Once upon a time, the collected works of music journalists, film critics and other cultural correspondents appeared with regularity on the literary landscape. We relied on their observations to make sense not only of the art we admired and the artists who created it but of the times we lived in and the places we felt at home. Now? Not so much.
The way culture is celebrated, disseminated and reported on has changed, probably forever. So when a book like “ Running With the Devil: Essays, Articles & Remembrances ” by John Albert appears on the horizon, it feels as anachronistic as a sailing vessel flying the skull and bones. But John Albert was no ordinary writer.
When he died suddenly from a heart attack last year at the age of 58, he left behind a body of work scattered across the pages of books, anthologies, literary journals and alternative weeklies. His friend and editor, Joe Donnelly, hit on the idea to assemble these pieces in a collection. “Almost as soon as John died,” Donnelly said, “I started thinking about the responsibility to preserve his writing legacy.
” Donnelly approached their mutual friend Iris Berry, co-founder of Punk Hostage Press , about the project. She didn’t need to be convinced. “There always seemed to be a kind of magic surrounding John Albert,” Berry said.
“A mystery and a charisma that I can’t explain. He definitely left us too soon.” It’s only fitting, then, that “Running With the Devil” will receive a grand, old-schoo.
