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Nightmares in the Sky: Gargoyles and Grotesques
Photographer f-stop Fitzgerald and Stephen King introduce readers to the gargoyles, the faces we rarely see but are always watching us. The masterful blending of text and photos sweeps readers into a maelstrom of monsters watching from above--a nightmare in the sky. 24 full-color photos, 100 duotones.
128 pages, Hardcover
First published October 7, 1988
8 people are currently reading
6611 people want to read
About the author
Stephen King
2,301 books891k followersStephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of them. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.
Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.
He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.
Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.
In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.
Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.
He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.
Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.
In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 127 reviews
August 11, 2022
A coffee table book with pics by F-stop Fitzgerald and words by Stephen King. note that words mean a 35 page (photo-illustrated) essay on what King knows and thinks about Gargoyles, off of the top of his head (no research); pics means that, the rest of the book are photos of gargoyles across the States, although mostly in New York and Chicago. King's 'essay' is engaging and authentic sounding like his book forewords, but ultimately doesn't really tells us much about King or gargoyles. One gets the feeling that King was invited to write the text to increase sales. The pics are OK, and many of the gargoyles are incredible, but personally I am much more enchanted by seeing them in the real world, than in photographs. 5 out of 12.
2020 read
2020 read
April 8, 2020
In this essay like book (I never heard about it before; it probably was stored in the club's library of King's novella 'The Breathing Method') Stephen King takes a look at gargoyles, that horror from above. We are informed how he got into this job and how he inspected gargoyles in New York. We also learn about an obscure Gargoyle movie from the early 70s. Besides you come to know many things about those eerie stone sculptures and when they had their heyday. Even Medusa is mentioned. The pictures are fine here. In London, my first thought were the Cornhill Devils, some very special gargoyles high upon some interesting building. Check them out. If you are interested in Gargoyles (and who isn't?) you should take Stephen King as a guide to explain them and the fascination for them. Recommended!
August 8, 2025
So yet another update to say that once I had read up about the Green Man and saw all the original photos from the book I just had to come and pick this one up again - and yes still enjoying it
Another update - this time I had to stop and read through this book again after reading the Green man as a lot of the images (or plates as they are referred to) share a similar theme/ as always a beautiful book that never ceases to make me stop and think
update - yes I had to stop and look at this book again as I was sorting out my collection - and is so doing I will admit that it has gone up a star. I think the reason for my decision was hat looking back (once you take the famous author name drop) the book is a celebration of all everything common place and yet unseen. True the book is about gargoyles and the grotesques frozen in masonry above out heads and yet reading the book again I realise that the truth is that it could stand for anything - anything that is there in plain sight and yet we choose not to see - or which we see every day and considering the normal and mundane when in actual fact it is far from it.
this book I realise is a subtle prod to stop and take a look around us and start to appreciate what there is (both beautiful and grotesque) before it is gone -as shown in many of the images in this book where acid rain and atmospheric corrosion have started to take their toll.
This is a book which has several messages to share - the question is what do you choose to recognise and appreciate.
Ok first off - this is not a Stephen King book - yes there is a large amount of text in there written by King but it is far from being his work. That is done by f-Stop, the photographer. There are some truly amazing pictures which to me at least remind me that there is so much going on i ignore or just walk on by without ever taking in. And all this amazing imagery from a country centuries younger than mine- for fear of stepping in something i wish i had not - its a reminder to look up and around me every day.
Another update - this time I had to stop and read through this book again after reading the Green man as a lot of the images (or plates as they are referred to) share a similar theme/ as always a beautiful book that never ceases to make me stop and think
update - yes I had to stop and look at this book again as I was sorting out my collection - and is so doing I will admit that it has gone up a star. I think the reason for my decision was hat looking back (once you take the famous author name drop) the book is a celebration of all everything common place and yet unseen. True the book is about gargoyles and the grotesques frozen in masonry above out heads and yet reading the book again I realise that the truth is that it could stand for anything - anything that is there in plain sight and yet we choose not to see - or which we see every day and considering the normal and mundane when in actual fact it is far from it.
this book I realise is a subtle prod to stop and take a look around us and start to appreciate what there is (both beautiful and grotesque) before it is gone -as shown in many of the images in this book where acid rain and atmospheric corrosion have started to take their toll.
