Blast Books is a New York-based book publisher whose catalog consists of

non-fiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with be ...

books which focus on cultural and historical subjects, often of an obscure or unusual nature. Many of their publications include archival illustrations and photography. Blast has published titles by

John Strausbaugh John Strausbaugh (born 1951, in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American author, cultural commentator, and host of ''The New York Times'' ''Weekend Explorer'' video podcast series on New York City. Among other topics, he is an authority on the history ...

, Drew Friedman,

Suehiro Maruo (born January 28, 1956 in Nagasaki, Japan) is a Japanese manga artist, illustrator, and painter. Biography Maruo graduated from junior high school in March 1972 but dropped out of senior high school. At the age of 15, he moved to Tokyo and began ...

Hideshi Hino Hideshi Hino (日野日出志 ''Hino Hideshi'', born April 19, 1946) is a Japanese mangaka, manga artist who specializes in horror stories. His comics include ''Hell Baby'', ''Hino Horrors'', and ''Panorama of Hell''. He also wrote and directed tw ...

, James Edmonson, John Harley Warner, Ken Smith, Arne Svenson,

Steve Young Jon Steven Young (born October 11, 1961) is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons, primarily with the San Francisco 49ers. He also played for the Tampa Bay Buccane ...

Gretchen Worden Gretchen (, ; literal translation: "Little Grete" or "Little Greta (given name), Greta") is a female given name of Germany, German origin that is mainly prevalent in the United States. Its popularity increased because a major character in Johan ...

, Teller, and others.

Selected publications

Blast has published two large-format photographic books about the

Mütter Museum The Mütter Museum is a medical museum located in the Center City area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It contains a collection of anatomical and pathological specimens, wax models, and antique medical equipment. The museum is part of The Coll ...

. The first, ''Mütter Museum of

the College of Physicians of Philadelphia The College of Physicians of Philadelphia is the oldest private medical society in the United States. Founded in 1787 by 24 Philadelphia physicians "to advance the Science of Medicine, and thereby lessen human misery, by investigating the disease ...

'' (2002), contains images of the museum's exhibits shot by contemporary

fine art photographer Fine-art photography is photography created in line with the vision of the photographer as artist, using photography as a medium for creative expression. The goal of fine-art photography is to express an idea, a message, or an emotion. This stand ...

s, including William Wegman,

Joel-Peter Witkin Joel-Peter Witkin (born September 13, 1939) is an American photographer who lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His work often deals with themes such as death, corpses (and sometimes dismembered portions thereof), often featuring ornately decorated ...

, Shelby Lee Adams, and Rosamond Purcell. The second, ''Mütter Museum Historic Medical Photographs'' (2007), focuses on the museum's archive of rare historic photographs, most of which were previously unpublished. ''Hidden Treasure'' (2012) was published in conjunction with the National Library of Medicine, the world's largest medical library. The book features artifacts from the library's private collection, dating from the 13th through the 20th century, including color-illustrated medical books; rare

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or repr ...

s; pamphlets and

ephemera Ephemera are transitory creations which are not meant to be retained or preserved. Its etymological origins extends to Ancient Greece, with the common definition of the word being: "the minor transient documents of everyday life". Ambiguous in ...

; “

magic lantern The magic lantern, also known by its Latin name , is an early type of image projector that used pictures—paintings, prints, or photographs—on transparent plates (usually made of glass), one or more lenses, and a light source. Because a si ...

” slides; toys; stereograph cards; scrapbooks; film stills; posters; and more. Edmonson and Warner's ''Dissection: Photographs of a Rite of Passage in American Medicine: 1880-1930'' (2009) catalogued over 100 previously unpublished archival photographs of students at prominent American medical schools posing alongside

dissected Dissection (from Latin ' "to cut to pieces"; also called anatomization) is the dismembering of the body of a deceased animal or plant to study its anatomical structure. Autopsy is used in pathology and forensic medicine to determine the cause ...

cadaver A cadaver or corpse is a dead human body that is used by medical students, physicians and other scientists to study anatomy, identify disease sites, determine causes of death, and provide tissue to repair a defect in a living human being. Stud ...

s in their anatomy classes. Blast has produced three books in conjunction with the

Center for Land Use Interpretation The Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI) is a non-profit research and education organization involved in exploring, examining, and understanding contemporary landscape issues in the United States. Founded in 1994, the CLUI organizes exhibi ...

