H A P P Y M O M
E N T S
T e x t & i m a g e s b y L E N
L Y E
Edited and with an afterword by ROGER HORROCKS
The Holloway Press 2002
Happy Moments is the first complete publication
of Len Lye’s remarkable autobiographical texts written
in New York in the 1960s. The 21 texts (plus Lye’s
introduction) are accompanied by eight previously
unpublished drawings or ‘doodles’ as Lye called them.
The book is edited and with an afterword by Roger
Horrocks, author of the definitive Len Lye: a
biography (Auckland University Press, 2001).
Len Lye (1901-1980) was born in Christchurch and lived
in New Zealand until the age of 21. Apart from brief
return visits towards the end of his life in 1968 and
1977 Lye spent the rest of his life abroad. After short
periods in Australia and Samoa he went to London in
1926, and lived there until 1944 when he moved to New
York where he lived for the remainder of his life. He
gained an international reputation as a film-maker,
painter and kinetic sculptor.
Lye was an enthusiastic writer throughout his life and
was the author of a book No Trouble, a collection
of his idiosyncratic letters published at the Seizen
Press by his friends Robert Graves and Laura Riding in
Majorca in 1930 utilising much the same letterpress
technology as The Holloway Press. A selection of his
writing, Figures in Motion, edited by Wystan
Curnow and Roger Horrocks—including memoirs, manifestos
and essays—was posthumously published in 1984 by
Auckland University Press. It included some of the
material included in Happy Moments but this is
the first complete collection of Lye’s radiant and
forceful memories of his childhood in New Zealand and
his early efforts at formulating his unique theory of
art. Described by the poet Alistair Reid as ‘beautifully
transparent and heart-stopping’, Happy Moments
will be of great interest to admirers of Lye’s sculpture
and films, and to anyone who appreciates good writing.
Happy Moments is designed, letter press printed
on an Asbern cylinder press, using metal types, and
bound by Tara McLeod at The Holloway Press. The text is
12 pt Janson, set in Linotype by John Denny, Puriri
Press. Titles are handset in 18pt Lydian italic designed
by Warren Chappell. The images are printed from
photopolymer plates made by Nippy Graphix. The paper is
Evergreen ivory 104gsm, cover paper is Gainsborough
blueweave and the end papers Stardream sapphire.
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