understanding. His background was privileged but troubled and it seemed he is further betrayed by his neurophysiology. A must-read for the panic-prone.

I'm really looking forward to reading this. You should click on the Amazon link to, at the very least, admire Viking's evocative, closed-in, subtly sad book-jacket design. If anyone knows who designed it—Amazon's not letting me see inside the book—let me know. (Update: The book-jacket designer is Herb Thornby. Thanks, helpful reader-tipster!) "Wish I Could Be There" sounds like a play on "Wish You Were Here," but it would seem to echo another book title, "Here But Not Here," as well.

0 comments

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, it may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Thanks for waiting.)

Your name

Your email address

Your website address

Remember personal info?

Your comments

About us

Hello! We are media enthusiasts and culture addicts—not to mention classically trained (as we like to say) professional journalists. This is our collection of generally civilized conversations about magazines, movies, politics, punctuation, and other things that stir us.

You'd like to read more about us individually? That's so nice! Here you can learn a lot more about the Emdashes team, the mysterious-sounding names of our daily and non-daily columns, and our guest contributors.

We welcome tips, questions, and comments, and are always looking for ardent new contributors who care about letters (postal, typographical, admiring, literary, and tough-love). Here's how to contact us.

Occasionally, we host book giveaways, and review books here as often as we can. Publishers, please e-mail us and we'll send you an appropriate mailing address.

Our favorite things | Compliments and press

Tell me more

They say that dashes “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like em dashes—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.

Emdashes, founded in 2004, is currently written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. (Unsigned posts through October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.)

The site is designed and maintained by House of Pretty and illustrated by Jesse Ewing for Inkleaf Studio. Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (who also draws our daily comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The kissable Emdashes logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.