Chapter XXIV – The Missing Chapter, by Craig Dworkin

Description

University of Utah: Red Butte Press, 2013. Edition of 350 numbered, 26 lettered, and 14 ligatured 3.75 x 6″; 12 pages. Pamphlet construction. Letterpress on handmade paper from Tryst Press. Bound in Hahnemuhle Bugra and Ingres endsheets and cover. Numbered on colophon. Initialed by Craig Dworkin. Text by Craig Dworkin. Design by David Wolfe. Binding by Emily Tipps. Printing by Claire Taylor and Chris Dunsmore. Production management by Marnie Powers-Torrey. Paper by Robert Buchert.

Introduction: “Chapter XXIV of the fourth volume of Laurence Sterne’s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman opens: ‘No doubt, Sir, – there is a whole chapter wanting here – and a chasm of ten pages made in the book by it.’ A jump in pagination confirms the lacuna: Chapter XXIV is missing entirely. After 250 years, however, the novel is finally complete: here at last is the missing chapter, designed to fit neatly into the first edition (R & J Dodsley, 1761) with a simple snip of thread. The interpolated text uses all of the historically consistent English words in which the letters f or s can be substituted for the other s (or vice versa) and still result in a legitimate word. Each sentence is based on grammatical constructions found elsewhere in Sterne’s novel.

Shown alongside the 18th-century 1st edition of Tristram Shandy in the photographs.