All the ghosts, some old, some new

[sovay]

History, what do you mean that Folkways Records was founded by the son of Sholem Asch who, as one last trick after the scandals of Jewish lesbians and Christian novels, wrote a version of the Nativity recorded for his son's record label by Pete Seeger? What kind of concatenation is that to drop on an unsuspecting person? And is there a reason no artist is credited with the pen-and-ink illustrations depicting the story in 1963 even as the prose sticks to its historical setting, which are maddening me with their sketch-expressive familiarity, although perhaps only because my grandmother had that kind of loose, scribbly, ink-washed line? Ben Shahn at least had the decency to sign his album art. The Claibornes' "Listen, Mr. Bilbo" could have had the luck to lose its relevance since 1946. History, the other kind of convergence was more fun. Listen while I tell you that the foreigners you hate are the very same people made America great.

Comments

[sovay]

Maybe the illustrations were by Moses Asch? All the copyright notes for the cover otherwise appear to attribute it to him.

Interesting! I saw the attribution to Craig Mierop within the liner notes, but as noted only for the cover design. (Tracking him down has been an entire rabbit hole in and of itself. If it's not two people with the same striking name, he seems to have designed fonts as well and died only last year.)

History likes its little jokes.

History must think they're funnier than we do.