This is a book which has several messages to share - the question is what do you choose to recognise and appreciate.
Ok first off - this is not a Stephen King book - yes there is a large amount of text in there written by King but it is far from being his work. That is done by f-Stop, the photographer. There are some truly amazing pictures which to me at least remind me that there is so much going on i ignore or just walk on by without ever taking in. And all this amazing imagery from a country centuries younger than mine- for fear of stepping in something i wish i had not - its a reminder to look up and around me every day.
February 12, 2025
Il tema è intrigante. Molto. Tuttavia le fotografie dei doccioni inseriti nelle architetture sono mediocri. Si salvano quelle dei dettagli. Lo scritto di King è anodino.
September 20, 2016
La "No ficción" es definitivamente uno de mis géneros literarios predilectos, ya que si bien la lectura de novelas y cuentos es algo que me apasiona, el conocer nuevos aspectos sobre cosas de las que sé poco y nada, o directamente ignoro por completo, es algo que veo muy beneficioso. Siempre fui una persona curiosa, por lo que siempre me resulta interesante mechar un libro sobre alguna temática puntual y ponerme a leer, como es en este caso con "Nightmares in the sky" con su recopilación de gárgolas y esculturas grotescas.
La arquitectura gótica siempre me resultó fascinante, y cuando me enteré que uno de mis autores favoritos había contribuido con un ensayo en un libro de este tópico me desesperé por encontrarlo. Aparte de ser un tema que me encanta, disfruto mucho de leer textos de no ficción de Stephen King. Desde un prólogo, un ensayo o mismo su libro "Mientras escribo", me quedo pegada al libro en el que se encuentre dicho texto y no logro bajarlo. Me resulta casi tan emocionante como leer esas historias salidas de su mente macabra. Esperaba encontrarme con información más bien "teórica" sobre las gárgolas, pero más bien me encontré con un ensayo que, como punto de partida, habla sobre la propuesta que le fue ofrecida al autor para introducir el libro, y termina disparando hacia varios lados. King cuenta inicialmente sobre aquella encrucijada que atravesó de no saber si era diplomático acceder a escribir sobre un campo en el que no tenía demasiado conocimiento, como lo son las esculturas y el arte en general. Nos habla sobre su amigo Jerry, pequeñas anécdotas muy típicas del autor, sobre su forma de percibir las gárgolas, no necesariamente explicando con términos precisos y formales, sino más bien lo que representan esas obras monstruosas de piedra, y cómo él considera que las mismas están vivas.
De la parte de fotografía, que es más de la mitad del libro, poco tengo para decir porque no encuentro las palabras justas para expresar lo que me pasa cuando veo este tipo de cosas. Las imágenes son alucinantes, estremecedoras, y realmente parecen tener vida. Tuve que detenerme un buen rato en cada una para apreciarlas bien, y aun cuando había terminado de ver todo el libro, necesité darle una segunda vuelta, e incluso de esa forma no logré saciar mis ganas de saber más sobre el tema, por lo que terminé y ya estaba buscando fotografías y leyendo más al respecto. Es innegable que el esmero y el empeño que cada obra tiene es a veces pasado por alto, al final, por la calle podemos contar más gente mirando hacia el suelo que hacia el cielo. Y es allá arriba donde se encuentra lo mejor, donde nos aguardan las pesadillas. Así que puede que nosotros no las veamos, pero ellas sí nos ven a nosotros.
