The Fisherman and His Wife (Corita Kent)

This one’s a twofer. But we’re gonna make you wait for it. It’s 1967. The Junior League of Boston is celebrating its first sixty years. So, obviously, they commission a full-length children’s opera. They get John Friggin’ Updike (1) to write the libretto. [Hold, please. We are taking this opportunity to finally learn what a libretto is.] Then they get Corita Friggin’ Kent (2) to design the cover of the program and do all the lettering inside. (There are other important musical figures associated with this, but they don’t mean much to us.) And although the opera was reviewed in the Times, it was more or less forgotten by graphic designers and fans of Updike and Kent. And although this makes reference to Updike on the title page and gives a bio for and pick of him on the inside, it does not actually contain any of his work. WorldCat shows only one copy at the Boston Athenæum—and that’s it. Rare.