A Chipper Launch For Chip Kidd
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RELATED: Photos from the book party for Chip Kidd’s “The Learners”
Potato chips would have been appropriate at the otherwise chichi book party Tuesday night in honor of Chip Kidd’s new novel, “The Learners” (Scribner).
The reason has nothing to do with the author’s first name, a nickname his mother gave him before he was even born. Mr. Kidd’s given name is Charles, and it is Charles Kidd who holds the copyright to the book.
No, chips would have been appropriate — not just any chips, but Krinkle Kutt chips — because among the subjects covered in “The Learners” with humor and aplomb is the advertising account for Krinklies.
A description of one of the ads created by Milburne “Sketchy” Spear is unforgettable:
To say it was only a newspaper ad was to say that the Bayeux Tapestry was simple reportage. Under a script banner that read KRINKLE IS KING!, this time His Highness Potato Chip loomed over an enslaved realm of hundreds of minipretzels, a networked multitude, each in a tiny harness connected to a massive chariot bearing their enormous conqueror, beaming in tater triumph.
In deference to the Krinklies, I’m glad to report there weren’t any pretzels at “The Learners” book party either.
On silver trays, decorated with miniature books, featuring miniature “The Learners” book jackets, came vegetable spring rolls, dumplings, and tomato and bacon on toast. Average snack food was nowhere to be seen at the party, hosted by Inger and Osborn Elliott at their book- and art-filled Upper East Side home.
Perhaps it was a wise decision. It is difficult to imagine Edmund White, who has just finished a biography of Rimbaud, eating potato chips while greeting former Knopf editor Ashbel Green.
And chances are slim the crunch of potato chips would have added much to the exchange between the editor of the Yale Review, J.D. McClatchy, and the author of “Young Frankenstein,” “Hairspray,” and “The Producers,” Thomas Meehan.
Mr. Kidd’s godson, Jet Spear, seemed perfectly content without a potato chip. The nearly-3-year-old child played “peekaboo” with the book jacket for “The Learners.” The son of photographer Geoff Spear, a frequent collaborator with Mr. Kidd, Jet appears on the cover of the 2006 Paul Simon album “Surprise.”
Mr. Kidd was probably too busy receiving congratulations from friends and colleagues to even notice the food being served. His favorite foods, according to his mother, Ann, are pepperoni bread and pizza.
agordon@nysun.com
