Nick Tosches’s restless curiosity trods a wide literary terrain, and his formidable talents cross boundaries and barriers that might restrain lesser minds. He has written extraordinary (and perhaps definitive) profiles of Jerry Lee Lewis in Hellfire and Dean Martin in Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams and, importantly, their social milieus. His slender monograph on former heavyweight boxing champion Sonny Liston (whom Ali dethroned), The Devil and Sonny Liston, shed light on one of the darker denizens of The Sweet Science. And his investigation of Sicilian financier Michele Sindona was a revelation on the nexus of finance, the Mafia, and the Vatican.

Add to these a couple of novels, one employing Dante Alegheri as a character and foil (In The Hand Of Dante, which Johnny Depp may or may not be making into a movie), a fistful of other projects, some big magazine bylines, and you have a sketch of an original’s original.

Tosches’s newest opus, Never Trust a Loving God (Somogy Editions), is a collaboration with French painter Gravleur—the painter supplying the images and Nick the poetry. Reportedly Tosches discovered Gravleur at an L.A. exhibition (arranged by Johnny Depp) and the result is this elegantly published tome:

I’M LYING HERE DIRTY WAITING FOR THE UNDERTAKER TO GIVE ME A SHAVE. I SHOULDN’T HAVE PUT IT OFF FOR SO LONG. THE MOVEMENT OF MY LIFE WAS AS THE MOVEMENT OF MY LEFT HAND. IT STIRRED, IT REACHED OUT FOR ANOTHER, RAISED THE GLASS TO MY LIPS , AND, WHEN PARALYSIS CAME,IT TERMBLED OCCASIONALLY, SENSELESSLY, VAGUELY,WITH NO MEANING AT ALL. BEFORE THAT STIRRING I WAS A WOMAN WHO SPOKE ANOTHER TONGUE. I WAS A LEOPARD AWAITING GLANCE IN BOWERED SHADE FROM THE SUN. IT UIS AN ELECTRIC SHAVER.IT IS NOT WHAT I WOULD HAVE WANTED. OF COURSE, I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN. STRANGE THE THNGS WE DO NOT FORESEE.

By the way, let me remind you that Nick Tosches is reading his poetry in NYC on February 5th.