In 2008, I did illustrations for a book called Well-Defined: Vocabulary In Rhyme by Michael Salinger. He is a poet and teacher who does speaking engagements at schools and libraries performing his work. The book was a series of poems about SAT words, and as with most books it went nowhere. The publisher, Wordsong Press, went out of business a few months after the book was published and I get royalty statements every few months with a negative balance. Sounds like a sob story but it’s actually typical for most books. This actually won awards and for a couple years I went to the publisher’s annual illustrators’ retreat in Honesdale, PA (They were a subsidiary of Highlights magazine).
Recently Mr. Salinger asked if I still had the originals since he was reprinting the book himself. I found I still did, though I wasn’t happy with a lot of them. Here are the ones that include the newer versions.
TITLE PAGE
AGGREGATE
BERATE
CIRCUITOUS (was also used for cover)
CREDULITY
DISINGENUOUS
EXTENUATING
FIASCO
FLORID
HYPOTHETICAL
INCESSANT
INSIDIOUS
INSTIGATE
KUDOS
LUGUBRIOUS
MAGNANIMOUS
MITIGATE
NEMESIS
OBLIVION
PESSIMISM
PETULANT
QUANDARY
REDOLENT
REITERATE
SKEPTICAL
TRANSIENT
UNCTUOUS
VERBOSE
