The Artful Darger

I fell in love with the art of Henry Darger at first sight. It was what the French call a coupe de foudre, a lightning bolt. I had to see more. The more I saw and the more I scoured for information on Darger, a janitor who upon his death left behind a cave of wonders; the more I yearned like I have never yearned before for a book perhaps I will never have, the complete manuscript of his "In the Realms of the Unreal".

It is one of the longest books ever written at 15,145 single spaced pages. Its full title, often shortened to In the Realms of the Unreal is: The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion. Given the title and the page count it's no surprise that the story is composed of 9,000,000 words in 15 immense volumes.

In my search I got the impression that people are either more fascinated by his art or his life. Darger was orphaned, considered feeble minded, and scraped together a living working as a janitor in a Catholic hospital in Chicago, Illinois. There is a documentary about Henry and his life told by his former landlord and neighbours who knew him while he lived in his room at 851 Webster Street and wandered around collecting garbage pretty much all alone in the world. When he died his landlords the Lerners discovered what Henry was doing with his time; why they heard him often talking to himself; and what all those newspapers and magazines were being made into - perhaps one of the greatest examples of outsider art the world has ever known.

But what about the manuscript? What about the story Henry spent his entire life telling? Not only the story of the Vivian Girls but his own autobiography. Henry is one of the most collectible outsider artists. His former landlords have made money off his art (which is its own story) and yet Henry's story remains untold.

What can you find on Henry Darger's amazing manuscript? The aforementioned documentary by Jessica Yu, "In the Realms of the Unreal" is a good source of information. I've captured some stills including the impressive records and accounting ledgers Henry kept of everything in his world from goods to property and a sort of census of characters.

I want this to be published so badly I even tried to write letters to the Henry Darger Foundation and Kiyoko Lerner, Henry's former landlord who holds the "rights" to whether or not the manuscript might ever be printed whether in part or in full.

In the meantime sadly the only book I can find that has more text from The Story of the Vivian Girls is

a book written by John M. MacGregor that goes for $450 - $700 used.

Please universe, publish an affordable version of Henry's work. It seems ridiculous to not tell his story in a way that everyone can afford.