David Shields

Critically acclaimed and highly controversial, Black Planet was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and PEN USA Award and was named a Top Ten Nonfiction Book of 1999 by Esquire, Newsday, and LA Weekly. During the 1994–1995 NBA season, David Shields attended nearly all of the Seattle SuperSonics’ home games; watched on TV nearly all their away games; listened to countless pre- and post-game interviews and call-in shows on the radio; spoke or tried to speak to players, coaches, agents, journalists, fans, his wife; corresponded with members of the Sonics newsgroup on the internet; read innumerable articles. “Although I’m a passionate basketball fan and Sonics fan,” Shields wrote in the author’s note to the original publication of Black Planet, “I wasn’t interested in the game per se-who won, who lost, the minutiae of strategy. I was interested in how the game gets talked about. By the end of the season I’d accumulated hundreds of pages of often utterly illegible notes, the roughest of rough drafts. Over the next three years I transformed those notes into this book-a daily journal that runs the length of one team’s long-forgotten season and that is now focused, to the point of obsession, on how white people (including especially myself) think about and talk about Black heroes, Black scapegoats, Black bodies.”Black Planet changed sports journalism and remains a prophetic book on America and race. This edition features a new foreword by Bryan Curtis.

2023 50 Books 50 Covers Award, The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) 2024 Honorable Mention, Design Awards, Graphis 2024 Finalist, Typography Competition, Communication Arts Magazine A beautifully illustrated exploration of the Rob Roy Kelly American Wood Type Collection. The Rob Roy Kelly Wood Type Collection is a comprehensive collection of wood type manufactured and used for printing in nineteenth-century America. Comprising nearly 150 typefaces of various sizes and styles, it was amassed by noted design educator and historian Rob Roy Kelly starting in 1957 and is now held by the University of Texas. Although Kelly himself published a 1969 book on wood type and nineteenth-century typographic history, there has been little written about the creation of the wood type forms, the collection, or Kelly. In this book, David Shields rigorously updates and expands upon Kelly’s historical information about the types, clarifying the collection’s exact composition and providing a better understanding of the stylistic development of wood type forms during the nineteenth century. Using rich materials from the period, Shields provides a stunning visual context that complements the textual history of each typeface. He also highlights the non-typographic material in the collection-such as borders, rules, ornaments, and image cuts-that have not been previously examined. Featuring over 300 color illustrations, this written history and catalog is bound to spark renewed interest in the collection and its broader typographic period.

In the spirit of his highly acclaimed and influential book Reality Hunger, David Shields has composed a mordantly funny, relentlessly self-questioning self-portrait based on questions that interviewers have asked him over forty years. David Shields decided to gather every interview he's ever given, going back nearly forty years. If it was on the radio or TV or a podcast, he transcribed it. He wasn't sure what he was looking for, but he knew he wasn't interested in any of his own answers. The questions interested him--approximately 2,700, which he condensed and collated to form twenty-two chapters focused on such subjects as Process, Childhood, Failure, Capitalism, Suicide, and Comedy. Then, according to Shields, "the real work began: rewriting and editing and remixing the questions and finding a through-line." The result is a lacerating self-demolition in which the author--in this case, a late-middle-aged white man--is strangely, thrillingly absent. As Chuck Klosterman says, "Logic suggests that people are best understood through the things they say, but that's not how journalism works. People are actually defined by the questions they get asked (and the degree to which their answers can be framed to prove whatever was already assumed to be true). The Very Last Interview is David Shields doing what he has done dazzlingly for the past twenty-five years: interrogating his own intellectual experience by changing the meaning of what seems both obviously straightforward and obviously wrong." Shields's new book is a sequel of sorts to his seminal Reality Hunger: A Manifesto, which Literary Hub recently named one of the most important books of the last decade. According to Kenneth Goldsmith, "Just when you think Shields couldn't rethink and reinvent literature any further, he does it again. The Very Last Interview confirms Shields as the most dangerously important American writer since Burroughs."

David Shields's The Trouble with Men: Reflections on Sex, Love, Marriage, Porn, and Power is an immersion into the perils, limits, and possibilities of human intimacy. All at once a love letter to his wife, a nervy reckoning with his own fallibility, a meditation on the impact of porn on American culture, and an attempt to understand marriage (one marriage, the idea of marriage, all marriages), The Trouble with Men is exquisitely balanced between the personal and the anthropological, nakedness and restraint. While unashamedly intellectual, it's also irresistibly readable and extremely moving. Over five increasingly intimate chapters, Shields probes the contours of his own psyche and marriage, marshalling a chorus of other voices that leaven, deepen, and universalize his experience; his goal is nothing less than a deconstruction of eros and conventional masculinity. Masterfully woven throughout is an unmistakable and surprisingly tender cri de coeur to his wife. The risk and vulnerability on display are in the service of radical candor, acerbic wit, real emotion, and profound insight-exactly what we've come to expect from Shields, who, in an open invitation to the reader, leaves everything on the page.

