Vicariously, I experienced the First Regional Book Fair in Tangier through updates from TALIM's Associate Director. According to Yhtimad Bouziane (here with Tangier's new mayor Fouad El Omari and Book Fair organizer Rachid Amahjour as they visited the Legation stand), it was a great opportunity to network and do lots of outreach, while selling a few books.
Actually, to sell one title: Enchantment: Pictures from the Tangier American Legation Museum, by Diana Wylie (here's the Amazon link).
Ever since we received our first copies, Enchantment has been a very popular book at the Legation's newly upscaled bookshop. As the only book about the Legation and its art collection, it's something visitors can return to and continue to learn about the artists and their times, long after they leave this city on the Strait.
But just as much as tourists picking up a serious souvenir, Tanjawis – both Moroccan and expat – have sought out Diana Wylie's book. We had queries even before we put the book on sale, and several people have stocked up on presents.
But more than pretty pictures (the quality of reproduction is top notch), Diana Wylie's Enchantment provides context. Thematic chapters that take the reader through that fascinating place called the Interzone, when Tangier was a kind of Shanghai West, "the Powers" running the city as a Western diplomatic outpost, separate from the rest of Morocco.
It's all about context. As we move toward providing more of that for the visitor to the Legation Museum, Diana Wylie's book will be an invaluable resource. Thanks to her, to donors Brett Phaneuf and Gregg Cook, and to my predecessor Thor Kuniholm for conceiving of the project, Enchantment is the gift that keeps on giving.
Gerald Loftus
bravo! i must see this.