No. 5 Culture Chanel by Jean-Louis Froment, Chanel: Livre d’Artistes by Irma Boom, Chemistry and the Sense of Smell by Charles Sell, Complete Abandon by Norman Isaacson, La Note Verte by Jean-Claude Ellena.
Also, Kathleen Tessaro's The Perfume Collector comes out in paperback next month, and a new (US?) edition of Roja Dove's The Essence of Perfume comes out in June.
No. 5 Culture Chanel
Published last November, No. 5 Culture Chanel by Jean-Louis Froment was released in conjunction with the No. 5 Culture Chanel exhibition.
In No. 5 Culture Chanel, Jean-Louis Froment plays homage to the legendary Gabrielle Chanel and her most iconic fragrance. Designed to complement the exhibit "No. 5 Culture Chanel" at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Froment's tome traces Mademoiselle Chanel's artistic influences and establishes Chanel Ndegree5's integral role in the avant-garde art of the early 20th century. Able to call Cocteau and Dali friends, Gabrielle Chanel lived in the heart of Parisian modernist movements. No. 5 Culture Chanel reveals the intimate links between Mademoiselle Chanel's fabled fragrance and the rising tide of cubist and surrealist art. Lavishly designed with stunning photographs and illustrations, No. 5 Culture Chanel offers a glimpse into both the storied Chanel house and the artistic landscape of Paris in the 1920s. Photographs of Mademoiselle Chanel are displayed alongside the works of Modigliani and Picasso and the writings of Apollinare and Proust.
Cover price $250, Amazon is currently showing a price of $150.
(via amazon)
Chanel: Livre d’Artistes
Also released in conjunction with the No. 5 Culture Chanel exhibition is Irma Boom's Chanel: Livre d’Artistes, a beautiful embossed paper (no ink!) book — we posted a video last year showing some of the interior pages.
Cover price $200, Amazon is currently showing a price of $184, but it's also temporarily out of stock.
(via amazon)
Chemistry and the Sense of Smell
A new book by Charles S. Sell (you can read Marcello's review of his Chemistry of Fragrances here.)
The book provides an account of the totality of fragrance chemistry in one volume. It describes the chemistry of odorous materials, how and why they are produced in nature, how they are produced and used commercially, how they are analyzed and characterized, the chemistry of how we perceive them, and their role in our everyday lives. The final chapter reviews the major intellectual challenges for fragrance chemists and considers the future of the field.
Cover price $149, Amazon is currently showing a pre-order price of $125. Due for publication in April.
(via amazon)
Complete Abandon
A novel by Norman Isaacson, published late last year:
Twenty years ago, a man added what he thought was a harmless ingredient to a bottle of his wife’s perfume. Thinking the fragrance ruined, the man’s wife put it away and forgot about it. Years later, she rediscovers the perfume and thinking Susan, her college attending daughter would enjoy using it, sends it to her. Her daughter does use it and along with others is amazed at the unexpected and unique results. The mysterious scent promotes an emotional reaction in men unlike any anticipated or envisioned. Professor Gertrude Lehman, an Internationally renowned chemist at Susan’s college, unravels the chemical formula that makes the perfume irresistible. As word spreads, advertisers set out to obtain the “magic” perfume, but Professor Lehman keeps the formula closely guarded.
Meanwhile, Lydia Cornell, a beautiful advertising executive, wants control of the perfume certain it will be her key to power and financial success. Driven by their ambitions and conflicting agendas, Lehman and Cornell clash, and their struggle for control of the perfume’s secret ingredient and power endangers those they know and love.
At Amazon, $3.99 for the Kindle version, $28.76 Hardcover, $19.76 Paperback.
(via amazon)
La Note Verte
In case you missed the news, perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena published his first novel last year. Perhaps we'll get lucky and it will get translated into English; meantime, here is a brief description from the Wall Street Journal:
...a romp through Paris's marketing world, where fashion trends rule the fragrance industry. When veteran perfumer Claude Nael finds himself ousted by an ambitious young rival, he steps aside and observes his young competitor's frantic quest for the scent's elusive "green note." It's a zingy mix of intrigue and romance, plus a fascinating glimpse of the art of perfume-making.
Listed on US Amazon from several third-party sellers, around $20.
Know of any recent or upcoming perfume books I missed? Do comment.
Robin, thanks for this information. Reading is my other passion. I just wanted to say that “Complete Abandon” is also available for the Nook for $3.99 (for those of us that have the B&N E reader). I have it on my wish list at Barnes & Noble.
Ah, thanks for the tip! Do let us know if it’s any good!
I think I need to my very small collection; I have a fairly new publication from the British Perfumers Guild on order from Waterstones, although they seem to be havingproblems sourcing it; I have Turin & Sanchez’s guide, which is a very entertaining read, also Quintessentially Perfume, which is a lovely book; many years ago I spent GBP 70.00 (which was a great deal of money then!) on Michael Edwards’ Perfume Legends: French Feminine Fragrances which is one of the most beautiful books I have ever laid eyes on (I believe his next venture was to be something similar on American feminine fragrances, but it never materialised); the nearest store to stock this book was House of Fraser in Edinburgh, & over 100 miles is a long way to go to buy a book, but as luck would have it my motorcyclist husband was going to a bike show in Edinburgh with a few of his like-minded friends, so he very kindly popped in by the store & picked it up for me, although what the SAs would have made of a tribe of leather clad, helmet carrying biker types approaching the main perfume counter is something I would have loved to have witnessed!
How funny! I keep hearing that Michael Edwards is still working on that book…hope it gets published eventually! Perfume Legends is my all time favorite perfume book.
I’ve been binge reading perfume books and just finished Barille and Laroze’s The Book of Perfume, Burr’s The Perfect Scent, and Herman’s Scent & Subversion… and am starting on Williams’ Cult Perfumes… SO I just looked up Edwards’ Perfume Legends on Amazon and a new copy is listed at $572!!! Used it is still over $150. Have you considered selling your copy? 🙂
Set up an automatic search on ebay and wait for a good deal, that’s how I got mine. Took me several months, but IIRC, paid just under $100. A lot for a book, but worth it to me.
I guess at the point that I might consider dropping $100 on a bottle of perfume, dropping $100 on an enjoyable reference book (that won’t go stale!) is not so crazy…
The Sell book looks really interesting, if pricey. I’ve heard good things about his other books, though I’m afraid the chemistry would be over my head. It’s probably going on my Amazon wish list anyway.
It sounds a little less generalist than the one Marcello reviewed? So assuming the chemistry will be over my head too 🙂
I recently read The Perfume Collector and enjoyed it very much. Will have to check out some of these others.