I seek the name of the book & author of a book I owned as a child.  I
think it was published before 1980 and I may have gotten it as a gift
as a 10 year old circa 1975.  As I think about the illustrations, I
imagine it was published in the 1960s or 70s, but I doubt, given the
creativity in the images, that it was the 1950s.  I could be wrong
about that, though.

The typesetting and illustrations were colorful if not
hypnotic/bohemian. One page started with the phrase "It was a dark and
stormy night" written in a swirl of increasingly smaller letters so
that the smallest letters were in the center, barely readable.  I
remember another page with pictures of magpies.
Some text ran off the page...  Each page had something else unusual on
it - like a hand with an eye in the center.  It wasn't a story book -
at best it was poetry - like visual poetry. It wasn't all
illustrations - there was some text...clever plays on words.  No
photographs, just color
drawings.  Not pastel, but not necessarily bold, bold colors -
slightly muted.

The book was relatively thin but hard cover and about 8x11 in size,
maybe slightly smaller.  It wasn't necessarily poetry, but it was
fascinating - I couldn't take my eyes off of the drawings.

Help me find the name of the book so I can maybe actually find the
book one day for my own son!  Thank you!

I believe the book you're remembering is Remy Charlip's "Arm in Arm: A
Collection of Connections, Endless Tales, Reiterations, and Other
Echolalia."

Here's one person's description of the book:

"About 25 years ago, I had a copy of this book. I remember reading and
re-reading it for hours on end, mesmerized by the drawings and the
round-and-round stories. I remember all the stories and poems being
short enough that I could read them in a minute or two, but could
ponder them for days. It was a fantastic experience for me at seven
years old, and I can honestly say this was the most memorable book I
ever owned. I still remember the pictures and writings in 'Arm In Arm'
like yesterday even though I have forgotten about some of the books I
still have.

I lost my copy 25 years ago, and at least once a week since then, the
'dark and stormy night' story will pop into my head with the image of
the ships going round and round in a circle, getting smaller and
smaller as the story kept going round and round without end. I
remember thinking that if I just had a magnifying glass strong enough,
I could keep reading the story forever!! It was that kind of wonder
that made this book so memorable and treasured."

Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1883672503/

Here's a picture of the cover art:

Amazon.com
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/1883672503.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

If this is not the correct book, please request clarification, and
I'll be glad to resume the hunt.

Best wishes,
pinkfreud

---

Clarification of Answer by pinkfreud-ga on 31 Mar 2004 17:21 PST

Here's you'll find a little sample from the book:

Remy Charlip's World
http://www.remycharlip.com/arminarm.html

That's the book!  Thank you so much...the answer was right on target.