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Offbeat author to share works
By Jessica Herlihy
Lifestyle Writer
1/31/2007

The Lehigh Bookstore will welcome a guest at Bethlehem’s next First Friday celebration on Feb. 2. ArtsLehigh has invited the renowned writer Lord Whimsy for a book reading and signing.

Who is Lord Whimsy?

Lord Breaulove Swells Whimsy is the pen name of Victor Allen Crawford III. He is the author of “The Affected Provincial’s Companion Volume One,” a collection of essays, poems and drawings that reflect his fanciful lifestyle.

Whimsy is a self-proclaimed “dandy” – a gentleman, a writer, a graphic designer and a performance artist who lives in a small rural town in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey with his wife, who goes by Lady Pinkwater.

“The Affected Provincial’s Companion” is a composite of the life Whimsy has created for himself. He reflects on issues ranging from “The Perils of Sportswear” to “How to Ride a Highwheel” to “Silk on the Nipple – Or, a Young Gentleman’s Introduction to the Pleasures of Pocket Squares.”

He pays painstaking attention to detail, discussing exactly how one can fold pocket squares and handkerchiefs into intricate designs. “An important thing to note is that the pocket square should never exactly match the tie; to do so is not only crushingly banal and unimaginative, it betrays a clumsiness of mind and a callous indifference to the small pleasures of being alive. For shame!” he reminds his readers.

Silagh White, director of ArtsLehigh, has spent time with Whimsy during his previous visits to Lehigh and praises him as one of the most interesting people she’s ever met.

Whimsy first appeared as a guest in the Drown Writers’ Series in 2004, when his career was just beginning.

“Now his career is about to cannonball,” White said. “He’s all about appreciating the finer things in life, not consuming the finer things.”

Whimsy’s home and garden are filled with art, animals, plants and books, but he is not a snob.

Whimsy refuses to accept the intense consumerism of today’s world. He focuses on the senses and sensory integration of everything around him.

“Whimsy’s priority is refreshingly simple,” White said.

His attention to detail is visible in everything he does. Whimsy hand washes his suits because he claims that dry cleaning destroys the clothing’s fibers. Every word in his well-spoken witticisms has been perfectly placed. His life itself is the true artwork.

“He doesn’t fear curiosity,” White said. “He embraces that that makes him tick.”

Whimsy’s book is smart and eccentric, risqué and amusing. Perhaps that is why the movie rights to the book have been recently purchased by Johnny Depp’s production company, Infinitum Nihil, along with Initial Entertainment Group. It is unknown how the producers will interpret Whimsy’s collection of essays, poems and diagrams into film, or whether Depp will play the role of Whimsy himself.

Whimsy also maintains his own online blog on LiveJournal.com, where he posts anecdotes, recipes and even video clips. Here he contemplates how he will continue his series of books. He designed every aspect, including illustrations, cover, binding and typeset, of “The Affected Provincial’s Companion” himself.

“Subject matter will vary throughout the series as always,” he wrote in his online journal, “a naturalist guide, a humorous epistolary format, a Munchausean faux-travel journal and anything else I can shoehorn into them.”

While at Lehigh, White says Whimsy will hopefully be staying in Taylor College as part of the new “Artists in Residency in Taylor College” program.

The idea is to bring the artists to the students so they can interact, as opposed to the guests staying in a hotel across town. The option is offered, not imposed, on the students who live in Taylor.

“If you get a whiff of aftershave on your floor, you’ll know that Whimsy is nigh, babies,” Whimsy said. “It could be your lucky night, so be sure to wash up, you grubby little bookworms.”

The reason he enjoys returning to Lehigh is “the squash soup, mostly – but the hard drugs and the criminal element are a close second,” he quipped.

After Whimsy’s book signing at the Bookstore, he will be heading over to the Wildflower Café on New Street for another reading.

When asked if he had any words of wisdom for students, he replied in typical Whimsy fashion: “Say ‘no’ to monogamy, monotremes or monotony. Take your pick.”

Sounds like Johnny's type of guy. :P And he is a fellow Jerseyite. B)

I bought this book and read most of it. It's very "interesting" to say the least. :huh: I have no idea how it would be made into a movie though.

I think I've read that any possible movie might be a combination of Lord Whimsy's life and parts of the book. Does that sound right?

Holly

Yup, that sounds like it could be right. But ya never know. lol

I've got the book and have ploughed through parts of it some are interesting, some parts boring or downright silly - but on the whole I felt it was contrived and not representative of a true eccentric. I can see the attraction of the book though - but, like ReadinDeppth have no idea of how it could be filmed.

I am in the middle of reading it right now. Don't have much to read at the moment. But what I have read is kind of silly. I am also interested in how he will make this into a movie. But Johnny will make into a movie somehow. He has a talent for doing that.

Nicci B)

The screenplay will be difficult to write-would this be told from an outsider who observed Whimsey or as Whimsey recounting his life events in a time of reflection-curious to see how it will develop.