Dear Reader:

You may have seen earlier this month that we announced the next hardcover coffee table book from Arena Books: Wandering America.

Arena Books started with Silicon, which all about chips, factories, tools, and engineering decisions underneath modern life. Wandering America is a very different type of work: roads, towns, landscapes, and the places that show what the country looks like when you slow down enough to really see it. 

Wandering America features the exclusive photography of a brilliant American artist: Alex Kittoe.

I don’t think that many new book brands could pull off a pivot from silicon chip architecture to American landscape photography as the first and second books. But that, in a way, is exactly what we’re trying to do with Arena. 

American Propaganda is an expansive umbrella.

We knew we wanted to do something very Americana around the occasion of the semiquincentennial. I have long believed that there’s no better way to love America than to go out and see America. And in the last year, nothing has made me want to get back to seeing America than seeing Alex’s photos of America online. 

So, we pitched him on putting them in a book… and the rest is history.

Wandering America is a book of long roads, open country, roadside color, changing light, and the glory of the American continent. It has hundreds of photographs spanning seven years of Alex’s American wanderings, mostly accompanied by his camera and no one else. And it includes some light writing by Alex, edited by yours truly, about what makes photographing America, from lonely mountain vistas in the West to the urban undergrounds of New York and Chicago, so special.

I am a sappy patriot. I got emotional the first time I stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and looked out toward the Washington Monument and the US Capitol. I am a little embarrassed to say that I still get a flutter in my chest whenever a Customs and Border Patrol officer tells me “welcome home” at an airport. Flags on the side of the road on Memorial Day give me the same feeling. 

And the last six months working closely with Alex to bring that book to life have given me that feeling, too. His photographs are patient and full of affection for the ordinary, in-between places that make America… extraordinary. 

If you’re anything like me, I know they will make you feel the same way.

It was a real personal privilege to visit the print factory earlier this month when the book’s “signatures” — the big 16-page sheets that get cut and sewn to make the book — were rolling off the presses. Having spent the last few years of my life devoted to high-end print media, this was really special. Here are some photos I took while inspecting the sheets and seeing them stacked on pallets for binding: 

Wandering America is 400 pages of 150 gsm, high-bulk paper, printed in 10-color CMYK to bring out the full majesty of the American landscape, and threadsewn so that the binding will last several lifetimes. It’s cut at the same oversized 9.50 x 12.00 inch format and clocks in at just about six pounds. It is definitely the thickest, heaviest product we’ve brought to market (yet!). We wanted to put Alex’s work in the most special format possible.

The preorder price is $99, but you can get $10 off with code ARENASUB. Besides, with European jet fuel prices this summer, you might think about spending it in the USA instead — wandering. No pressure!

Wandering America will be shipping in August — or, if we get really lucky in the world of freight logistics, by the end of July. High-quality print is complicated business and always takes longer than low-quality print, but we think it’s worth it. 

Preorder Wandering America

God bless America,

Max