Fashionable publications all over town are toasting Ms. Blume’s new book, Let’s Bring Back.
Says STYLEITE: “While [Let’s Bring Back’s] cover, design, and even typeface of the book evoke the feeling of turn-of-the-century hardcovers, Blume’s details and descriptions are entirely her own … It’s whimsical, entertaining, enlightening, and utterly captivating.” The editors particularly liked the following Let’s Bring Back entries:
***One-Piece Swimsuits: Bikinis are grand, but it’s hard to live up to their expectations.
***Stegosaurus: These dinosaurs had such bold fashion sense with all of those beautiful, fierce plates. (See also Rabanne, Paco)
***Dough: Using this word in lieu of “money” will garner you lots of retro street cred. Equally pleasing synonyms include “bread” and “clams.”
***Gold Teeth: So festive. Also: handy assets in recession.
See the full STYLEITE feature here: “Fashion Loves Its Icons: Let’s Bring Back”.
Uber-hip fashion website REFINERY 29 had this to say:
“It’s a gorgeously illustrated champagne bubble of a read … Let’s Bring Back is a must for that perfect, cozy rainy afternoon—the entries will give you an aftertaste that’s elegant, amusing, and, naturally, beyond nostalgic … Trust, before you get to the letter “L” you’ll be rummaging in your parent’s attic, searching for a monocle.”
Read the full REFINERY 29 feature here: “Everything You Ever Wanted To Bring Back Is Now In A Book”.
Not to be outdone, FULL FRONTAL FASHION speculated that Ms. Blume “must have been conceived from the hat pin of Dorothy Parker when it fell into a flute of champagne at Noel Coward’s. Her wit, wisdom, and boldness are rare in this day and age.”
See the hilarious FULL FRONTAL FASHION feature here: ”Let’s Bring Back: An Ode to Everything We Miss”.
BUY THE BOOK: Click here to purchase Let’s Bring Back.
For publicity inquiries, please contact April Whitney at Chronicle Books: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Acclaim continues to come in for Ms. Blume’s new book, Let’s Bring Back.
Following a spectacular, full page VANITY FAIR feature, the November issue of O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE has decreed that Let’s Bring Back is “the bee’s knees.”
“When was the last time you were serenaded by a cuckoo clock?” the magazine asks its readers. “Or devoured a plate of lady fingers? Or gave someone the ‘ole’ heave-ho’? Right: never.” Ms. Blume’s book, says the feature, will change all of that. It is “elegant … whimsical … useful.” All in all, Let’s Bring Back is filled with “words of wisdom from times gone by.”
Click here to see Oprah’s full Let’s Bring Back feature.
“Wistful … zeitgeisty … charming,” says ELLE. “Let’s Bring Back is like a stroll down memory lane … Whether you’d carry a parasol down 5th Avenue or plop it in your caipirinha—there’s something for everyone.” Read the whole feature here.
COUNTRY LIVING calls Let’s Bring Back a “tribute to the good old ways.” This “witty” book, says the magazine, is “an alphabetized ode to more than 700 delightful traditions, products, and phrases lost over time.” Editors’ picks included:
*** Evening strolls: “A civilized after-dinner occupation, as opposed to throwing yourself down onto a sofa and watching reruns of Bridezillas.”
*** Cold cream: “Which of course must be kept in a glass jar on your bathroom shelf; cold cream is still absolutely the best makeup remover.”
*** ‘The bee’s knees’: “An equally glowing accolade: ‘The cat’s meow.’ The 1920s offered all sorts of delightfully inane animal kingdom compliments.”
Click here to see COUNTRY LIVING’s full Let’s Bring Back feature, including a lovely slideshow of the editors’ “favorite revival-worthy entries.”
The magazine is also offering its readers a chance to win a free copy of the book: click here to enter Country Living‘s sweepstakes.
CONDE NAST TRAVELER made Let’s Bring Back its November “Buzz Book” selection.
“An encyclopedia of forgotten gems,” says the article. “[Blume’s] suggestions to revive rituals from travel’s golden age: post-cards, lap robes, and world-tour honeymoons. Sign us up.”
Read the CONDE NAST TRAVELER article here: Let’s Bring Back: A Catalog of Castaways
Let’s Bring Back was also featured in BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS. “Dip into tradition and bring back the guest book. ‘It becomes a house diary, a recording of all comings and goings,’ says author Lesley M. M. Blume.”
See the article here: “Fresh Now: Let’s Bring Back”.
