“ what really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it.”
Indeed. And if you’re reading this it’s just possible that like The Catcher in the Rye‘s Holden Caulfield, you too have been floored by a book that you read in your youth.
Perhaps those early adventures in reading have shaped your character, your career, or choice of friends. However, whether you began with The Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew, or now prefer DICK to DOSTOYEVSKY, we're all drawn closer by having shared reading experiences. And yes, as JD SALINGER wryly observes, sometimes we all need to phone a friend.
Who are we?
Well, Quite Literary is currently...just me. Call me Richard (not Ishmael). And mine is the age-old story: Boy meets Girl, Boy loses Girl, Boy is recalled to life by Love...of literature!
Joking aside, Quite Literary would never have happened were it not for the fact that at the lowest point in my life I stumbled across Robert McCrum’s '100 Best Novels in English'. This compilation so impressed me that I challenged myself to read (or re-read) all 100 of Robert's suggestions. As his selection process limited him to one novel per author, I was confronted with reading (nearly, I skipped some!) a hundred different styles by a hundred very different personalities. And despite Robert's clever (albeit controversial) choices ensuring that I liked very many of the chosen novels and absolutely loved many more, one or two left me cold, and some (think Finnegans Wake) I found utterly unreadable.
Truth courtesy of The Guardian
Of the roughly ninety novels that I actually finished (see above!) several dozen affected me profoundly. The best of them set me off on a voyage of (self) discovery, that culminated in me being Recalled to Life, with the idea of creating a range of 'Nace' T-shirts! Because of course, having been so moved by some of the passages within these mighty tomes, I did what any sane person would have, and transcribed the most meaningful of them into a scrapbook of quotes, notes, quips, and scribbles. And from these humble beginnings Quite Literary emerged.
Why are we?
Haruki Murakami's brilliant book The T-Shirts I Love sees the great man talking us through his 200-strong t-shirt collection. And in it he expands on the personal stories and anecdotes behind each piece, explaining how he's awed by the ability of this humble garment to provide such rich material for social commentary.
I've got one drawerful of ancient, too-well-worn tees: a collection constantly depleted through overuse. Over a lifetime, they’ve been my go-to’s, my lucky-pant substitutes, my totems, my talismans, my lucky rabbits feet.
I’ve loved the little flashes of recognition when a stranger’s gaze has fixed on a design and made a connection. Sometimes, you can almost feel them nodding approvingly. I remember my Joseph CONRAD Heart of Darkness t-shirt attracting the attention of a guide at London's Natural History Museum once. A lovely conversation ensued, during which they recommended Gustave FLAUBERT’s Madame Bovary to me, and that author and that novel have in turn embedded themselves into my life.
So, for those of us who like H G WELLS have sought 'refuge and refreshment from the ordeals of everyday' (in the best and worst of times), the works of writers like Charles DICKENS have been a light in the metaphorical darkness. Some of the greatest literary studies of hardship and suffering have given me the greatest lift exactly when I needed it. I defy anyone struggling to come away from Aleksandr SOLZHENITSYN's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich unmoved. Certain potent phrases, like Jeanette WINTERSON’s 'if books were rafts’, have resonated with me to such an extent that they have ended up in my lexicon of quotable quotes. And now, hopefully, on one of your t-shirts.
While conducting my 'research' (well yes, just shopping really) into desirable literary and artistic t-shirts, I discovered that finding ones which I felt truly representative of my passion was very difficult. Most of the websites offering this type of fare seemed to be extremely generic…often leaving me unsure as to whether their creators had actually read the books, let alone felt a kinship with them. So when trawling the interweb for my personal holy grail - the thoughtful design using imaginative imagery - I was all too frequently confronted with designs I knew I wouldn't feel proud and confident wearing. And thus, armed with a little knowledge (what my 'friends' half-jokingly call 'vanity degrees') and some experience working in graphic design, I decided that I would create the t-shirts I wanted to wear myself, myself!
What are we?
I wanted Quite Literary to, quite literally, act as an antidote to the generic offerings available online. To give fellow literature lovers who like to display their allegiance to their favourite authors and artists in t-shirt form, an avenue to find products that truly represented them. A key foundation of this enterprise is that its roots are firmly planted in passion. And like Robert McCrum's controversial selections, every quote from every novel is personal and meaningful to me. Like him, I'm unapologetic about my choices: I believe that the quotations I've selected to put on our products reflect progressive attitudes towards both old and new ideas relating to fairness, equality, diversity, and inclusivity.
QuiteLiterary is unashamedly driven by what are universally regarded as ‘The Classics’. In the beginning there was BUNYAN, the bawd. Then came the bard. And finally the bucolic, in the form of BUKOWSKI. There are, of course, exceptions to the received wisdom vis-a-vis The Classics: Elmore LEONARD being a notably unusual inclusion.
However, literary allegiances tend to evolve over time. Which is why, when a friend got that strange don’t-you-dare look in their eye at the mere mention of anything lupine, I forced myself to read more WOOLF. Fortunately, Ginny richly rewarded me.
My ambition is for this website to bring people together in a shared love of literature. I dream of the day when I see two random Quite Literary t-shirt wearers meeting, and have that flash of recognition. Another reader!