Sunday, September 09, 2012

The Hole Book by Peter Newell (don't worry, it's SFW)

By Jack Brummet, Poetry and Books Editor



While fiddling around with a gun, Tom Potts shoots a bullet that seems to be unstoppable. 

A literal hole on each page shows the bullet’s trajectory as it rains destruction across a myriad of everyday scenes until it finally peters out, lodged in a cake. 

Peter Newell was loved in the late 19th century/early 20th for his humorous drawings and poems.  The Hole Book is strange, probably politically incorrect, and delightful. 

Newell later wrote and drew popular children’s books, like Topsys and Turvys (which could be read either upside-down or right-side-up).  A particularly bizarre book--The Slant Book--told the story, in a rhomboid-shaped book--of a baby carriage careening down a hill. 

You can download a PDF, or Kindle, or other version here (free!) from archive.org (a national/world treasure) for free:  http://archive.org/details/holebook00newe
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