Saving His Life

Description

Saving His Life

by Lee Sandlin

illustrated with photoetchings of family photographs from the collection of Nina Sandlin

Lee Sandlin tells the story of the extraordinary life and bewildering illness of his father-in-law Nick Cherniavsky. Nick’s vivid history — a collage of exotic adventures, mysterious cities, inexplicable storms and invasions — and the struggle to preserve it before dementia erased his memory.

Originally published in the Chicago Reader in two parts, the full text is free to read on the Reader website.

“The defining event of Nick’s life happened before he was born. The Russian Revolution was one of those vast historical calamities that most Americans have been spared: it was a time when people who never thought of themselves as political, who never thought they’d have to choose sides about anything, were forced to make political choices that could easily cost them their homes, their families, and their lives. This was how it was for Nick’s parents.”

The book is designed by Martha Chiplis, set in Monotype Ehrhardt by Winifred and Michael Bixler, and printed by Martha Chiplis on handmade Twinrocker Taupe. Photoetchings from family photographs are printed on Hosho, inset into the book in debossed panels. A map of Nick’s lifetime of travel, drawn by Deborah Reade, appears at the front of the book.  Trisha Hammer has designed and executed a hidden crossed-structure binding in Nigerian goatskin with endpapers of Japanese silk, housed in a silk drawstring bag. 100 pp, 9½ x 11 x 2 inches. Edition of 50.

Published February 22, 2008.

From the book’s colophon:

Saving His Life was designed and printed by Martha Chiplis. The book was set by Michael Bixler in Monotype Ehrhardt. The paper is Twinrocker Taupe for Letterpress. The binding was designed and executed by Trisha Hammer. The photoetchings were printed from plates made by Boxcar press. Map illustration by Deborah Reade. Thank you to Nina Sandlin for her help in the identification and chronology of her family pictures.

Copies are signed by Lee Sandlin, Martha Chiplis, Nina Sandlin, Trisha Hammer, and Robert McCamant.