Waltham Words: Strike up the Band

By Alex Green, Guest Columnist

Hidden away in the upper floors of the Waltham Mills Artists space is a scene that resembles a Tim Burton film. It is a room filled with arcane machines prepared to come to life at any moment, papers strewn to shoulder height, and large forlorn windows which cast a melancholy light across metal castings and thousands of works-in-progress. Sitting on a shelf just slightly out of view is one of the most profound, brilliant works of printing in the last century. The product of master bookbinder and letterpress artist Johnny Carrera, the book is the first Webster's Pictorial Dictionary printed since the 19th century.

Carrera spent years restoring and organizing the thousands of blocks used to make this strange alphabetical tome of images, and later this year it will be printed as a general trade book. Among the thousands of curious things about this Finnegan's Wake of printing, is that many of the images were clearly never seen by the artists who drew them. They paint a picture of the 19th century storybook mind, when so much of the world still remained unseen. When I visited Carrera's studio and looked at the pages of this dictionary, the word raconteur jumped immediately into my mind. It is a word not often used -- perhaps killed off in the great Freedom Fries rebellion of '01 -- but it is perhaps the best word we have to describe our most entertaining griots and storytellers.

As the word rolled about in my head, I tried to conjure what I would have its image be in my own mental Webster's. Ultimately a portrait came to mind -- that of Justin Locke, a Waltham resident and former Boston Pops musician who is the most successful self-published author I have ever known or heard of. In recent years he has produced two brilliant, incisive books of philosophy -- Real Men Don't Rehearse and Principles of Applied Stupidity. Perhaps the titles alone explain a bit about Locke's success. Like Carrera, he is a jack-of-all-trades. He formats his books, designs the covers, commissions the printing, and most of all, tells phenomenally entertaining stories in ways that bring a vitality to daily life.

When people come to my store and ask about ways to successfully self-publish their writing, I point them to Johnny Carrera and Justin Locke. When we have a story to tell -- and so many of us do -- we often become obsessed with being featured on Oprah, or Amazon.com, but having the story to tell and telling it well are the most important parts. Indeed, word of mouth is the most crucial way to sell a book and survive as an author. To do so requires a great story that entertains the reader no matter how serious the content may be.

As we pass the Ides of Small Press Month, I encourage you all to take a moment and tell yourself or others a story. Tell it about something you know or something you don't. Tell it about something you've seen or you haven't. Tell it the way you'd like it seen, even if just for a moment. For a moment, be a small press, be a self-publisher, and most of all be a raconteur.

Alex Green is the owner of Back Pages Books, an independent new and used bookstore in Waltham. The store is located in the Lincoln Building on Moody Street and on the web at www.backpagesbooks.com.