NOBODY HATES TRUMP MORE THAN TRUMP: AN INTERVENTION is perhaps the only genuinely original thing you have read yet about Donald Trump. It can be read in a variety of ways: as a psychological investigation of Trump, as a philosophical meditation on the relationship between language and power, as a satirical compilation of the "collected wit and wisdom of Donald Trump," and above all as a dagger into the rhetoric of American political discourse-a dissection of the politesse that gave rise to and sustains Trump. The book's central thesis is that we have met the enemy and he is us. Who else but David Shields would make such an argument, let alone pull it off with such intelligence, brio, and wit, not to mention leaked off-air transcripts from Fox News?------------- PRAISE -------------Brian Fawcett, Dooney's Cafe"The best book, so far, on the political and cultural implications of Trump's presidency. Shields has the widest range of curiosity of any American writer I'm aware of, and he almost never wastes your time. He nails what's off-kilter and crazy about Donald Trump and the political psychosis he represents at least a hundred times, and in dozens of insightful ways. Shields is good enough, in this book, to earn the designation of being the writer most likely to be picked up and murdered should either right- or left-wing fundamentalists take power in the United States. This is a designation that hasn't been conferred on an American writer since Philip K. Dick. What I'm saying is that Shields is that good. He is one of a very small group of true 21st century writers worthy of the tag, and I salute him as a master."Jeff Simon, Buffalo News"You're unlikely to encounter another book so recklessly and unpredictably full of insight, even wisdom. Shields is the most exciting writer we have in America at the moment, the most startling and innovative."Tim DeneviLitHub, Favorite Books of 2018"A fantastic read."Neal Thompson, Seattle Spokesman-ReviewFavorite Books of 2018Toby Lichtig, TLS"Often brilliant."Moshe Schulman, The Rumpus"A sobering, nuanced, and--at times--brutally funny--psychological investigation into why Trump resonates with all, even the people who hate him."Cathy Alter, Washington D.C.] Independent Review"A mesmerizing study of power, how it isolates, how it infantalizes, how it amplifies our collective fears."Kirkus Reviews"A compelling book offering something to offend nearly anyone."Publishers Weekly"Shields weaves together wry observations."Shannon Laster, Open Letters Review"Shields's short book delivers the goods."Neal McNamara, Patch"Nobody Hates Trump More Than Trump has something new to say."

Other People is something of a revelation: seventy-plus essays that form neither a miscellany nor a memoir but an intellectually thrilling and emotionally wrenching investigation of otherness. Can one person know another person? How do we live through other people? Is it possible to fill the gap between people? If not, what function does art serve? Whether he is writing about sexual desire or information sickness, George W. Bush or Kurt Cobain, women's eyeglasses or Greek tragedy, Howard Cosell or Bill Murray, the comedy of high school journalism or the agony of first love, Shields sustains a piercing focus on the multiplicity of perspectives, the irreducible log jam of human information, and the possibilities and impossibilities for human connection.

In That Thing You Do With Your Mouth, actress and voice-over artist Samantha Matthews offers in the form of an extended monologue, prompted and arranged by New York Times bestselling author (and Matthews's cousin once removed) David Shields a vivid investigation of her startling sexual history. From her abuse at the hands of a family member to her present-day life in Barcelona, where she briefly moonlighted as a dubber of Italian pornography into English, Matthews reveals herself to be a darkly funny, deeply contemporary woman with a keen awareness of how her body has been routinely hijacked, and how she has been "formatted" by her early trauma. Her story is a study of her uneasy relationships with female desire, her tormentors, and her lovers with whom she seeks out both the infliction and receipt of harm. This book is an attempt, sometimes self-thwarted, to break down barriers: sexual and emotional for Matthews, literary for Shields.For them, the only response to the unspeakable is to speak, to do that thing you do with your mouth, as directly and honestly as possible. Their provocative performance refuses neat resolution or emotional pornography; it will have readers, from literary critics to Jezebel commentators, raving, raging, celebrating, talking.

