McSweeney"s is an award-winning American publishing house, known for its innovative design and use of illustration and its belief in the book as a desirable object. Founded by Dave Eggars, the author of books including A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and the novelisation of Maurice Sendak"s Where the Wild Things Are, McSweeney"s publishes books, a quarterly journal, a magazine (The Believer), DVDs and a website, all of which have evolved their own distinctive visual aesthetic. In the last decade they have solicited contributions from many of the world"s leading authors, artists and designers and produced some of the most beautiful books of recent years. This book showcases the extraordinary visual appeal of productions across the range of their activities, taking the reader behind the scenes at McSweeney"s. Hundreds of images - from napkin sketches to final objects - give insights into the creative process, and interviews with participating designers, artists, authors and illustrators explore the incidental, accidental and even deliberate ways McSweeney"s has transformed the experience of reading. Contributors include Michael Chabon, Rick Moody, Jonathan Lethem, Charles Burns, Dave Eggers, David Byrne, Nick Hornby, Joyce Carol Oates, Jordan Crane, William T. Vollmann, Lawrence Weschler, Sean Wilsey, Marcel Dzama and many more. McSweeney"s began in 1998 as a San Francisco- based literary journal edited by Dave Eggers, and has since grown into a celebrated independent publishing company. Its publications have won awards from AIGA and Print and have appeared in exhibits at the Smithsonian and the Pasadena Museum.