La arquitectura gótica siempre me resultó fascinante, y cuando me enteré que uno de mis autores favoritos había contribuido con un ensayo en un libro de este tópico me desesperé por encontrarlo. Aparte de ser un tema que me encanta, disfruto mucho de leer textos de no ficción de Stephen King. Desde un prólogo, un ensayo o mismo su libro "Mientras escribo", me quedo pegada al libro en el que se encuentre dicho texto y no logro bajarlo. Me resulta casi tan emocionante como leer esas historias salidas de su mente macabra. Esperaba encontrarme con información más bien "teórica" sobre las gárgolas, pero más bien me encontré con un ensayo que, como punto de partida, habla sobre la propuesta que le fue ofrecida al autor para introducir el libro, y termina disparando hacia varios lados. King cuenta inicialmente sobre aquella encrucijada que atravesó de no saber si era diplomático acceder a escribir sobre un campo en el que no tenía demasiado conocimiento, como lo son las esculturas y el arte en general. Nos habla sobre su amigo Jerry, pequeñas anécdotas muy típicas del autor, sobre su forma de percibir las gárgolas, no necesariamente explicando con términos precisos y formales, sino más bien lo que representan esas obras monstruosas de piedra, y cómo él considera que las mismas están vivas.
De la parte de fotografía, que es más de la mitad del libro, poco tengo para decir porque no encuentro las palabras justas para expresar lo que me pasa cuando veo este tipo de cosas. Las imágenes son alucinantes, estremecedoras, y realmente parecen tener vida. Tuve que detenerme un buen rato en cada una para apreciarlas bien, y aun cuando había terminado de ver todo el libro, necesité darle una segunda vuelta, e incluso de esa forma no logré saciar mis ganas de saber más sobre el tema, por lo que terminé y ya estaba buscando fotografías y leyendo más al respecto. Es innegable que el esmero y el empeño que cada obra tiene es a veces pasado por alto, al final, por la calle podemos contar más gente mirando hacia el suelo que hacia el cielo. Y es allá arriba donde se encuentra lo mejor, donde nos aguardan las pesadillas. Así que puede que nosotros no las veamos, pero ellas sí nos ven a nosotros.
April 27, 2017
Glorious photos, but on a repetitive basis, not unique enough to hold up alone, without some phenomenal writing, of which there isn't. Certainly, a passably interesting introductory essay, but it (and the photos) lacks depth of exploration and has an extremely limited, New York-centric scope.
April 9, 2018
This book is so haunting and beautiful. Stephen King’s essay is fun and goofy, and in the end quite touching and interesting. I could stare at these wonderful black and white photos forever. Highly recommended.
January 16, 2020
i didn't know king could be painfully long-winded.
i was beginning to worry that i'd only see a handful of photos after 8 or so paragraphs.
i was beginning to worry that i'd only see a handful of photos after 8 or so paragraphs.
April 14, 2016
Cool. This one's full of surprises.
So I saw this at my local library and decided to pick up a company. Serendipity abounds, because it's even neater than I thought.
I fully expected a panoply of awesome and varied gargoyles.
Got that.
So I flip to the introduction, and find Stephen King pontificating on gargoyles. And Gargoyles.
The hell am I reading?
I love Stephen King, and I particularly love his nonfiction, like Danse Macabre and On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. His prose always reads like he's sitting with the reader on a porch, leaning forward, eyes alight, beer in hand. He muses on gargoyles, why they unnerve us, and he and his son's love of the 1972 made for TV movie.
He's got good taste. It's one of the few VHS tapes I've kept, but it's on Dailymotion.
If that isn't enough, there's a location appendix! You can locate every gargoyle pictured inside. That's a walking tour I want to take, next time I'm in Manhattan.
Furness Building, Philadelphia.
I love gargoyles; hell, I nearly put a gargoyle cop on the cover of Murder With Monsters. Nightmares in the Sky scratched my itch. All in all, a really awesome coffee table book.
Share it with someone.
And seriously, watch Gargoyles. As John Kenneth Muir relates here, it's a nice little allegory for racial tension with Emmy-winning make-up: Planet of the Apes with Wings.
February 23, 2017
Synopsis
A thought-provoking photography collection by F-stop Fitzgerald documenting architecture that we don’t always see and rarely think about introduced by the King of horror himself.
Nightmares in the Sky: Gargoyles and Grotesques by Stephen King and F-stop Fitzgerald
★★★★
Genre: Photography Collection/Short Essay
Release Date: October 1988
Source: Library – Borrowed
On My Shelf: Someday
I stumbled across this one at the Library and, well, how could I not pick it up? I was first drawn in by Stephen King’s name on the cover, but was quickly intrigued by the entire concept of the book.
