Jump to content

Coffee table book: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
→History: added year, italics
Importing Wikidata short description: "Large illustrated hardback book" (Shortdesc helper)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{short description|Large illustrated hardback book}}
[[File:Domestic coffee table in a residential setting.jpg|250px|thumb|Coffee table book on a [[coffee table]]]]
[[File:Domestic coffee table in a residential setting.jpg|250px|thumb|Coffee table book on a [[coffee table]]]]


Revision as of 03:14, 16 November 2020

Coffee table book on a coffee table

A coffee table book is an oversized, usually hard-covered book whose purpose is for display on a table intended for use in an area in which one entertains guests and from which it can serve to inspire conversation or pass the time. Subject matter is predominantly non-fiction and pictorial (a photo-book). Pages consist mainly of photographs and illustrations, accompanied by captions and small blocks of text, as opposed to long prose. Since they are aimed at anyone who might pick up the book for a light read, the analysis inside is often more basic and with less jargon than other books on the subject. Because of this, the term "coffee table book" can be used pejoratively to indicate a superficial approach to the subject.

In the field of mathematics, a coffee table book is usually a notebook containing a number of mathematical problems and theorems contributed by a community meeting in a particular place, or connected by a common scientific interest.[citation needed] An example of this was the Scottish Book created by mathematicians at Lviv University in the 1930s and 1940s.

History

The concept of a book intended essentially for display over perusal was mentioned by Michel de Montaigne in his 1581 essay "Upon Some Verses of Virgil": "I am vexed that my Essays only serve the ladies for a common movable, a book to lay in the parlor window..."[1] Almost two centuries later, Laurence Sterne in his 1759 comic novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman advanced the more lighthearted view that "As my life and opinions are likely to make some noise in the world, and... be no less read than the Pilgrim's Progress itself- and, in the end, prove the very thing Montaigne dreaded his Essays should turn out, that is, a book for a parlour window..."[2]

Beginning in the late 1940s, publisher Albert Skira and a few others, such as Cailler and Editions Tisné, Éditions Mazenod, and Harry N. Abrams, began producing large folio and quarto (4to) format art books, illustrated with tipped-in color plates, often for international markets that were significant in the development of coffee table books as known today.[3][4][5]

David Brower is sometimes credited with inventing the modern coffee table book.[6] While serving as executive director of the Sierra Club, he had the idea for a series of books that combined nature photography and writings on nature, with, as he put it, "a page size big enough to carry a given image’s dynamic. The eye must be required to move about within the boundaries of the image, not encompass it all in one glance." The first such book, This is the American Earth, with photographs by Ansel Adams and others and text by Nancy Newhall, was published in 1960; the series became known as the "Exhibit Format" series, with 20 titles eventually published.[7]

The term "coffee table book" appeared in Arts Magazine in 1961,[8] and in 1962 The Coffee Table Book of Astrology was published.[9]

They have also found uses in propaganda, such as a book on the life of East German leader Walter Ulbricht[10] and another on Albanian leader Enver Hoxha.[11]

As of 2011, Madonna's 1992 book Sex remained the most searched for out-of-print coffee table book.[12]

References

  1. ^ "Essays by Michel de Montaigne". Oregonstate.edu. Archived from the original on 2013-10-08. Retrieved 2014-03-28.
  2. ^ "The novels of Laurence Sterne (Volume 1)" (PDF). Retrieved 2014-03-28.
  3. ^ Chilvers, Ian and John Glaves-Smith (2015) A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art (3 ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191792229 https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100510260 (accessed 25 August 2019)
  4. ^ Dufrêne, Bernadette (2002) L'édition d'art des années 1950-1970 : des promesses non tenues ? ,Communication et langages. No. 134, 4 ème trimestre 22-38 pp. [Dufrêne, Bernadette (2002). The Art Edition of the 1950s and 1970s: Unfulfilled Promises? Communication and Languages, 134(4): 22-38.]
  5. ^ Corisande Evesque. Albert Skira et ses livres d’art (1948-1973). Histoire. 2015. ffdumas-01256888. PDF: https://dumas.ccsd.cnrs.fr/dumas-01256888/document (accessed 25 August 2019)
  6. ^ "Harold Wood Presentation on H.R. 2715 - LeConte Memorial Lodge". Sierraclub.org. 2003-11-15. Retrieved 2014-03-28.
  7. ^ "Natural Visions - Nature on the Coffee Table".
  8. ^ Arts Magazine, Volume 36. Art Digest Incorporated. 1961.
  9. ^ National Review, Volume 13. National Review, Incorporated. 1962.
  10. ^ "Walter Ulbricht — ein Leben für Deutschland, excerpts from the German Propaganda Archive, Calvin College". Calvin.edu. Retrieved 2014-03-28.
  11. ^ Enver Hoxha: 1908-1985. Tirana: Institute of Marxist-Leninist Studies at the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania. 1986.
  12. ^ Flood, Alison (30 August 2011). "Madonna's Sex most sought after out-of-print book". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
Look up coffee table book in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Coffee_table_book&oldid=988937959"