Life Is Short--Art Is Shorter is not just the first anthology to gather both mini-essays and short-short stories; readers, writers, and teachers will get will get an anthology; a course's worth of writing exercises; a rally for compression, concision, and velocity in an increasingly digital, post-religious age; and a meditation on the brevity of human existence. 1. We are mortal beings.2. There is no god.3. We live in a digital culture.4. Art is related to the body and to the culture.5. Art should reflect these things.6. Brevity rules. The book's 40 contributors include Donald Barthelme, Kate Chopin, Lydia Davis, Annie Dillard, Jonathan Safran Foer, Barry Hannah, Amy Hempel, Jamaica Kincaid, Wayne Koestenbaum, Anne Lamott, Daphne Merkin, Rick Moody, Dinty W. Moore, George Orwell, Jayne Anne Phillips, George Saunders, Lauren Slater, James Tate, and Paul Theroux.

An instant New York Times bestseller, this "explosive biography" (People) of one of the most beloved and mysterious figures of the twentieth century is "as close as we'll ever get to being inside J.D. Salinger's head" (Entertainment Weekly). This "revealing" (The New York Times) and "engrossing" (The Wall Street Journal) oral biography, "fascinating and unique" (The Washington Post) and "an unmitigated success" (USA TODAY), has redefined our understanding of one of the most mysterious figures of the twentieth century. In nine years of work on Salinger, and especially in the years since the author's death, David Shields and Shane Salerno interviewed more than 200 people on five continents, many of whom had previously refused to go on the record about their relationship with Salinger. This oral biography offers direct eyewitness accounts from Salinger's World War II brothers-in-arms, his family members, his close friends, his lovers, his classmates, his neighbors, his editors, his publishers, his New Yorker colleagues, and people with whom he had relationships that were secret even to his own family. Their intimate recollections are supported by more that 175 photos (many never seen before), diaries, legal records, and private documents that are woven throughout; in addition, appearing here for the first time, are Salinger's "lost letters"--ranging from the 1940s to 2008, revealing his intimate views on love, literature, fame, religion, war, and death, and providing a raw and revelatory self-portrait. The result is "unprecedented" (Associated Press), "genuinely valuable" (Time), and "strips away the sheen of Salinger's] exceptionalism, trading in his genius for something much more real" (Los Angeles Times). According to the Sunday Times of London, Salinger is "a stupendous work...I predict with the utmost confidence that, after this, the world will not need another Salinger biography."

Blending confessional criticism and cultural autobiography, David Shields explores the power of literature to make life survivable, maybe even endurable. Evoking his deeply divided personality, his character flaws, his woes, his serious despair, he wants "literature to assuage human loneliness, but nothing can assuage human loneliness. Literature doesn't lie about this--which is what makes it essential." This is a captivating, thought-provoking, utterly original book about the essential acts of reading and writing.

A perspective-shifting and deeply pleasurable collection of wisdom from Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Ichiro Suzuki " Reveals] a person who values Zen qualities such as simplicity and harmony and who revels in challenge, not achievement."--ESPN online When Ichiro Suzuki, already a superstar in Japan, debuted in Major League Baseball, his singular performance on the field introduced Americans to one of the greatest and most unique talents to ever play the game. But his unusually candid off-the-field comments captivated fans in equal measure, revealing a startling and provocative mind. Curated by acclaimed nonfiction author David Shields, this little prize of a book collects some of Ichiro's greatest hits, showcasing his dry wit and penchant for distilling simple but profound ideas into unforgettable observations: "I have no idea what it's going to be like playing in the majors this year. I can only imagine what it might be like, so I'll just have to experience it." "Please don't think about the streak too hard. Someday it's going to be over and today's the day it's over." "If I ever saw myself saying I'm excited going to Cleveland, I'd punch myself in the face, because I'm lying." "Even if there are things that become somewhat stressful, I think they're interesting. Isn't it because of those things that I am able to be struck by the significance of being alive?" Originally published in 2001 and updated in 2012 with a new introduction by David Shields, Baseball Is Just Baseball is a document of not only a popular athlete but an impressively thoughtful human being.

Mesmerized and somewhat unnerved by his 97-year-old father's vitality and optimism, David Shields undertakes an original investigation of our flesh-and-blood existence, our mortal being.Weaving together personal anecdote, biological fact, philosophical doubt, cultural criticism, and the wisdom of an eclectic range of writers and thinkers - from Lucretius to Woody Allen - Shields expertly renders both a hilarious family portrait and a truly resonant meditation on mortality.

