Scouting

Last year I came across the Good Ink venture of  Scout Books, a publishing and printing company that produces small and attractive chapbooks. Good Ink created the American Shorts series, in which ten great American short story writers had one (or occasionally more) of their best stories printed is an individual book, with illustrations by a young artist (many of them cartoonists and comics artists). On Monday I finally got the last few books in the series, filling out my collection of the full ten, so it's time to share. Click on any of the photos for much bigger versions.

Ambrose Bierce, illustrated by Francois Vigneault; Washington Irving illustrated by Bwana Spoons

Scott Fitzgerald illustrated by Vanessa Davis; Kate Chopin illustrated by Gemma Correll

Mark Twain illustrated by Meg Hunt; Charlotte Perkins Gilman illustrated by Aaron Renier

Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrated by Zack Soto; Poe illustrated by Tom Neely

Jack London illustrated by Michael C. Hsiung; O. Henry illustrated by Kate Bingaman-Burt

These are actual pocket books--3.5 by 5 inches in size, with 32 pages--and really nicely made, from good-quality all-recycled paper. If you've got more brains than me, you'll notice that there's a box set and buy that, rather than buying all of the books individually.