* * *
Let’s Bring Back officially releases on November 1, 2010.
BUY THE BOOK: Click here to purchase Let’s Bring Back.
For publicity inquiries, please contact April Whitney at Chronicle Books: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
JUST IN: Today’s Publisher’s Lunch Deluxe Newsletter lists Ms. Blume’s newly-released book, Modern Fairies, Dwarves, Goblins & Other Nasties as the #1 “Mover and Shaker” on Amazon’s Kindle Bestseller List:
Top Movers and Shakers:
1. Modern Fairies, Dwarves, Goblins, and Other Nasties: A Practical Guide by Miss Edythe McFate – Lesley M. M. Blume (Knopf Books for Young Readers) +6600%
2. Life Without Lawyers: Restoring Responsibility in America – Philip K. Howard (W.W. Norton) +4800%
3. The Boy in the Box: The Unsolved Case of America’s Unknown Child – David Stout (The Lyons Press) +4350%
4. Master Your Debt: Slash Your Monthly Payments and Become Debt Free – Jordan E. Goodman (John Wiley & Sons) +2700%
5. The Coming Generational Storm: What You Need to Know about America’s Economic Future – Laurence J. Kotlikoff (MIT Press) +2600%
Click here to watch the sinister Modern Fairies video trailer, directed by David Foote.
For press inquiries, please contact Casey Lloyd: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
BUY THE BOOK: from Powells, McNally Robinson, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-a-Million, or Borders.
Inspired by Ms. Blume’s popular, longstanding Huffington Post column by the same name, Chronicle Books will release Let’s Bring Back as a book on November 1, 2010.
A sophisticated, stylish cultural encyclopedia of nostalgia, Let’s Bring Back celebrates forgotten objects, curiosities, pastimes, fashions, words, landmarks, and personae from bygone eras.
Let’s Bring Back transports its readers from the golden age of Hollywood to the bacchanals of ancient Rome to the elaborately-coiffed and martini-filled New York City of the 1960s. This is a world of monocles and parasols; luxurious train travel and gilded airline cabins; decadent feasts, pet cheetahs, and zeppelins.
In the video trailer above, visit the Let’s Bring Back world with author Lesley M. M. Blume, as she travels by train from the old Grand Central Station (with traveling trunks, of course)…tiptoes through the hallowed halls of the New York Public Library…indulges in the forgotten pleasures of tea time (and wittily-barbed conversation) at the historical Algonquin Hotel…and acquires a 1960s-style coif at the venerable Snip N Sip salon.
In other words, a typical day in the life of a nostalgist.
BUY THE BOOK: Click here to purchase Let’s Bring Back.
This morning author Lesley M. M. Blume spoke on NPR’s Morning Edition about her newly released book, Modern Fairies, Dwarves, Goblins & Other Nasties:
From NPR’s website:
As a child, Blume had an active imagination. She attempted old-fashioned spells in hopes of conjuring up fairies and envisioned miniature men running in and out of the mysterious little doors along the Lincoln Tunnel.
Now an adult, Blume has used her childhood fascination with the fantastic to craft a contemporary field guide to the fairy world of present-day Manhattan. It’s called Modern Fairies, Dwarves, Goblins, and Other Nasties, and, for a book about fairies, it’s not as sweet as you’d expect.
“Traditionally, children’s fairy tales have not been very nice and this book, while it is modern, also returns to those dark roots of children’s literature,” Blume tells NPR’s Steve Inskeep. “Look at the Grimms’ fairy tales, for example. [Or] When you see the original Little Mermaid, it most certainly did not feature singing and dancing crabs and shellfish.”
At the same time, Blume says she’s updated the usual fantasy fare by making the world of fairies more accessible to children — literally.
“You no longer have to leave unicorn hairs and other now-arcane objects on the hearth to invite fairies to visit,” she says. “My book tells you how to connect with that world using objects found in every household or supermarket today.”
In Modern Fairies, gummy bears and animal crackers are all you need to summon fairy visitors — and a drive through the Lincoln Tunnel is all you need to spot them.
Blume says she never stopped wondering about those early childhood fantasies of little men running in and out of the doors of the Lincoln Tunnel — and now, she knows all about them.
“Behind these doors are not nuts and bolts or workers munching on sandwiches,” Blume says. “There is a fantastical dwarf forest and they are harvesting apple-size rubies, and you’ll be very, very surprised to hear how those rubies show up in the modern world.”
