"...human denial is probably the toughest barrier to any progress and the way will doubtless be hard."*

In about 1990 the AIDS epidemic was in full scythe, and the gay tribe- and its allies- were dealing with a seemingly unstoppable, exponentially-increasing toll of sickness and fairly swift death. As governments swung, slowly, rather grudgingly, into action, raising money in the private sector gave rise to all sorts of schemes. 

One, floated by the writer Sir Stephen Spender (1909-85) was to publish "an Alphabet: a volume in which each writer was allotted a letter and wrote a poem or short essay or whatever it suggested to him or her. David Hockney drew the Alphabet for us, each of his letters providing inspiration to whomever it was allotted."

The result was Hockney's Alphabet. An elegant, oversized book, its large pages feature the artist's imaginative mind at work. The contributions are stellar, including observations by Joyce Carol Oates, Iris Murdoch, Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer (he was too busy, so they printed his refusal), Seamus Heaney, Erica Jong, Margaret Drabble, Craig Raine, Doris Lessing, T.S. Eliot (a letter contrributed by his widow), Kazuo Ishiguro, John Updike, Susan Sontag, and- for Y- Douglas Adams. Proceeds went entirely to the American Friends of AIDS Crisis Trust, for research  and support services.

A true work of art, and a milestone of a tragic and noble time.

Details:

Hockney's Alphabet, with drawings by David Hockney & written contributions edited by Sir Stephen Spender (Random House, 1st ed., 2nd printing, 1992). ISBN 0-679-41766-4. 9.5" x 13". HBB price: $75. 

All proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to Carolina CARE Partners, founded in 1990, to support their ongoing work.

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*The title quote is from playwright Arthur Miller's "R".