I’ll start by discussing my thoughts on the essay portion. This should be pretty brief, as I’m sure many of you may already know how I feel about Stephen King. If not, I’ll tell you briefly that he is one of my favorite authors, and I’ve never come across a book by him I didn’t at least enjoy, but most I’ve, quite frankly, adored.
I loved reading this essay. Since this is so old, it was incredibly enjoyable to read something from King that was so personal and also something that wasn’t a horror book. In this essay, King talks about fear and how the gargoyles that Fitzgerald photographs incite fear into our minds because they appear to be something entirely unnatural and altogether unsettling.
I just really enjoyed reading King’s essay. I give it an easy 5 stars and definitely recommend getting this book just to read his thoughts.
Now, the photography.
I liked the photography and the concept behind it, but I wasn’t very moved by the layout. Photos have all the power to tell a story the same way written words do, and I didn’t feel that story coming through in this book. I applaud Fitzgerald for his efforts and am in support of the concepts and ideas behind this collection, but it was solely an okay experience for me. I really enjoyed the way the photographs were incorporated with King’s essay, but, once his words were finished, I found myself less unsettled and more bored (to be honest). I want to be clear that Fitzgerald’s photography was not bad, and the layout wasn’t terrible, it just didn’t work for me. I gave this section of the book 3 stars.
Overall, since I gave 5 stars to the King essay and 3 to the photography collection, I evened it out at 4. I definitely recommend this book, and especially urge fellow King fans to seek it out. The essay is worth it.
Review originally published on my Wordpress blog Dreaming Through Literature
A thought-provoking photography collection by F-stop Fitzgerald documenting architecture that we don’t always see and rarely think about introduced by the King of horror himself.
Nightmares in the Sky: Gargoyles and Grotesques by Stephen King and F-stop Fitzgerald
★★★★
Genre: Photography Collection/Short Essay
Release Date: October 1988
Source: Library – Borrowed
On My Shelf: Someday
I stumbled across this one at the Library and, well, how could I not pick it up? I was first drawn in by Stephen King’s name on the cover, but was quickly intrigued by the entire concept of the book.
I’ll start by discussing my thoughts on the essay portion. This should be pretty brief, as I’m sure many of you may already know how I feel about Stephen King. If not, I’ll tell you briefly that he is one of my favorite authors, and I’ve never come across a book by him I didn’t at least enjoy, but most I’ve, quite frankly, adored.
I loved reading this essay. Since this is so old, it was incredibly enjoyable to read something from King that was so personal and also something that wasn’t a horror book. In this essay, King talks about fear and how the gargoyles that Fitzgerald photographs incite fear into our minds because they appear to be something entirely unnatural and altogether unsettling.
I just really enjoyed reading King’s essay. I give it an easy 5 stars and definitely recommend getting this book just to read his thoughts.
Now, the photography.
I liked the photography and the concept behind it, but I wasn’t very moved by the layout. Photos have all the power to tell a story the same way written words do, and I didn’t feel that story coming through in this book. I applaud Fitzgerald for his efforts and am in support of the concepts and ideas behind this collection, but it was solely an okay experience for me. I really enjoyed the way the photographs were incorporated with King’s essay, but, once his words were finished, I found myself less unsettled and more bored (to be honest). I want to be clear that Fitzgerald’s photography was not bad, and the layout wasn’t terrible, it just didn’t work for me. I gave this section of the book 3 stars.
Overall, since I gave 5 stars to the King essay and 3 to the photography collection, I evened it out at 4. I definitely recommend this book, and especially urge fellow King fans to seek it out. The essay is worth it.
Review originally published on my Wordpress blog Dreaming Through Literature
May 5, 2011
This is a somewhat dated, but nonetheless creepy, and haunting photography book about gargoyles in America. Stephen King wrote a nice essay to accompany the pictures detailing his experiences with gargoyles on film and his discovery of their hiding places within the canyons of New York City.
