Home is Where the Art Is: Art Young’s ‘Types of the Old Home Town’ Book Release and Presentation is Feb. 14 at Byrd’s Books in Bethel

This will be a celebration of the first ever publication of the lost and last manuscript of the “Dean of American Cartoonists,” Art Young (a 40 year resident of Bethel Conn.).

Report by Paula Antolini
February 11, 2014 11:20AM EDT

A book release and presentation of Art Young’s Types of the Old Home Town book, will be held this weekend on Saturday, February 14, 2015, at 2:00 p.m., at Byrd’s Books in Bethel, CT. Types of the Old Home Town is published by the Bethel Historical Society in conjunction with the Art Young Gallery and Seraphemera Books. It is a celebration of the first ever publication of the lost and last manuscript of the “Dean of American Cartoonists,” Art Young (a 40 year resident of Bethel Conn.).

Local storyteller Marc Moorash (who made the film about the Stony Hill Inn – And the Swans Still Swim) will give a presentation with unreleased images, tales about some of the characters in the book, a little history on Art Young’s years in Bethel, and stories into how the manuscript was discovered and brought to print.

Types of the Old Home Town is a fond memory of small-town America, through illustrations and writings about characters or “types” such as The Lamp Lighter, The Village Grouch, Our Oldest Inhabitant, The Village Belle, The Retired Farmer, and more. Many of these images first appeared in The Saturday Evening Post in the 1920s. If you are a fan of local history, storytelling, or Americana, this book and event is for you.

The book is an artistic piece to properly give homage to Art Young’s legacy – there is a numbered and limited first edition of 333 books. They are all handmade and hand-stitched, hard-covered and dust-jacketed books. Further, three random books in the run will have authentic Art Young autographs inserted into them as an added collector’s treasure!

Note: There will be two original pieces of Art Young’s work at the presentation on February 14, 2015, both of which are in the Types of the Old Home Town book.

Spend Valentine’s Day at Byrd’s Books. There will even be some tasty red cookies!

EVENT IS BEING HELD REGARDLESS OF WEATHER (meaning if it snows yet again!)

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The Bethel Historical Society Upcoming Exhibit

The Bethel Historical Society proudly announces “We’re Claiming Art Young!” They are curating the first solo showing of Art Young illustrations and ephemera since his ACA Gallery event in 1939.

This exhibit, opening March of 2015 (exact date to be announced), will feature many pages of one of a kind correspondence, a plethora of the publications in which Art Young appeared, numerous pieces of original art – including works from the extensive collection of Glenn Bray (author of the beautiful comic-art tome “The Blighted Eye”), as well as the jewel of the exhibit – the original large-format pen and ink illustration of “Capitalism” (also referred to as “The Last Supper”). “Capitalism” is considered by many to be one of the top-three most famous works of Art Young and was included in the Contemporary American Artists exhibit at the immortal 1939 New York World’s Fair.

The aim of this project is to rekindle the legacy of Art Young – a Bethelite, an artist, a humanist, whose name has been unceremoniously lost to time, but has yet to be forgotten. Who better than his friends and neighbors, the family to which he always returned, to lift him up once more and keep his dream alive?

For further information, inquiries, or to loan items for the show, please contact: marc@bethelhistoricalsociety.com

(Above information from Bethel Historical Society press release from Marc Moorash.)

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For more information:

Bethel Historical Society: http://www.bethelhistoricalsociety.com/

Seraphemera Books:
http://www.seraphemera.org/seraphemera_books/Home.html

Art Young Gallery: http://artyounggallery.org/prelude.html

Byrd’s Books: http://byrdsbooks.com/