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findthatbookLast night I watched Marwencol with my father, which is a documentary about a man who has built a very elaborate tiny town in his yard out of assorted scraps and old toys. Watching the documentary reminded my father of a book he read probably 40 or 50 years ago that he has been looking for ever since. He has been unable to find it, and I can't find it either.
My father thinks it was called something like Small Worlds, and it was about people who built small worlds/elaborate models in their homes or basements. He remembers one man had a scale model of a large city (he thought perhaps Los Angeles) in his basement, and another person who built models of sites of religious significance to Catholics, like the Vatican and Lourdes.
When he got home, my father sent me this additional information: "I remember one of the Small Worlds in the book--there was on section about a black man who worked as a janitor. I believe his small world was discovered after he died as an old man. He had created something like the throne room for the archangel of the seventh heaven of the seventh heaven. Everything in the throne room was covered in silver and gold from gum and candy wrappers he had gathered over his years as a janitor. "
This morning, he sent me a little more information: "The janitor's throne room I wrote about--- It wasn't so small. I think the throne room filled the biggest room in his home. The throne and furniture where human sized, and all surfaces were covered with silver and gold foil from the trash."
EDIT: I asked for additional details about the physical book and got this response: "I believe it was hardback. It had photos, I think some were in color. Memory of size is fuzzy, but I think a little larger than a standard boo, so guess 10 X 7. and My Google searching skills have improved a lot since I last searched. I googled "throne of heaven gum wrappers and this came up:
Searching "Small Worlds" as a title comes up with some weird fantasy stuff and with some modern theological stuff, but neither is correct. My father says it was a non-fiction book.
My father thinks it was called something like Small Worlds, and it was about people who built small worlds/elaborate models in their homes or basements. He remembers one man had a scale model of a large city (he thought perhaps Los Angeles) in his basement, and another person who built models of sites of religious significance to Catholics, like the Vatican and Lourdes.
When he got home, my father sent me this additional information: "I remember one of the Small Worlds in the book--there was on section about a black man who worked as a janitor. I believe his small world was discovered after he died as an old man. He had created something like the throne room for the archangel of the seventh heaven of the seventh heaven. Everything in the throne room was covered in silver and gold from gum and candy wrappers he had gathered over his years as a janitor. "
This morning, he sent me a little more information: "The janitor's throne room I wrote about--- It wasn't so small. I think the throne room filled the biggest room in his home. The throne and furniture where human sized, and all surfaces were covered with silver and gold foil from the trash."
EDIT: I asked for additional details about the physical book and got this response: "I believe it was hardback. It had photos, I think some were in color. Memory of size is fuzzy, but I think a little larger than a standard boo, so guess 10 X 7. and My Google searching skills have improved a lot since I last searched. I googled "throne of heaven gum wrappers and this came up:
This is certainly the same guy that was mentioned in the book I saw." This means that the book in question had to have been published after 1964, because the artist died in 1964, and his work was not discovered until after his death.
Searching "Small Worlds" as a title comes up with some weird fantasy stuff and with some modern theological stuff, but neither is correct. My father says it was a non-fiction book.
no subject
Date: January 19th, 2019 05:51 (UTC)I think you have enough information here to take it to a librarian who might be able to do more digging. They would have access to specialized electronic collections like Art.net where they could search on James Hampton. You may also want to search for books on outsider art within that time frame at http://www.worldcat.org
no subject
Date: January 19th, 2019 12:53 (UTC)Unfortunately, every search but one I try on WorldCat returns about 30 results (all different for the different searches, and all wrong). The last search returns about 7,000 results and chokes the computer when I try to narrow it further to exclude microfilm, microfiche, and doctoral/master's theses. Library of Congress isn't any particular help either.
no subject
Date: January 19th, 2019 23:13 (UTC)I go to art college and took a stab at it in the electronic databases, but I couldn't find any hints as well.