Reality Hunger questions every assumption we ever made about art, the novel, journalism, poetry, film, TV, rap, stand-up, graffiti, sampling, plagiarism, writing, and reading. In seeking to tear up the old culture in search of something new and more authentic, it is the most vital book of the new century.

A landmark book, "brilliant, thoughtful" (The Atlantic) and "raw and gorgeous" (LA Times), that fast-forwards the discussion of the central artistic issues of our time, from the bestselling author of The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead. Who owns ideas? How clear is the distinction between fiction and nonfiction? Has the velocity of digital culture rendered traditional modes obsolete? Exploring these and related questions, Shields orchestrates a chorus of voices, past and present, to reframe debates about the veracity of memoir and the relevance of the novel. He argues that our culture is obsessed with "reality," precisely because we experience hardly any, and urgently calls for new forms that embody and convey the fractured nature of contemporary experience.

This is the first and most authoritative history of wood type in the United States. It tells the complete story of wood type, beginning with the history of wood as a printing material, the development of decorated letters and large letters, and the invention of machinery for mass-producing wood letters. The 19th-century heyday of wood type is explored in great detail, including all aspects of design, manufacture, and marketing, and the evolution of styles. Many related trades interacted with wood type production; the book examines the influence of lithography, letterpress, metal-plate and wood engraving, sign painting and calligraphy, poster printing, and type-founding. Long out of print, the book is still regarded by scholars and designers as an invaluable resource for a rich legacy of typographic art. More than 600 specimens of wood type are classified and annotated, as are more than 100 specimens of complete fonts. This reissue includes a new foreword by David Shields, Design Curator of the Rob Roy Kelly Wood Type Collection at the University of Texas at Austin, discussing the renewed interest in the subject since the mid-1990s as well as ongoing research into the history of wood type.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - Weaving together personal anecdote, biological fact, philosophical doubt, cultural criticism, and the wisdom of an eclectic range of writers and thinkers, a book that expertly renders both a hilarious family portrait and a truly resonant meditation on mortality. "Shields is a sharp-eyed, self-deprecating, at times hilarious writer."--The Wall Street JournalMesmerized and somewhat unnerved by his 97-year-old father's vitality and optimism, David Shields undertakes an original investigation of our flesh-and-blood existence, our mortal being. The Thing About Life provokes us to contemplate the brevity and radiance of our own sojourn on earth and challenges us to rearrange our thinking in crucial and unexpected ways.

What does it mean to construct a self? What does it mean to turn your life into a narrative? What's gained? What's lost? What lies inevitably get told? What deeper truths are reached or at least reached for? Enough About You has no answers to these questions, but it frames and asks these questions in a much more overt, honest, precise, and provocative way than any book has attempted yet, and tries to do so while also delivering the pleasures of narrative, of memoir, of search-for-self. With moving and often hilarious candor, Shields explores the connections between fiction and nonfiction, stuttering and writing, literary forms and literary contents, art and life; he confronts bad reviews of his earlier books; he examines why he read a college girlfriend's journal; he raids a wide range of cultural figures (from Rousseau, Nabokov, and Salinger to Bill Murray, Adam Sandler, and Bobby Knight) for what they have to tell him about himself. Enough About You is a book about David Shields. But it is also a terrifically engrossing exploration and exploitation of self-reflection, self-absorption, full-blown narcissism, and the impulse to write about oneself.In a world awash with memoirs and tell-alls, Shields has created something unique: he invites the reader into his mind as he turns his life into a narrative.

In Body Politic, David Shields looks at contemporary America and its mythology through the lens of professional and college sports. The result is an unusually insightful and provocative book about an empire in denial. Shields relentlessly examines the way we tell our sports stories (both fictional and nonfictional), considers the kinds of athletes we choose as heroes, and delineates the lessons and values we glean from sports. He explores the intricate and telling relationships between players and coaches, black and white players, immigrant and native players, male and female players, players and broadcasters, players and fans, and players and advertisers. In the process, he shows us the stories we Americans tell ourselves about the kind of people we believe ourselves to be.

The National Basketball Association is a place where white fans and black players enact virtually every racial issue and tension in U.S. culture. Following the Seattle SuperSonics for an entire season, David Shields explores how, in a predominantly black sport, white fans-including especially himself-think about and talk about black heroes, black scapegoats, and black bodies. Critically acclaimed and highly controversial, Black Planet was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN USA Award, and was named one of the Top Ten Nonfiction Books of 1999 by Esquire, Newsday, Los Angeles Weekly, and Amazon.com.