And The
Mysteries of Kit Williams
An incomplete history of and
tribute to one of modern literature's most fascinating enigmas
Hello and welcome! This site was created as a
permanent library of information, and as such, it’s a bit dusty. A
relaunch is in the planning stages. But here’s the latest news…
The Man Behind the Masquerade – BBC
Four
As many folks have written in to tell me, Kit was finally reunited with the
jewel of Masquerade for a
television program which first aired on Wednesday, December 2 on BBC Four, entitled The Man Behind the Masquerade.
The show is a nice retrospective on Kit’s entire career as an artist,
shows dozens of pieces of recent work that simply floored me, and it really
lets people see his true, spirited personality. It also does a fantastic job of
putting the jewel into the larger context of his art output – it might
help people see him in a larger context beyond the burden that Masquerade has
often been. This is obviously a momentous occasion and while I’ve now had
the chance to see it, I am hoping that other Americans will be able to see it
soon as well, possibly on BBC America. The show is being rebroadcast on BBC
Four and will be available (for a little while) via the BBC’s
online iPlayer, but only for UK residents; as the saying goes, check your local listings.
You may also find some of the related articles of interest, including this piece from BBC Gloucestershire. I’m particularly interested to hear that Kit felt the book was sort of a “back door” to appreciating art; that’s exactly what happened in my case. I was fascinated with the puzzle, but wound up with a deep appreciation for his style and a lot of curiosity about the world he was painting. So, if nothing else, his goal was met with me!
BBC Radio 4 presents The Grand Masquerade
Sharon Kaighin dropped me a note to let me know that Radio 4 is broadcasting a
documentary about Kit Williams, called The Grand Masquerade
in July. I was interviewed (in a recording studio and everything) for this show
and I'm hoping they rebroadcast it soon. Full information is here. It only
ran twice, but the first airing was what led to the video reunion – a
relative of the jewel’s current owner happened to hear the radio show! I
am hoping that the BBC will make a downloadable version available.
The show has had some other positive effects -- AbeBooks reported that sales were up sharply the week of the broadcast and there's some local media coverage describing tribute treasure hunts to commemorate the date. I'm just glad to see that Kit's accomplishments as an artist and creative thinker have not been forgotten.
Site Redesign
I know this site looks its age; I’m eager to completely redesign it.
Luckily, I married a designer, and she has promised to help me overhaul these
pages into something resembling modern technology. I think I’ll probably
go with a WordPress site, since that would let me do these quick messages but
still create a permanent archive of all the information currently stored here.
Please be patient; it kills me that so much has happened in the world of Kit
Williams this year, and I was caught unawares with an ugly, dated design.
Meanwhile, Menagerie
A
solution has been found for Dillon
Waugh's Menagerie, which is a tribute hunt to the original
Masquerade on its 25th anniversary. The source material is much shorter--just
three images and three pages of story text--but Dillon has done a remarkable
job of honoring Kit's original hunt with his own. Not only did he mimic Kit's
style and create fresh riffs on some familiar images and constructs from Masquerade,
but he even created and buried a second hare jewel, uncannily similar to the
original, only in silver (of course--what better 25th anniversary gift than
silver?). You can find the complete solution here,
but I also encourage you to look around the rest of the threads and see how
people got to the big ending. The solution is quite brilliant and very much in
the spirit of the original.
This hit at a very busy time in my life so I was not able to actively participate in it. I'm probably going to regret not taking active part in this hunt more than anything else. On my deathbed, I'll say, "Dillon...start over?"
Oh, and I know this site needs a redesign. Hoping to get to that soon. --Dan
Like a lot of kids who grew up in the late
70's/early 80's, I was absolutely enthralled with a picture book called Masquerade.
The book, written and illustrated by Kit Williams, could be read as a standard
child's fable about the moon falling in love with the sun, but it was designed
as a real-world treasure hunt: Follow the subtle clues dropped throughout the
book, and you'd discover the location of a very real hand-made jewel, valued at
the time at $5,000. My father brought the book home one day as a gift and I was
hooked. I was sure I would be able to solve the riddle.
I couldn't, and neither could any of my friends--but it was extraordinary fun trying, and it was a great mental workout. To this day, the complexity of the riddle floors me. Kit Williams created another puzzle book, where the challenge was to discover the book's very title, before returning to his chosen career of painting.
There's a great (out-of-print) paperback edition of Masquerade that gives the answer, but I was looking for even more detailed information--a complete breakdown of all the puzzles and the paintings' clues. When I went to look for information on the Kit's books online, I couldn't find much, so I made this site. I don't have all the answers--and I'm not going to offer all the answers I have in some cases, so as not to ruin the fun for newbies--but I will share most of what I know, plus I hope to find answers to some of my own questions. Check out the links below to see what's on the site.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This
site was created on October 27, 1998 and redesigned December 28, 2000. I cannot
be re-redesigned soon enough.
Send feedback to Dan Amrich
