The Wonderful World That Almost Was: A Life of Peter Hujar and Paul Thek
Regular price
$28.11 USD
Regular price
$46.85 USD
Sale price
$28.11 USD
Unit price
per
You save $18.74 USD (40%)
In stock — Ships within 1–2 business days
Format
Print Book
Currently viewing
Hardcover
$28.11 USD
$46.85 USD
Secure CheckoutYour data is protected
Fast U.S. ShippingShips within 1–2 business days
Authentic Titles100% Genuine Books
Book Overview "As official narratives everywhere strain and crack, Peter and Paul--and Durbin--offer a desperately needed alternative way of seeing and...
"As official narratives everywhere strain and crack, Peter and Paul--and Durbin--offer a desperately needed alternative way of seeing and being." --Benjamin Moser, author of Susan Sontag: Her Life and Work, winner of the Pulitzer Prize
"Andrew Durbin has made of these lives and these times a jam-packed poem in prose. It's like a trip with these guys, without pulling tight at the ending, just death." --Eileen Myles, author of a "Working Life"
The cinematic, never-before-told story of two intimately entangled artists who redefined queer art.
When Paul Thek met Peter Hujar in the winter of 1956 in Coral Gables, Florida, a slow-simmering connection began to burn. Thek, twenty-three and living in Miami, was handsome and itching to make it as a painter; in the twenty-two-year-old Hujar, a shy, sensual photographer, he'd found a kindred spirit. By 1960, they were dating and living in New York, beginning decades of sex, love, competition, and reconciliation--an entanglement that changed American art forever.
Surrounded by a robust creative scene populated by Susan Sontag, Andy Warhol, Fran Lebowitz, John Waters, and David Wojnarowicz, Thek and Hujar's profoundly influential careers, from the early 1960s through the late 1980s, differed as much as the men themselves. The unpredictable and often overlooked Thek crafted visceral installations and sculptures, while Hujar, celebrated and sociable, took penetrating portraits of his world, queer and otherwise. Yet even at their most estranged, and even after their deaths from AIDS, both men were united by a pursuit of liberation--from artistic and sexual limits, from anything short of changing the world.
Andrew Durbin's The Wonderful World That Almost Was unravels, for the first time, the intertwined stories and work of two boundary-burning, paradigm-tilting, never-more-relevant American artists. Weaving together deft art criticism with moving portraits of both men's inner lives, and assembled with exhaustive research, Durbin's book is an ode to a lost but still-living world--and two men who defined it.
Book Details Format: Hardcover | Pages: 496 | Language: English | Publisher: FARRAR STRAUSS & GIROUX | ISBN: 0374609551
FormatHardcover
Pages496
LanguageEnglish
ISBN0374609551
EAN9780374609559
PublisherFARRAR STRAUSS & GIROUX
Publication Date2026-04-14
AccessoriesNo Accessory
ConditionNew
Product TypeHARD COVER BOOKS
Weight1.61 Pounds
Length9.21 Inches
Width6.35 Inches
Height1.34 Inches
Shipping & Returns Fast, reliable shipping and easy returns on eligible items.
Most orders ship within 1–2 business days with fast, reliable U.S. delivery.
Eligible items can be returned within 30 days in line with our store return policy.
Why shop with AlbakiReads
Fresh Inventory from Major Publishers
Sourced through trusted book distributors, with fresh titles added regularly.
Secure Checkout
Your payment information is encrypted and protected every step of the way.
Fast U.S. Shipping
Most orders ship within 1–2 business days.
Books for Every Kind of Reader
From page-turners to timeless classics—find your next favorite read.
