The creme of contemporary Parisian writers take the iconic Louis Vuitton malle as inspiration and turn it into a Pandora's Box from which Houdini, Charles Lindbergh, or Luchino Visconti emerge as the extraodinary characters of their fascinating tales.
To fuel their creativity, the 11 authors selected press cuttings from the Vuitton family archive, meticulously put together by Gaston-Louis Vuitton, grandson of Louis, who obsessively combed the international press for any story mentioning a trunk.
From the adventures of a lost Hemingway manuscript, to the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911 by a Louvres framer (who hid the painting under his bed for two years), or the challenge that Louis Vuitton himself gave to the elusive Houdini ("I dare to think that the box that serves you for your experiments is prepared for that purpose and dare you to escape from a box of my own making"), this stunning anthology is a treasure chest for the mind, and a must-read for any Vuitton devotee.
The Trunk is published by Gallimard in a limited leather-bound edition, available for $62 at selected stores and LouisVuitton.com
