Bookstore Readings confirmed so far

Live Poetry Readings at Bookstores

We are currently contacting bookstores across the country as we launch “What Love Is.” David and I present the new book with an in-store reading and discussion of art and poetry, with a spotlight on our unique collaboration. We are excited that our ongoing efforts have resulted in the confirmation of the following establishments for hosting these literary events:

  • Toadstool Bookshop (Peterborough, NH) - July 20

  • Book Soup (LA, CA) - Thursday August 15

  • Gloucester Writers Center (Gloucester, MA) - Thursday August 22

  • NYU Bookstore (NYC, NY) - Tuesday September 24

If you are a bookstore owner or manager who shares our enthusiasm for promoting poetry and fostering a love for literature, we invite you to consider hosting esteemed poet David Daniel and myself at your venue. By collaborating with us, you can offer your customers a unique and enriching experience that celebrates the art of poetry.

For inquiries or to express your interest in hosting our live poetry readings, please feel free to contact us directly. We look forward to the opportunity to collaborate with passionate bookstores in creating memorable and engaging literary events.usy looking for amazing bookstores around the country for live poetry readings. So far we have the following confirmed: If you are interested in hosting David and myself, be sure to contact us.

New Work for a New Exhibit

I’ve been invited to exhibit my Dante work at the Museo Archeologico dell’Umbia in Perugia in April. The show has a mythological theme and I’ll show pages from Inferno and Purgatorio with creatures like Harpies, Minotaur, Gorgons. In my edition of the Divine Comedy I didn’t draw what Dante and Virgil are talking about (just what Dante “saw”) so I left out Hercules and Sphinx. So I’ve made a comic page, with Dante’s words, to tell the story. Here are first passes of sanguine watercolor.

The Ride Begins - Dante's Divine Comedy A New Manuscript

George Cochrane and Facsimile Finder have teamed up to publish a new Divine Comedy manuscript on the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death, completely handwritten and illustrated by Cochrane himself over the past six years!

After analyzing 700 years of art inspired by the Divine Comedy, learning Italian in order to understand the original text, refining his unique hand-lettering technique, George set out to complete a new Divine Comedy manuscript. After six years, thousands of hours penning 350,000 characters, and completing hundreds of illustrations, George is on the verge of completing this important work.

“An intriguing work, of remarkable interest in the history of art inspired by the Divine Comedy.”

L. Battaglia-Ricci, Professor of Italian Literature, University of Pisa

And now, as we enter 2021, the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death, we welcome you to play an active part in this extraordinary project by entering George’s Scriptorium and receiving exclusive updates on its progress in the lead up to our Kickstarter to fund the publishing of this magnificent volume. Without dedicated patrons, this masterpiece will remain unpublished.

You can now enter George's Scriptorium here: https://dante.facsimilefinder.com/english

Studio Upgrade

My studio got a MAJOR upgrade this week. I am the grateful recipient of Leonard Langman’s book making machines. Leonard loved the Artist Books I make, and collected many of them. Very sadly he passed from COVID. Before now I’d have to hand-cut sheets of book board, stack heavy books to press books while gluing, and a tiny gold stamper (thanks Dad!). Now I can squarely cut huge boards (on what equates to a giant paper cutter), press books in an actual press, and gold stamp larger and longer texts or blocks. I’m looking forward to when I make my next books.

Diary of a studio

Twenty years ago I moved my studio out of my Brooklyn apartment to Long Island City. I built the first studio out of raw space.

Fifteen years later, the studios expanded and I built a new workspace and moved 15 feet west. At that time I scrambled to get the second space ready for a studio visit with Tod Lippy of Esopus Magazine. When he asked me to contribute to #23, it became the first project of studio #2.

The last finished project at 10-16 46th Ave was “Purgatorio.” As is the way of NYC, only five years after making the second space, all the tenants had to go to make room for something new.

Breaking: Big News in Divine Comedy Development

Huge news came in the development of my new “Divine Comedy.

Back story first: when I first made Inferno in a facing-page translation, I wanted to use my preferred English translation by Charles Singleton. There are so many things I love about his work. For starters, he doesn’t try to turn Dante’s specific poetic form into verse nor does he use the rhyming terzina (three-lined poetic form,) found in the original text. In my humble opinion, that challenge is insurmountable in English and frequently results in awkward language and lines of wildly varying line-length. Singleton sidestepped the problem by creating a prose translation, allowing for greater accuracy in presenting the poem in its most “correct” and accurate translation.

Another bonus is that Singleton’s lines don’t correspond to Dante’s (poetry vs prose) which allows for the presentation of a very clean block of text. At the time of publication, to make the edition truly contemporary, Inferno’s publisher wanted to use an English version made by a living translator who has done the complete poem. This narrowed the field significantly. In the end, we settled on Anthony Esolen’s very good version . With the new edition of the full Commedia being produced by a different publisher, my options have opened up. My new complete edition will not be published using a facing-page translation presentation, and will instead, be in either Italian and English only. So I finally had the chance to use Singleton’s version, if Princeton University Press who owns the rights, would allow me its use. I have just learned this week that they have approved my request!

Singleton texts

So now I can move forward using my favorite translation for the English edition. It is an incredible honor to place my art along with Singleton’s unsurpassed translation and I can’t wait to make it happen.

P.S. Another wonderful connection for me is that my Italian professor at Sarah Lawrence College, Dr. Judith Serafini-Sauli (who I can honestly say changed the course of my life), studied with Singleton himself at Princeton. Oh, and my grandfather Douglas George Cochrane Sr. was a Princeton alumnus. Circles in Circles.