My Favorite Things

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Harper Design, New York, 2014, English

Nonfiction, Product/Industrial Design

9.2 x 8.2 inches, hardcover, 160 pages

ISBN: 9780062122971

Suggested Retail Price: $35.00

From the Publisher. From Maira Kalman, the author of the bestsellers The Principles of Uncertainty and The Elements of Style, comes this beautiful pictorial and narrative exploration of the significance of objects in our lives, drawn from her personal artifacts, recollections, and selections from the collection of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.

With more than fifty original paintings and featuring bestselling author and illustrator Maira Kalman’s signature handwritten prose, My Favorite Things is a poignant and witty meditation on the importance of both quotidian and unusual objects in our culture and private worlds.

Created in the same colorful, engaging, and insightful style as her previous works, which have won her fans around the world, My Favorite Things features more than 50 objects from both the Cooper-Hewitt and Kalman’s personal collections: the pocket watch Abraham Lincoln was carrying when he was shot, original editions of Winnie-the-Pooh and Alice in Wonderland, a handkerchief in memoriam of Queen Victoria, an Ingo Maurer lamp, Rietveld’s Z chair, a pair of Toscanini’s pants, and photographs Kalman has taken of people walking towards and away from her. A pictorial index provides photographs of the actual objects and a short description of them, enhancing the reading experience.

As it speaks to the universal experience and importance of beloved objects in our lives—big and small, famous and private—this unique work is a fresh way of examining and understanding our society, history, culture, and ourselves.

On 2 book lists

Maira Kalman

On list of Books by Maira Kalman

David Rockwell

On David Rockwell’s Book List

A quirky, personal and sometimes poignant take on objects—both ordinary and extraordinary – that Maira handpicked from the Cooper Hewitt’s archives.

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