A LIFE IN BOOKS: The Rise and Fall of Bleu Mobley - is an illuminated novel that contains 101 books within it, all written by a controversial author who finds himself in prison looking back on his life and career. In his funny, thought provoking presentation, Warren Lehrer presents an overview of Bleu Mobley's Life in Books via many of Mobley's cover designs, book-like objects, and other biographical materials including animations and video performances of Mobley book excerpts by the band BETTY, beatbox poet Chesney Snow, actress/poet La Bruja. The resulting retrospective explores the creative process of a writer/artist, as it reflects upon a half century of American/global events, and grapples with the future of the book as a medium, and the lines that separate and blur truth, myth, and fiction.

In A Life In Books, Bleu Mobley's autobiography/ apologia is paired with a review of all 101 of his books, each represented by its first-edition cover design and catalog copy, and more than a third of his books are excerpted. The resulting retrospective contrasts the published writings (which read like short stories) with the confessional memoir, forming a most unusual portrait of a well-intentioned, obsessively inventive (if ethically challenged) visionary.    

Advance Praise for Warren Lehrer's

A LIFE IN BOOKS: The Rise and Fall of Bleu Mobley 

(ORO Editions/GOFF Books; November 2013)