Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found
New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2014.
Stated First Edition. Hardcover. Stated First Edition with full number line indicating first printing. 9 1/2" X 6 1/4". xviii, 317pp. Very mild shelf wear to covers, corners, and edges of unclipped dust jacket. Blue paper over boards with spine backed in black and lettered in gilt. A couple small spots of toning to edge of text block. Pages are clean and unmarked. Binding is firm and sound. Illustrations throughout.
ABOUT THIS BOOK:
A “wide-ranging and thoughtful” (Wall Street Journal) exploration of the varied obsessions that the “civilized West” has had with decapitated heads and skulls.
The human head is exceptional. It accommodates four of our five senses, encases the brain, and boasts the most expressive set of muscles in the body. It is our most distinctive attribute and connects our inner selves to the outer world. Yet there is a dark side to the head’s preeminence, one that has, in the course of human history, manifested itself in everything from decapitation to headhunting. So explains anthropologist Frances Larson in this fascinating history of decapitated human heads. From the Western collectors whose demand for shrunken heads spurred massacres to Second World War soldiers who sent the remains of the Japanese home to their girlfriends, from Madame Tussaud modeling the guillotined head of Robespierre to Damien Hirst photographing decapitated heads in city morgues, from grave-robbing phrenologists to skull-obsessed scientists, Larson explores our macabre fixation with severed heads.(Publisher). Very good / very good. Item #7127
ISBN: 9780871404541
Price: $15.00