April 9, 2025
⭐️
Critical Score: C-
Personal Score: F
I only read this because I’m on a mission to read all of King’s books. I may not be able to force myself to read something like Faithful, which is hundreds of pages of sports writing, but this photography book? Sure. Throw it in.
I’m just glad I only spent $10 plus shipping.
It’s the most phoned in bs I’ve ever read from King. I wish they had properly marketed this as being merely introduced by Stephen King. Maybe then I would have allowed myself to skip it. They really tried to make it seem like it was a book written by Stephen King with photography in it. But nope, it’s just an introduction for a collection of gargoyle photographs. Boy, that photographer is one lucky sucker to have King’s name on this thing.
His essay reads like a high schooler trying to hit the word count. Honestly, a high schooler would have put more research into this. King is truly just rambling about nothing. He gives us no useful insights, no history, no narrative. It’s such a joke.
And the photography isn’t even that good, because it’s just photos of art, not really good art itself. Put it this way, the photos themselves aren’t the point, but rather the gargoyles in them, and that makes it feel like the photographer is just taking credit for art done by other people. It’s like if someone took a bunch of black-and-white closeups of anonymous paintings.
Not to mention, this is a coffee table book, so it’s huge and heavy, and does not fit nicely on my bookshelf.
Critical Score: C-
Personal Score: F
I only read this because I’m on a mission to read all of King’s books. I may not be able to force myself to read something like Faithful, which is hundreds of pages of sports writing, but this photography book? Sure. Throw it in.
I’m just glad I only spent $10 plus shipping.
It’s the most phoned in bs I’ve ever read from King. I wish they had properly marketed this as being merely introduced by Stephen King. Maybe then I would have allowed myself to skip it. They really tried to make it seem like it was a book written by Stephen King with photography in it. But nope, it’s just an introduction for a collection of gargoyle photographs. Boy, that photographer is one lucky sucker to have King’s name on this thing.
His essay reads like a high schooler trying to hit the word count. Honestly, a high schooler would have put more research into this. King is truly just rambling about nothing. He gives us no useful insights, no history, no narrative. It’s such a joke.
And the photography isn’t even that good, because it’s just photos of art, not really good art itself. Put it this way, the photos themselves aren’t the point, but rather the gargoyles in them, and that makes it feel like the photographer is just taking credit for art done by other people. It’s like if someone took a bunch of black-and-white closeups of anonymous paintings.
Not to mention, this is a coffee table book, so it’s huge and heavy, and does not fit nicely on my bookshelf.
March 9, 2016
Want to know how I realized I am fascinated with Gargoyles? Step one into my obsession was visiting Paris and with that Notre Dame. Step two was watching the movie "I, Frankenstein". Yep, I am the only person on the planet who loves that movie, I understand it is slightly, ehm, silly, but man, those gargoyles! Gargoyles!!!!!!
So, yeah, obsession and at the end of the road the desire to frame a story involving gargoyles started my "Gargoyle March" where I will be diving into a few books aside my normal reading that revolve around said creatures, just to gain some insights and hopefully discover that there is more potential in them than raunchy paranormal romances and aforementioned movie of questionable quality. Learning that Stephen King had written an essay/ introduction to this photography book settled my starting point for this journey.
So, let's talk first about King, then about the photos. King admits he knows next to nothing about gargoyles and decided to not acquire any more knowledge after agreeing to be involved in this project, so his essay is about how he feels about gargoyles. It is very King, quite atmospheric at times, has some great visuals of how looking at gargoyles impacted him, but it is a bit rambly, too. There is not much to learn from it but it perfectly sets the tone for the photos that follow. And I think it was actually a perfect way for me to get more into the overall topic.
Now the photos. First of, the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia must be gorgeous, 90% of the pictures I loved were taken there. There are two shots taken somewhere on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, wait, I lived in Chicago for three years and I never saw those, that's a missed opportunity right there, those gargoyles looked awesome (one looked like a sea horse!!). There are some really creepy photos in here and the idea that they just hang on some building, creeping you out if you dare to look up and see them, is simply spellbinding.
4 (maybe slightly generous) stars from me.
