J.W. Burleson photo / Boquillas del Carmen, Coah.

PHB

My photo
Brooklin, Maine, United States
We own a 1975 GMC Sierra Grande 15 in Maine and a 1986 Chevrolet Custom Deluxe 10 in West Texas. Also a pair of 1997 Volvo 850 wagons. Average age in the fleet is 28 years--we're recycling. I've published 3 novels: THE LAW OF DREAMS (2006), THE O'BRIENS (2012), and CARRY ME (2016). Also 2 short story collections: NIGHT DRIVING(1987) and TRAVELLING LIGHT (2013). More of my literary life is at www.peterbehrens.org I was a Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study for 2012-13. I'm an adjunct professor at Colorado College and in the MFA program at Queens University of Charlotte. In 2015-16 I was a Fellow at Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. The Autoliterate office is in Car Talk Plaza in Harvard Square, 2 floors above Dewey Cheatem & Howe. SUBSCRIBE TO THE AUTOLITERATE DAILY EMAIL by hitting the button to the right.

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Mike Moore & Earl Swift: The Auto-biographers. And the 1957 Chevrolet Station Wagon.


             If you're here on Autoliterate,  you're probably a car guy, or car girl, & there are 2 astounding car books I will strongly recommend.
             It's a weak genre, often sluggish with either sentimentality or hobbyist jargon--sometimes both--but in the last couple of years I've come across these genre-busting car books. Both sport very close to the same--apparently irresistible--title.
           Mike Moore's Auto Biographies is an artist's book: limited production, signed copies. It is a remarkable read and A beautiful artwork in which Moore documents with drawings and texts pretty much every car he's ever owned-- as well as 22 houses he's lived in.
               Earl Swift's Auto Biography: A Classic Car, an Outlaw Motorhead and 57 Years of the American Dream was the best book I read over the summer, on any subject. My favorite review:
"A big, weird, heartfelt book about a badass who could give a damn whether you root for him or not.
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
 "It's the best contemporary book I've read about automobiles since A.J. Baime's Go Like Hell, and I enjoyed the hell out of that" Matt Hardigree, Jalopnik.com
"I've never met Earl Swift, but from the very first page of this book I liked him. Auto Biography is exuberant, big-spirited, and more than occasionally profound."
Tracy Kidder, author of Mountains Beyond Mountains
"Auto Biography is a great read, with the cast, dialog and drama of a novel."
Detroit Free Press
The story he tells of the car's o

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