John Waters fans have less time to wait for his next book, a collection of essays entitled “Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder.”
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Waters’ publisher, recently moved up the release date to May 21, two weeks earlier than the previously announced date of June 4.
Lottchen Shivers, associate director of publicity for FSG and a Baltimore native, said the date was changed to accommodate Waters’ schedule, including a promotional tour that will follow the book’s release.
She said Waters, who lives in Baltimore, spends his summers in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and wanted to complete the book tour before he goes away.
Waters’ appearances include a book-signing at Atomic Books, 3620 Falls Road, on May 25 at 7 p.m., and at Politics & Prose in Washington, D.C., on May 28 at 7 p.m. Other stops will include Philadelphia and New York, she said.
This will be Waters’ ninth book, after “Shock Value”; “Crackpot: The Obsessions of John Waters”; “Art: A Sex Book” (co-written with Bruce Hainley); “Pink Flamingos and Other Filth”; “Hairspray, Female Trouble and Multiple Maniacs”; “Role Models”; “Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America” and “Make Trouble.”
The cover depicts Waters, 72, sitting on a throne in a fancy suit and black tennis shoes, wearing a red crown and wagging a finger.
The 384-page book is a follow-up of sorts to “Make Trouble,” an illustrated version of a 2015 commencement speech Waters gave to graduates of the Rhode Island School of Design.
In this book, he offers advice to just about everyone. He hinted in 2016 that it’s about “how to avoid respectability at 70 years old.” In an interview with 98 Rock yesterday, he called it “my opinion on everything” and said it took three years to write.
“No one knows more about everything—especially everything rude, clever, and offensively compelling—than John Waters,” the publisher says on its website.
Those topics include “how to fail upward in Hollywood; how to develop musical taste from Nervous Norvus to Maria Callas; how to build a home so ugly and trendy that no one but you would dare live in it; more important, how to tell someone you love them without emotional risk; and yes, how to cheat death itself.”
The price is $27 in the U.S. and $35 in Canada. According to FSG, the book will be filled with “cameos” of Waters’ stars, “from Divine and Mink Stole to Johnny Depp, Kathleen Turner, Patricia Hearst, and Tracey Ullman,” and illustrated with photos from Waters’ personal collection.
Next week, Waters will give a Valentine’s Day-themed stand-up performance, “A Date With John Waters,” at Baltimore Soundstage.
