Horse & Buggy Press, December 2018

Text by John Lane / Photographs by Rob McDonald

Award-winning writer John Lane kept a box for many years of what was left from his father’s life up until he committed suicide in 1959 when John was five years old. In the box are letters, photos, objects, and papers comprising nearly everything John knows about his father. The pieces suggest a man’s origins in rural North Carolina; they also document his service in a World War on another continent and trace his return home.

In 2018, John loaned the box to Rob McDonald and asked him to take it home and contemplate its contents through the lens of his camera. These are the photographs that Rob made and the poems and short essays John wrote. 

This is a project about what remains of lives that came before us, lives which set the path for our own. A testament to remembering, touching, feeling, thinking, and the resonant power of artifacts and memory, the intimate book also reminds us of the everlasting effects of war.

This signed and numbered limited edition book of 298 copies features covers hand-printed on the letterpress, a hand-sewn binding, and heavyweight text paper. The photographs were made using a 4x5 Pacemaker Crown Graphic press camera, circa 1950.

36 pages on 100lb Mohawk Superfine, eggshell-finish paper
trim size 8 x 10 inches
hand-sewn binding