Jill Eisenstadt – From Rockaway (1988)

Bibliographical Description

88.06.W050: Eisenstadt – From Rockaway

FROM | [wave motif 7 x 109.5 mm] | ROCKAWAY | JILL EISENSTADT | VINTAGE | CONTEMPORARIES | VINTAGE BOOKS | A DIVISION OF | RANDOM HOUSE | NEW YORK | [wavy rule 51 mm]

112 leaves, pp. [6] 13 4-18 19 20-31 32 33-53 54 55-63 64 65-69 70 71-77 78 79-98 99 100-120 121 122-134 135 136-149 150 151-167 168 169-174 175 176-179 180 181-198 199 200-210 211 212-214 [4]

First Vintage Books Edition, June 1988

Contents: π1a author photo with blurbs, π1b blank, π2a title, π2b imprint, π3a dedication, π3b blank, 1 fly-title, 2 blank, 3-214 From Rockaway: 3-18 ‘Prom Night’, 19-31 ‘THE BLOOD [vertical rule extending two lines 29 mm] | [on gutter side of rule on second line] PART | [on fore-edge side of rule on first line] 1’, 32-53 ‘2 [vertical rule 15 mm] AUTHORITY’, 54-63 ‘3 [vertical rule 15 mm] BEING “IT”, 64-69 ‘4 | [vertical rule 15 mm] | LETTERS’, 70-77 ‘5 [vertical rule extending two lines 29 mm] THREE’S | [on gutter side of rule] A CROWD’, 78-98 ‘6 [vertical rule 15 mm] TILT-A-WHIRL’, 99-120 ‘VACATION [vertical rule 15 mm] 7’, 121-134 ‘AT THE MOVIES [vertical rule 15 mm] 8’, 135-149 ‘HAT WALK [vertical rule 15 mm] 9’, 150-167 ’10 [vertical rule extending two lines 29 mm] MOVING | [on gutter side of rule] MATTERS’, 168-174 ‘11 [vertical rule extending two lines 29 mm] CRUISE | [on gutter side of rule] TO NOWHERE ‘, 175-179 ‘LIMBO [vertical rule 15 mm] 12’, 180- ’13 [vertical rule extending two lines 29 mm] THE MURDERERS’ | [on gutter side of rule] CLUB’, 199-210 ‘THE BRASS BALLS [vertical rule extending three lines 44 mm] 14 | [on gutter side of rule] BRIDGE JUMPERS | [on gutter side of rule] ASSOCIATION’, 211-214 ‘July 6, 1987’; χ1a about the author, χ1b blank, χ2a Vintage Contemporaries order form, χ2b Vintage Contemporaries list.

Cover design by Lorraine Louie; cover illustration by Rick Lovell; interior author photo by Jerry Bauer.

Copyright: © 1985, 1987. ISBN: 0-394-75761-0. Price: $6.95. From Rockaway was first published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 1987.

Copies: JDP 1.2

Blurbs

  • (front cover) From Rockaway has wit and intelligence, and its theme is an important one…the burnout of a generation. Eisenstadt’s material is compelling and dramatic. – Brent Spencer, San Francisco Chronicle
  • In Jill Eisenstadt’s savvy, heartfelt novel we enter the world of working-class kids in Rockaway, New York, a beach community where beer cans and cigarette butts stud the sand instead of seashells. Peg, Alex, Chowderhead, and Timmy play, drink, and dream together. Their circle breaks apart when Alex gets a scholarship to a “rich kids’ school” in New England. Soon the rituals described in her anthropology text seem less bizarre than the games in the dorms around her. It is back in Rockaway, reunited with the old gang for the summer, that the explosive depth of feeling in kids with no options beyond the local deli and the lifeguard stands shows Alex what it means to face adulthood.
  • Eisenstadt is fabulous at working the wavy borders between friendship and love, childhood and adolescence, loyalty and peer pressure…a novel with jukebox charisma. – Glamour
  • Like ‘Saturday Night Fever’ it pushes the energy of desire against the low ceiling of possibility. – Sven Birkerts, Chicago Tribune
  • An affecting exploration of class and ambition, family ties, friendship and the way people grow into and out of different feelings about love…magical. – Alida Becker, Newsday

Vintage Contemporaries in the Wild: Aaron Burch’s Watercolour Covers

Undoubtedly, a strength of Lorraine Louie’s classic Vintage Contemporaries design was its adaptability. It provided a consistent and instantly recognizable frame to signal the imprint while allowing the cover art to convey to unique spirit of each individual title. Author and artist Aaron Burch has fun playing with the early-era design to reimagine a children’s book classic, a 90s comic property, and the greatest television series an eleven-year-old could imagine. That shopping cart is inspired.

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Aaron Burch (@aaron__burch)

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Aaron Burch (@aaron__burch)

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Aaron Burch (@aaron__burch)

Burch also produced a VC-inspired watercolor as a header for Evan Williams’s essay, “Nicholson Baker’s U and I in 3 Days“. 

Burch’s debut novel Year of the Buffalo was published this year. Check it out.