“Through a collage of photographs, documents and other historical paraphernalia, combined with a fictional diary of the Vietnamese revolutionary Ho Chi Minh, artist C. David Thomas has created an imaginative and moving portrait of one of the most significant figures of the twentieth century. Recommended to all readers interested in the Vietnam War and its surroundings.”
— William J. Duiker, author, Ho Chi Minh: A Life

Despite being widely regarded as one of the twentieth century’s most important figures, the biographical literature regarding Ho Chi Minh in the United States is surprisingly minimal. Before William Duiker’s book Ho Chi Minh: A Life was released in the fall of 2000, the standing American authority on Ho Chi Minh’s biography was Charles Fenn and his 1973 publication, Ho Chi Minh.

An Artist Portrait of Ho Chi Minh is the result of a twenty-five year collaborative effort between biographer Charles Fenn and artist David Thomas. This book serves as an imaginative reconstruction of Ho. Comprised of fictional diary passages, An Artist Portrait purports to evoke Ho’s sense of personal engagement with the events that marked his time. Though strictly fictional, the diary passages are based on historical documents, excerpts of which can be found at the bottom of each page. Also included are passages from Prison Diary, a collection of poems written by Ho while imprisoned in China in 1942-43, two stories told by Mr. Vu Ky and Mr. Dinh Duong Dinh, two of Ho’s closest friends, and poems by several of Vietnam’s leading poets.

118 pages. Printed in a limited edition of one hundred with ten artist’s proofs. Each book is numbered and signed by artist and author C. David Thomas and author Charles Fenn and resides in a lacquer box made by craft makers in the Hanoi area. The lacquer box is contained in a handmade silk slipcover, also custom-made in Vietnam. Printed on Vietnamese Do (mulberry) paper hand-made in Dong O Village in northern Vietnam, the text pages have been varnished to make the paper translucent. Images printed with a Hewlett Packard DeskJet 970Cse using archival ink, text printed by letterpress in Monotype Bembo by Wolfe Editions in Portland, Maine.