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Laurel for Libby: A Facsimile Edition of a Small Story Book Written for Graham Greene by his Wife, Vivien
“She was born in the year of the second Great Exhibition and she was run over by a tradesman’s bicycle in 1934—a long life for a cat. There were all sorts of mysteries about her. . . .” So begins Laurel for Libby , a beguiling previously unpublished story by Vivien Greene, the wife of acclaimed author Graham Greene.
First presented by Vivien to her husband as a tenth-anniversary gift, the original text is reproduced here for the first time in her own legible hand, accompanied by her own charming drawings as well. This little book chronicles the many adventures of Libby, the oldest cat in Bristol, who lived with the same family all her life through four major wars, the Peace of Berlin, and the Treaty of Versailles. Given different names by a succession of cooks and family owners over the years, she never had kittens, and thus a question mark always hung over her sex. Greene follows this mysterious feline and her many exploits over seven decades of British life, offering a whimsical and ultimately timeless story that is sure to delight cat lovers of all ages on both sides of the Atlantic.
First presented by Vivien to her husband as a tenth-anniversary gift, the original text is reproduced here for the first time in her own legible hand, accompanied by her own charming drawings as well. This little book chronicles the many adventures of Libby, the oldest cat in Bristol, who lived with the same family all her life through four major wars, the Peace of Berlin, and the Treaty of Versailles. Given different names by a succession of cooks and family owners over the years, she never had kittens, and thus a question mark always hung over her sex. Greene follows this mysterious feline and her many exploits over seven decades of British life, offering a whimsical and ultimately timeless story that is sure to delight cat lovers of all ages on both sides of the Atlantic.
40 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
6 people want to read
About the author
Vivien Greene
22 books1 followerVivien Greene has been a Guggenheim curator since 1993 and specializes in late 19th- and early 20th-century European art with concentrations in Italian modernism and international currents in turn-of-the-century art and culture. She most recently organized the exhibitions Italian Futurism, 1909–1944: Reconstructing the Universe (2014) and The Avant-Gardes of Fin-de-Siècle Paris: Signac, Bonnard, Redon, and Their Contemporaries (2013). Among her other exhibition projects are The Vorticists: Rebel Artists in London and New York, 1914–18 (coorganized with Mark Antliff; 2010–11); Utopia Matters: From Brotherhoods to Bauhaus (2010); and Divisionism/Neo-Impressionism: Arcadia and Anarchy (2007).
In addition to the catalogues associated with her exhibitions, Greene’s latest publications include “John Quinn and Vorticist Painting: The Eye (and Purse) of an American Collector,” in Vorticism: New Perspectives, ed. Mark Antliff and Scott W. Klein (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013); “Bizantium and Emporium: Fine Secolo Magazines in Rome and Milan,” in The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines, vol. 3, Europe 1880–1940, ed. Peter Brooker, Sascha Bru, Andrew Thacker, and Christian Weikop (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013); “The ‘Other’ Africa: Giuseppe Pitrè’s Mostra Etnografica Siciliana (1891–92),” Journal of Modern Italian Studies 17, no. 3 (June 2012); and “Utopia/Dystopia,” American Art Journal 25, no. 2 (Summer 2011).
Greene was the recipient of a Bogliasco Fellowship in 2009, and in 2003 received a Fulbright Travel Grant to Italy and a predoctoral Rome Prize Fellowship in Modern Italian Studies at the American Academy in Rome. She regularly organizes and presents papers at scholarly symposia, and has cochaired sessions at the annual College Art Association conference and other events. She serves on the Center for Italian Modern Art’s Advisory Committee and the Bogliasco Foundation’s Selection Committee, and was a trustee of the Association of Art Museum Curators (2006–11). She has a Ph.D. in art history, and focused on 19th-century European art.
In addition to the catalogues associated with her exhibitions, Greene’s latest publications include “John Quinn and Vorticist Painting: The Eye (and Purse) of an American Collector,” in Vorticism: New Perspectives, ed. Mark Antliff and Scott W. Klein (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013); “Bizantium and Emporium: Fine Secolo Magazines in Rome and Milan,” in The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines, vol. 3, Europe 1880–1940, ed. Peter Brooker, Sascha Bru, Andrew Thacker, and Christian Weikop (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013); “The ‘Other’ Africa: Giuseppe Pitrè’s Mostra Etnografica Siciliana (1891–92),” Journal of Modern Italian Studies 17, no. 3 (June 2012); and “Utopia/Dystopia,” American Art Journal 25, no. 2 (Summer 2011).
