Old Photos Never Die ... Old Diners Fade Away

The Riss diner was on 8th Avenue between 22nd and 23rd Streets in Manhattan.
It's no longer there. In its place is a Murray's Bagels shop. Much less interesting.

Click to enlarge
This photo illustrated the front cover of Philip Corner's The Identical Lunch, in 1973.

I published the book, which Graham Macintosh designed and printed, in a beautiful limited edition of 1,000 paperbound, letterpress copies under the Nova Broadcast imprint. I also took the photo of the diner, which Graham mistakenly attributed to Alison Knowles.

I didn't bother to correct the error at the time because the book was already printed. But now that there's been a spike in attention to the identical lunch as a Fluxus performance piece, and lots of attendant publicity -- as well as a message from Alison asking me if I would be interested in reprinting Philip's book -- I think it's time to correct the record. (I'm a long-retired publisher and in no position to bring out a reprint. But someone else might.)

Alison -- whose Journal of the Identical Lunch I also published -- did take the picture of the tuna sandwich and a glass of buttermilk, as attributed, that appeared on the back cover of Philip's book.

April 20, 2011 9:31 AM | | Comments (0)

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