I know some of you are tired of reading me talking about Dante. Well, I’m sorry, but just this moment I received a delivery of the printed version of my new book, How Dante Can Save Your Life, and I have to celebrate here on this blog, where the book was born.

What you see above is the front endpaper of the book — that is, what you see when you first open the book. And this, below, is the back endpaper:

Here is Your Working Boy in the driveway, having torn it from the envelope and pretty much had a fit over how beautiful this thing is:

This really is one of the most beautiful books I have ever seen — and these images are only part of what’s inside. The intensity of the colors, the quality of the images, are breathtaking. My agent, who received his copy yesterday, put it best: “It’s like holding the Frick Museum in your hands.” It seems cosmically unjust that something this beautiful should have my name on it, but here we are.

See, this is what happens when your publisher is Judith Regan, who put everything she had into making the book package beautiful. This is what happens when the parent company of your publisher is Phaidon, the art book people. This is what happens when designers as gifted as Richard Ljoenes (exterior) and Daniel Lagin (interior) bless a writer with their extraordinary talents.

If you find what’s between the covers beautiful, most of the credit goes to Alexis Gargagliano, my editor, who worked as hard as I did to refine the sprawling mess of a manuscript, and did so under tremendous deadline pressure. With luck, the pressure will have made this book a diamond. I don’t know how the interior can live up to the exterior, but if you buy this book, even if you don’t like the words, you will have purchased a thing of great beauty.

Pre-order it now, and this Frick Museum will be in your hands on or just after April 14, when it publishes. On April 14, I will be signing books at the Barnes & Noble Citiplace in Baton Rouge. On April 16, I will be giving a Dante talk and signing books at Eastern University in suburban Philly (the talk is free and open to the public; register here to ensure a seat). Off to Baltimore the next day to speak to a class at Loyola University there (hey students, your school and I are giving you each a copy). I’ll be in South Bend, Indiana, the following week — venue for the talk to be determined later — then, on April 21, in Houston, at Houston Baptist University; Dr. Louis Markos, a Dante scholar whose work I drew on as I was writing my book, has kindly agreed to let me share the platform with him that night for a Dante discussion that’s free and open to the public (information on that here).

I’m off then to Boston College a couple of days later, for an event at Boston College on Thursday April 23 (free and open to the public, but reservations are requested). On April 29, I’ll see you in Dallas at the Barnes & Noble by Northpark, and all TAC donors who come to a special reception with me and the editors of the magazine (tickets and information here) will receive their own signed copy.

More details on all appearances that will be open to the public will be forthcoming. Watch this space.

There are other appearances in the works for the book, including this summer’s CiRCE Institute conference in Charleston. I’ll be there talking Dante, and I hope to see you too. If you would like me to come this summer or fall to talk to your school, church, or group about how Dante can save your life, e-mail me at rod (at) amconmag (dot) com.

OK, one more, then I’ll stop. Judith Regan is amazing.