Eggers’ next step: Statue of Liberty
One could build a monument out of all the books that have been written about the Statue of Liberty. But how many celebrate her right foot?
Leave it to Dave Eggers, the forever inventive Marin County author, to devote a book to the symbolism of Lady Liberty’s mid-stride.
“Her Right Foot,” Eggers’ latest picture book, will be published this fall, Chronicle Books has announced.
Acquired in 2016, the book was to have come out in 2018. Chronicle Books and Eggers moved up the publication to Oct. 3 in light of recent events. (Chronicle Books is not connected with The San Francisco Chronicle.)
“From the moment we acquired ‘Her Right Foot,’ we knew how important it was,” Chronicle Books associate editor Taylor Norman said in a statement. “But over the past few weeks, it’s become clear that it’s also necessary — now.”
In response to Donald Trump’s executive order banning immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries, protesters recently unveiled a giant “Refugees Welcome” banner at the base of the statue, the nation’s quintessential symbol of American freedom and openness.
Ginee Seo, children’s executive publishing director at Chronicle Books, said in a statement, “As an immigrant and naturalized citizen of the United States whose parents came to this country to realize their own American Dream, I’ve always had deep feelings for the Statue of Liberty and everything it stands for. It’s exciting to welcome Dave Eggers to the Chronicle Children’s list with a book that’s more important than ever during these uncertain times.”
Eggers said the idea for the book came to him when he visited the statue with his family in 2015.
“It wasn’t the first time I visited, but it was the first time I’d noticed that her right foot was lifted, in mid-stride,” he said in a statement. “There was already a lot of anti-immigrant rhetoric floating around then, and the Statue of Liberty’s posi-
tion of action and welcome — striding into the sea to meet new arrivals — struck me as crucial to remember.”
The writing in “Her Right Foot” — illustrated in cutpaper and ink by first-time artist Shawn Harris — is marked by Eggers’ signature exuberance and humor, as is evident in this excerpt:
“Liberty and freedom from oppression are not things you get or grant by standing around like some kind of statue. No! These are things that require movement. And adaptation. And more than anything else, it’s unfinished business. It never ends!”
Eggers, the founder of the independent publishing house McSweeney’s, has written 10 books, including “The Circle,” “A Hologram for the King” and “This Bridge Will Not Be Gray,” a children’s book that will be published in a revised edition by Chronicle Books in 2018.