In another of Blume’s stories, “A Face Made From Flowers,” a little girl is teased incessantly by her beautiful sisters because she herself isn’t beautiful.
“All she wants is to be made beautiful,” Blume says. “She encounters a curious breed of fairies who live in a fairy ring in her backyard called flower fairies and she asks them to make her beautiful, as if that will solve all of her problems.”
But, of course, it doesn’t. “A Face Made From Flowers” gives a taste of the injustice that permeates Blume’s book, the characters of which often end up disappointed. And Blume says there’s good reason for that.
“I think that it’s important to realize that not every problem in life has a neat solution,” she says, “and even if it did, that solution wouldn’t necessarily bring the results that you wanted.”
BUY THE BOOK: Click here to purchase Modern Fairies, Dwarves, Goblins and Other Nasties.
In stores today: Modern Fairies, Dwarves, Goblins & Other Nasties. Critical acclaim is incoming, including this review:
“Ms. Blume has the ability to make you believe in the impossible … Sometimes funny, sometimes dire, Blume weaves a new look at fairies in the city and leaves the reader wanting more. Even the most countrified kid will find something to love about this truly metropolitan fare. It’s a doozy.”
– Betsy Bird, School Library Journal / Fuse # 8
If you just happen to be in New York City, please join author Lesley M. M. Blume and illustrator David Foote this evening at the famous Rizzoli Bookstore, as they celebrate the launch and sign books; Mr. Foote’s spectacular illustrations will be showcased.
Date: Tuesday, September 14th, 2010
Time: 5:30 to 7:00 PM
Location: Rizzoli Bookstore, 31 West 57th street (between 5th and 6th Avenues), New York City
Click here to watch the sinister Modern Fairies video trailer, directed by David Foote.
For press inquiries, please contact Casey Lloyd: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
If you cannot attend and would like to purchase a signed copy, please call 1-800-52-BOOKS.
Or, buy the book from Powells, McNally Robinson, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-a-Million, or Borders.
On September 14, Knopf will release Ms. Blume’s fourth book, Modern Fairies, Dwarves, Goblins & Other Nasties.
That evening, New York City’s beautiful, historic Rizzoli Bookstore will host a wonderful launch party for the book—an honor rarely bestowed on children’s titles—and you are cordially invited to attend.
Ms. Blume and illustrator David Foote will be on hand to personalize books; the book’s spectacular artwork will be showcased.
Date: Tuesday, September 14th, 2010
Time: 5:30 to 7:00 PM
Location: Rizzoli Bookstore, 31 West 57th street (between 5th and 6th Avenues), New York City
Click here to watch the sinister Modern Fairies video trailer, directed by David Foote.
For press inquiries, please contact Casey Lloyd: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
If you cannot attend and would like to purchase a signed copy, please call 1-800-52-BOOKS.
On October 19, the prestigious New York Public Library’s Young Lions committee will host a large forum showcasing Ms. Blume’s upcoming book, Let’s Bring Back (Chronicle Books; November 1, 2010).
Moderated by Sally Singer, the new editor of T: The New York Times Style Magazine, the panel will include designer Jason Wu, interior decorator and Let’s Bring Back contributor Jonathan Adler, and Ms. Blume.
A sophisticated, stylish cultural encyclopedia of nostalgia, Let’s Bring Back celebrates forgotten objects, curiosities, pastimes, fashions, words, landmarks, and personae from bygone eras.
Inspired by the book’s content, this forum will explore the recent resurgence of interest in classic forms and artful living. To join this lively debate, please become a member of the Young Lions today and reserve your seat as soon as possible.
More about the panelists:
Sally Singer is the editor of T: The New York Times Style Magazine. She previously oversaw the fashion news and features departments at Vogue and was fashion director of New York Magazine, style director of Elle, and commissioning editor for British Vogue. She was an editor at Farrar Straus & Giroux and has written for The Atlantic Monthly, the Economist, and the Guardian.
Jonathan Adler designs products with impeccable craftsmanship and panache. His eponymous company is an internationally recognized lifestyle and home furnishing brand known for pairing modernist forms with bold colors and graphics. He is the lead judge on Bravo’s television series Top Design and a contributor to Let’s Bring Back.
Jason Wu debuted his first ready-to-wear collection in 2006. The young designer aims to revitalize the art and perfection of dressing with a relaxed and youthful attitude. He famously designed the iconic white dress worn by Michelle Obama at President Obama’s Inaugural Ball. His many accolades include Fashion Group International’s Rising Star Award and the Swarovski Award for Womenswear at the CFDA Fashion Awards.