: ''Up River: Man-Made Sites of Interest on the Hudson from the Battery to Troy'', by Matthew Coolidge (2008), ''Around the Bay: Man-Made Sites of Interest in the San Francisco Bay Region'' (2013), and '' Los Alamos

Rolodex A Rolodex is a rotating card file device used to store business contact information. Its name, a portmanteau of the words ''rolling'' and ''index'', has become somewhat genericized (usually as ''rolodex'') for any personal organizer performing th ...

: Doing Business with the National Lab, 1967-1978'' (2016). In 2000 Blast published ''"When I'm Dead All This Will Be Yours!": Joe Teller – A Portrait by His Kid'', by Teller (of

Penn & Teller Penn & Teller, Penn Jillette and Teller, are American magicians, entertainers, and scientific skeptics who have performed together since the late 1970s. They are noted for their ongoing act that combines elements of comedy with magic. The duo ha ...

) and his father Joe. Blast's 2013 book, ''Everything's Coming Up Profits: The Golden Age of Industrial Musicals'', by former

David Letterman David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947) is an American television host, comedian, writer and producer. He hosted late night television talk shows for 33 years, beginning with the February 1, 1982 debut of ''Late Night with David Letterman' ...

comedy writer

and cartoonist Sport Murphy, offered the first chronicle of a neglected genre of music history: the theatrical productions staged by corporations to promote new products to their sales force. In 2016, the book rights were acquired by

Amblin Entertainment Amblin Entertainment, Inc., formerly named Amblin Productions and Steven Spielberg Productions, is an American film production company founded by director and producer Steven Spielberg, and film producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshal ...

, who announced development of a film production starring

Will Ferrell John William Ferrell (; born July 16, 1967) is an American actor, comedian, and producer. He first established himself in the mid-1990s as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'', where he performed from 1995 to 200 ...

and

Kristen Wiig Kristen Carroll Wiig (; born August 22, 1973) is an American actress, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. Born in Canandaigua, New York, she was raised in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and Rochester, New York. She moved to Los Angeles, where she joi ...

. ''

Thomas Bernhard Nicolaas Thomas Bernhard (; 9 February 1931 – 12 February 1989) was an Austrian novelist, playwright and poet who explored death, social injustice, and human misery in controversial literature that was deeply pessimistic about modern civilizati ...

: 3 Days'', published in 2016, chronicles a three-day park bench monologue by the Austrian novelist, playwright, and poet filmed by Ferry Radax for a 1970 documentary film about Bernhard. In 2017, Blast published ''The Secret World of Renaldo Kuhler'', the first collection of previously uncirculated illustrations by a prolific and idiosyncratic artist who created a vast body of visionary work without public recognition during his lifetime (1931–2013). (Renaldo was the son of famous railroad designer

Otto Kuhler Otto August Kuhler (July 31, 1894 – August 5, 1977) was an American designer, one of the best known industrial designers of the American railroads. According to ''Trains'' magazine he streamstyled more locomotives and railroad cars than Cr ...

.) The following year, Blast published Robert McCracken Peck's ''Specimens of Hair: The Curious Collection of Peter A. Browne''. The book is based on "an oddball collection of animal and human hair assembled by an obsessive 19th-century naturalist

hich Ij ( fa, ايج, also Romanized as Īj; also known as Hich and Īch) is a village in Golabar Rural District, in the Central District of Ijrud County, Zanjan Province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also ...

was at one time deemed worthless by the

Academy of Natural Sciences The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, formerly the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, is the oldest natural science research institution and museum in the Americas. It was founded in 1812, by many of the leading natura ...

, despite including samples from 13 of the first 14 presidents."Brady, Shaun, "Academy of Natural Sciences curator of presidents’ hair will exhume the odd lot Wednesday,"
''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...

'', November 12, 2018

Founding

The company was established in 1989 by Laura Lindgren and Ken Swezey. Lindgren is a professional book designer who edits and designs Blast's titles.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Blast Books website
Book publishing companies based in New York (state) Publishing companies based in New York City Publishing companies established in 1989 1989 establishments in New York City