An Introduction to Outsider Artist Henry Darger and His Bizarre 15,000-Page Illustrated Masterwork

"So it was with Henry Darger, who deliberately passed his 81 years in near-absolute obscurity, working increasingly menial janitorial jobs by day and, when not attending one of his five daily masses, obsessing over his art the rest of the time. That art took various forms, most notably The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion,"

"As described in the video above from Fredrik Knudsen (and in the 2004 feature-length documentary In the Realms of the Unreal), its 15,145 pages relate the adventures of a set of immaculately virtuous little girls against the backdrop of an apocalyptic, ultra-violent religious war. When Darger's landlords discovered the work after his death, they also turned up a variety of drawings, paintings, and collages, many of them at least obliquely related to the story."

Henry Darger lived much of his life in near-total obscurity, taking menial janitorial jobs by day and devoting his remaining hours to making art. He produced a massive corpus centered on The Story of the Vivian Girls in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, a 15,145-page narrative often cited as the longest and one of the strangest works of fiction. The tale follows immaculate, virtuous young girls amid an apocalyptic, ultra-violent religious war. After Darger’s death, landlords discovered the manuscript alongside numerous drawings, paintings, and collages that echo and expand the story’s imagery.

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