Lesley M. M. Blume is a New York City-based author and journalist; she has written for a number of publications, from Slate to Vogue, and is the contributing Style section editor at The Huffington Post. This fall, Chronicle Books will publish her fifth book, Let’s Bring Back: An Encyclopedia of Forgotten-Yet-Delightful, Chic, Useful, Curious, and Otherwise Commendable Things from Times Gone By.
For more information about this event and the Young Lions Program, contact (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or call 212-930-0885.
Click here to learn more about Let’s Bring Back.
All around you, every single day … lies an invisible realm of magic.
Children: beware! Because these fairies are not your friends.
Once you’ve read Modern Fairies, Dwarves, Goblins, and Other Nasties, you will never see the world around you in the same way again.
Book release date: September 14, 2010
Animated and directed by David Foote
Written by David Foote and Lesley M. M. Blume
Today Taki magazine profiled icons who’ve embodied “tomboy style” and placed Ms. Blume in the same category as famed Victor-Victoria greats Katherine Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich, and Joan Jett.
An excerpt:
Today the gamut of true contemporary tomboys runs wide—socialites, actresses, rockers, and models all want in on the action. But only those who take their queues from the legends and simultaneously embody the look and soul of the tomboy can actually pull it off.
Witness Vogue fashion icon and writer Lesley M. M. Blume, who recently wore a Dietrich-inspired tailored tux to the Frick Ball in New York City. “I’ve rarely felt as glamorous… I doubt the most elaborate Oscar de la Renta ballgown could have had the same effect. I can’t explain the calm of it, sailing around in tails amidst a sea of satin dresses. And yet, it still felt distinctly feminine—albeit a stranger, more extravagant version of femininity,” she told TomboyStyle.
Photo credit: Katie Fischer
Last week, in the middle of a howling blizzard, the Frick Museum in New York City held its annual Young Fellows Ball. The theme: Diamond Deco.
While the idea of accessorizing a satin gown with a pair of slush-defying rubber wellies had a certain irreverent appeal, Ms. Blume opted instead for a less orthodox solution: she went in drag, donning tails and a tophat.
Today Vogue honored her choice by showcasing her attire.
Ms. Blume’s get-up was an homage to one of her most beloved style icons, Marlene Dietrich – the most sparkling deco diamond of all. The famous actress largely pioneered Victor-Victoria chic while wearing tuxedos to fancy-dress balls in decadent Weimar Germany. In 1929, photographer Alfred Eisenstadt captured Ms. Dietrich in the iconic image below; Ms. Blume grew up looking at this picture in one of her parents’ coffee table books, and carefully referenced it again while devising her own ensemble for the Frick gala.
Ms. Dietrich’s particular brand of glamor continues to set a very important example for women of all ages: she invariably dictated her own style, as opposed to having it dictated to her. “Fashion: don’t follow it blindly into every dark alley,” she once wrote. “Always remember that you are not a model or a mannequin for which the fashion is created.”
The above quote is from Ms. Dietrich’s now-little-known, out-of-print book, Marlene Dietrich’s ABC. In it, the star offers all sort of glamorous-yet-menschy advice and musings on alphabetized topics ranging from the meaning of elegance to the best recipe for beef broth.
The spirit, tone, and format of Ms. Dietrich’s book helped to inspire Ms. Blume’s forthcoming book, Let’s Bring Back, a cultural encyclopedia of nostalgia, celebrating all sorts of forgotten objects, rituals, personae, recipes, and landmarks from bygone eras.
In Let’s Bring Back, you will learn more about Ms. Dietrich herself (and the great Mr. Eisenstadt), as well as many of her stylish contemporaries, including wildly imaginative designers Elsa Schiaparelli and Lilly Dache, delightful decorator Elsie de Wolfe, and Ms. Dietrich’s nemesis, the aloof Greta Garbo.
In the meantime, you can follow Ms. Blume’s popular Let’s Bring Back column at the Huffington Post. Ms. Dietrich makes appearances there quite regularly—usually with a tophat in tow, no matter what the weather is doing.
Let’s Bring Back will be released by Chronicle Books on November 1, 2010.
Photo credit for Vogue image: Hannah Thomson
Ms. Blume is thrilled to announce that she has just inked a deal for her sixth book.
