Required Reading: David Coggins' Men and Style

In the past five years, three books about style have been released that belong in every man’s library. The first of these tomes is Glenn O’Brien’s How To Be a Man, an acerbic take on what it means to be a modern guy in the 21st century.  The second is G. Bruce Boyer’s True Style, which is a compendium of intelligent essays about the history of men’s clothing and proper ways in which to wear it.  

It’s fitting that both O’Brien and Boyer are major contributors to the third such book, David Coggins’ Men and Style: Essays, Interviews and Considerations.  A Minneapolis native, Coggins has had an illustrious career as a writer and bon vivant.  He’s a world traveler who knows the ins and out of a good suit, a good whiskey and fly fishing.  Though he’s only 40, Coggins comes at style with wisdom, imbued with a sense of propriety and decorum since a young child.  Check out his interview with his father - the book’s postscript - and it’s clear he received an early education on the finer things in life that most of us wished we had.

In addition to his own essays, Coggins draws upon a series of contributors for insights and interviews.  A legion of creative men including Whit Stillman, Sid Mashburn, Nick Wooster and Jay McInerney impart their opinions and stories on readers, answering questions about what they wore as a child, when they first discovered Playboy and what they know how to cook.  These interviews merge modern and classic notions of manhood, celebrating a lost sense of masculinity while coupling it with a progressive viewpoint.  It’s a book for the modern man with one foot planted in the past and one in the future.

My only complaint about Men and Style is that it is not long enough; then again, I finished the book on a long flight to Portland, and wished I had more to digest during my layover.  Coggins and his contributors have enough wit and stories to fill 700 pages, though 272 pages is a more digestible format for the average guy (me being the literary lion I am).  That said, it’s the sort of book one comes back to and rereads parts of, in case they miss something the first time or need advice on how to wear a suit or how to make a proper martini (brought to you by Gay Talese).  While we’re on the subject of martinis, it’s the perfect book to curl up with on a cold night while drinking a strong one and raising a glass to Coggins.  Here’s mud in your eye, David.