Liveright & Co. editor-in-chief Robert Weil has acquired Murphy, a new graphic memoir by David Small and his first graphic work since his 2009 graphic memoir Stitches, a New York Times bestseller and a National Book Award finalist. The 300-page book will be published by W.W. Norton’s newly revived Liveright & Co imprint in fall 2013.
Weil told PW that Murphy is the story of Murphy, “a seemingly feral Airedale Terrier whom David Small and his wife Sarah Stewart rescued in the mid-1980s and made part of their home.” Weil said the book offers a look at both Small’s relationship to the big lovable dog as well as a look at nature, the Michigan wilderness where Small lives, and the many colorful characters in the tiny hamlet where he lives. He ocompared the graphic memoir to such classic animal tales as Fred Gibson’s Old Yeller and John Grogan's Marley and Me.
“if Horace Liveright were alive and publishing today, he would have been doing graphic books,” Weil said. “He believed that new genres and experimental forms were essential to good publishing, and he would have embraced David Small's genius immediately.”