This marks her fifth project with her long-time publishing house, Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, and her second collaboration with artist and illustrator David Foote.
The new book—The World Before Us—is a fantastical, humorous, lavishly-illustrated guide to Earth before humans came around. It will be released in fall 2011.
Ms. Blume and Mr. Foote’s first book together, titled Modern Fairies, Dwarves, Goblins, and Other Nasties, will be released on September 14, 2010.
David Foote and Lesley M. M. Blume
Photo credit: Stephan Wuerth
In its just-released January issue, Vanity Fair featured a photograph of Ms. Blume, donning a rather opinionated hat.
The picture was snapped at the Whitney Museum Art Party in October, at which “Art Chic” was the dress code.
Ms. Blume’s lobster hat was an homage to the 1930s collaboration between Surrealist artists Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dalí, who together crafted the iconic lobster dress worn by some of the era’s preeminent tastemakers, including art collector Peggy Guggenheim and the Duchess of Windsor, as shown in the following portrait:
Below is Dalí‘s famed “Lobster Telephone” (1936). According to the Tate Collection, “Lobsters and telephones had strong sexual connotations for [Dalí], and he drew a close analogy between food and sex. He made Lobster Telephone for Edward James, the British collector who was the most active patron of Surrealist artists in the 1930s.”
You can read more about Schiaparelli, Dalí, Guggenheim, and many other fascinating art- and fashion-world figures in Ms. Blume’s soon-to-be-released book, Let’s Bring Back.
In the October issue of Elle magazine, creative director Joe Zee profiled Ms. Blume’s personal style.
Ms. Blume espoused her appreciation of unusual hats.
Photo credit: Dan King
Lesley M. M. Blume talked today with National Public Radio’s Linda Werthheimer about her favorite classic children’s books, including Freaky Friday, The Boxcar Children, The Devil’s Storybook, and many other delightful titles.
You can see her full list of recommendations here, where the feature has been NPR’s most-viewed story of the day, and listen to the interview below.
Lesley Blume’s second novel for children, The Rising Star of Rusty Nail, has just been released by Knopf as a paperback.
Inspired by Ms. Blume’s mother’s childhood as a piano prodigy growing up in a tiny 1950s Midwestern farm town, Rusty Nail is “a story that is as rich as it is delicious,” according to a starred review in Booklist.
The Historical Novels Review added:
“The Rising Star of Rusty Nail is simply fun and laugh-out-loud funny … readers of all ages will be cheering for Franny; [even] adult readers will find themselves laughing … Find a copy (or two) and start reading with your kids today!”
Please make sure to visit the The Rising Star of Rusty Nail section of this website.
Today’s Women Wear Daily profiles The Huffington’s Post‘s Style section, and announces Lesley Blume’s new book deal based on her Huffington Post column, Let’s Bring Back. An excerpt:
Last week, one of its regular style contributors, Lesley M.M. Blume, got a deal with Chronicle Books based on a series of columns she penned for the site. Let’s Bring Back is about the items, trends, fashions, icons and other nostalgic paraphernalia that were once celebrated — her recommendations have included clean air, duels, supermodels of the Sixties and Seventies and Claudette Colbert films.
Please make sure to visit the Let’s Bring Back section of this website.
In Fall 2010, Chronicle Books will release a book by Lesley Blume based on her popular Let’s Bring Back column for The Huffington Post.
Let’s Bring Back will be a sophisticated, stylish novelty book, detailing objects, pastimes, and personas from bygone eras that should not have been left behind. From sealing wax and quill pens to the Orient Express and the Stork Club, from fainting couches to limericks to quizzing glasses, there is a great deal of ground to cover.
Comprised primarily of selections and commentaries by Ms. Blume, Let’s Bring Back will also feature contributions from prominent tastemakers, historians, journalists, fashion experts, and other interesting figures.
Make sure to visit the Let’s Bring Back section of this website.
The latest figures are in: Ms. Blume’s first novel, Cornelia, has sold a quarter of a million copies in bookstores and bookfairs across the country!
Scholastic Bookfairs has been especially vigorous in promoting the book, even producing a short film about it.
Please make sure to visit the Cornelia section of this website.
Cornelia is available as a hardcover, paperback, or electronic book.
Ms. Blume has been hand-picked by Vogue magazine as a founding member of the Vogue 100, an organization of “influential decision makers and opinion leaders known for their distinctive taste in fashion and culture, [and who] personify the rising influence of women over the past several decades.”