Greene was the recipient of a Bogliasco Fellowship in 2009, and in 2003 received a Fulbright Travel Grant to Italy and a predoctoral Rome Prize Fellowship in Modern Italian Studies at the American Academy in Rome. She regularly organizes and presents papers at scholarly symposia, and has cochaired sessions at the annual College Art Association conference and other events. She serves on the Center for Italian Modern Art’s Advisory Committee and the Bogliasco Foundation’s Selection Committee, and was a trustee of the Association of Art Museum Curators (2006–11). She has a Ph.D. in art history, and focused on 19th-century European art.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 9, 2013
I'm not quite sure if you can count this as a novel exactly. It is really more of a short story, but I am still putting it down as one of my reads for the year. What is really interesting about this, (let's call it a novella), is the fact that it was written by Vivien Greene as a tenth anniversary present for her husband Graham Greene, the novelist. What a lovely gift! Not only did she create the simple story, but also the illustrations that accompany the narrative.
Essentially, it tells the story of an imaginary cat named Libby (although she has many other names). She is passed between members of the household from the cook to the narrator to her aunt, but she is always there and lives through both world wars.
This is a very sweet depiction of an imaginary cat's life and the plate illustrations that Vivien has created were a lovely accompaniment. As far as cat portrayals go, it was also fairly realistic - this was an individual who was at once aloof and quite prepared to tell those around her to leave her alone or hide in the most obscure places imaginable and yet at another moment, to follow them around incessantly demanding attention when she wanted and then finding the most comfortable, demanding place to sit in the one patch of sunlight available in the whole house. For anyone who has never owned a cat, this is precisely what they do! They are lovable rogues each with their own very individual and very affectionate (in their own idiosyncratic ways) personalities. This was a cat who I could easily have fallen in love with (although she would probably have had to fight for the best spots in our house. There are only four windows at the front of the house and very often I will return home to find each one occupied by a different furry face so Libby may have felt left out without her own personal front window space.
However, I would have liked a little more affection for this poor cat, who did not even have a definite name (which, as T S Eliot would know) is vitally important.
Nonetheless, I really feel that whilst this could hardly be classified as a great piece of literature, it is in many regards a unique piece of literary history and a sentimental personal gift that makes this a lovely, if very quick, read and a really special insight into what must have been a beautiful marriage.
3 1/2 stars really but I think I have to go with 4 cats for the sake of Libby:
Essentially, it tells the story of an imaginary cat named Libby (although she has many other names). She is passed between members of the household from the cook to the narrator to her aunt, but she is always there and lives through both world wars.
This is a very sweet depiction of an imaginary cat's life and the plate illustrations that Vivien has created were a lovely accompaniment. As far as cat portrayals go, it was also fairly realistic - this was an individual who was at once aloof and quite prepared to tell those around her to leave her alone or hide in the most obscure places imaginable and yet at another moment, to follow them around incessantly demanding attention when she wanted and then finding the most comfortable, demanding place to sit in the one patch of sunlight available in the whole house. For anyone who has never owned a cat, this is precisely what they do! They are lovable rogues each with their own very individual and very affectionate (in their own idiosyncratic ways) personalities. This was a cat who I could easily have fallen in love with (although she would probably have had to fight for the best spots in our house. There are only four windows at the front of the house and very often I will return home to find each one occupied by a different furry face so Libby may have felt left out without her own personal front window space.
However, I would have liked a little more affection for this poor cat, who did not even have a definite name (which, as T S Eliot would know) is vitally important.
Nonetheless, I really feel that whilst this could hardly be classified as a great piece of literature, it is in many regards a unique piece of literary history and a sentimental personal gift that makes this a lovely, if very quick, read and a really special insight into what must have been a beautiful marriage.
3 1/2 stars really but I think I have to go with 4 cats for the sake of Libby:
Displaying 1 of 1 review