Serendipity - by Carol Mavor (Hardcover)

About the Book

"An exploration of the sadness, as well as the joy, of unexpected discoveries in history and life. Carol Mavor's first "happy accident" occurred in 1980 when visiting New York's Serendipity 3, a dessert cafâe favored by Andy Warhol. Mavor's memory of eating a frozen hot chocolate became food for thought, nurturing accidental discoveries about art and literature. This book's happy, yet dark, accidents include Anne Frank's journal, discovered in the Secret Annex after the Second World War; Emily Dickinson's poems, scribbled on salvaged envelopes, hidden in a drawer; and Lolita, rescued from incineration by Nabokov's wife Vâera. Mavor's writing is dependent on serendipity's layers of happenstance, rousing feelings of something that she did not exactly know she was looking for until she found it. All history is about loss, and in the case of this book, much of it is tragic--but Serendipity also offers the happiness that can be found in unexpected discoveries."--

Book Synopsis

An exploration of the sadness, as well as the joy, of unexpected discoveries in history and life.

Carol Mavor's first "happy accident" occurred in 1980 when visiting New York's Serendipity 3, a dessert café favored by Andy Warhol. Mavor's memory of eating a frozen hot chocolate became food for thought, nurturing accidental discoveries about art and literature. This book's happy, yet dark, accidents include Anne Frank's journal, discovered in the Secret Annex after the Second World War; Emily Dickinson's poems, scribbled on salvaged envelopes, hidden in a drawer; and Lolita, rescued from incineration by Nabokov's wife Véra. Mavor's writing is dependent on serendipity's layers of happenstance, rousing feelings of something that she did not exactly know she was looking for until she found it. All history is about loss, and in the case of this book, much of it is tragic--but Serendipity also offers the happiness that can be found in unexpected discoveries.

Review Quotes

"Mavor's Serendipity: The Afterlife of the Object includes collecting among its interests, but Mavor is mainly tuned into our moments of discovery, 'by accident and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of, ' and later, of 'finding something that you did not exactly know you were looking for until you found it.' A widely published professor of art history, Mavor experiences serendipitous moments while gazing at artworks and artifacts, and while writing allusive, bounding essays about creative thought. So when she considers Caravaggio's The Inspiration of St. Matthew (1602) and the angel hovering over the startled saint who is trying to write something, the angel who passes freely between two worlds, she is also enacting the role of the angel, a liminal 'middle voice' between writer and reader, the past and the now."--Ron Slate "On the Seawall"

"Serendipity: The Afterlife of the Object is like wind. Rushing, it blows air into crevices and corners, mingling and affecting; rustling. Serendipity, like strong winds, collides objects, found, post-gust, with limbs intermingled, evidence of their play. Mavor's writing in and through Serendipity is best put, in the book's introduction, as 'a productive bumping into.'"--Theodore Anderson "Newcity"

"Welcoming us into the afterlife of the happy accident, Mavor's poetic ruminations reveal a cavalcade of surprising connections between a diverse array of images and objects. In the process, Serendipity reflects on the magical power of writing itself, on the capacity of the learned essayist to take us on dizzying flights of fancy and into profound depths of understanding."--Geoffrey Batchen, professor of history of art, University of Oxford

About the Author

Carol Mavor is professor of art history and visual culture at the University of Manchester. She has published widely on photography, cinema, color, and childhood. Her books include Aurelia: Art and Literature Through the Mouth of the Fairy Tale, also published by Reaktion Books.