So, yeah, obsession and at the end of the road the desire to frame a story involving gargoyles started my "Gargoyle March" where I will be diving into a few books aside my normal reading that revolve around said creatures, just to gain some insights and hopefully discover that there is more potential in them than raunchy paranormal romances and aforementioned movie of questionable quality. Learning that Stephen King had written an essay/ introduction to this photography book settled my starting point for this journey.
So, let's talk first about King, then about the photos. King admits he knows next to nothing about gargoyles and decided to not acquire any more knowledge after agreeing to be involved in this project, so his essay is about how he feels about gargoyles. It is very King, quite atmospheric at times, has some great visuals of how looking at gargoyles impacted him, but it is a bit rambly, too. There is not much to learn from it but it perfectly sets the tone for the photos that follow. And I think it was actually a perfect way for me to get more into the overall topic.
Now the photos. First of, the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia must be gorgeous, 90% of the pictures I loved were taken there. There are two shots taken somewhere on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, wait, I lived in Chicago for three years and I never saw those, that's a missed opportunity right there, those gargoyles looked awesome (one looked like a sea horse!!). There are some really creepy photos in here and the idea that they just hang on some building, creeping you out if you dare to look up and see them, is simply spellbinding.
4 (maybe slightly generous) stars from me.
May 20, 2018
This was one of the least impressive things that I have seen where Stephen King was a contributor. The book is based in photographs of creatures and faces on buildings in New York City with an essay on them by King spread through the first 35 pages or so.
This is a fairly short essay that is all over the place talking about a movie he and his son watched, the sensual touching of a vase, and finally to a bit about the gargoyles themselves.
The book is really about the pictures though. Some of the actual art itself is interesting looking, but I think you would probably have to stretch and bend the definition of a gargoyle to make more than 50% of them qualify.
The art is kinda neat to have collected in one place, but I didn't see anything in the photography itself that jumped out to me. Sure, sharp and crisp, but I'm not sure if the point was just to capture them as is or if there was a higher purpose. Therefore, I'm not sure if it is supposed to be about the photography or the original art itself.
In the end, even though the art was kinda cool at times, there was nothing about it that interested me all that much. After trudging through the essay and flipping through a few pages of the pictures, it was just about finishing and moving on. I don't see myself ever coming back to this one.
This is a fairly short essay that is all over the place talking about a movie he and his son watched, the sensual touching of a vase, and finally to a bit about the gargoyles themselves.
The book is really about the pictures though. Some of the actual art itself is interesting looking, but I think you would probably have to stretch and bend the definition of a gargoyle to make more than 50% of them qualify.
The art is kinda neat to have collected in one place, but I didn't see anything in the photography itself that jumped out to me. Sure, sharp and crisp, but I'm not sure if the point was just to capture them as is or if there was a higher purpose. Therefore, I'm not sure if it is supposed to be about the photography or the original art itself.
In the end, even though the art was kinda cool at times, there was nothing about it that interested me all that much. After trudging through the essay and flipping through a few pages of the pictures, it was just about finishing and moving on. I don't see myself ever coming back to this one.
January 3, 2017
This afternoon my wife and I ran to the library for an hour. We didn't have 30 minutes to find "just the right book" so we picked some random numbers and generated a Dewey call number. Due to some minor machinations in some underworld, we happened to pick this little book.
Kind of a magical experience -- eerie photos of demonic imps hidden above the everyday bustling New York scenery. It looked a little kitschy from the title, but as I paged through the book each haunted, eroding face seemed to me a tiny portal to some dark place in occasional nightmares. As I stared at the faces I could almost hear their names, wonder about their stories, and picture how humanity looks from their vantage point. It was a little more of a revelation than I expected.
My one disappointment was the Stephen King article. Of all people, he should have knocked it out of the park, but you could tell he did a half-baked job. much of the essay was just filler, and the rest contained some really good points, but he hinted in the essay itself that he ran into a deadline and left it unrefined. The ideas are intriguing but still too crudely put.
If I were on a desert island and could bring only one coffee table book...
no, it definitely wouldn't be this one. Unless I were Stephen King.
Kind of a magical experience -- eerie photos of demonic imps hidden above the everyday bustling New York scenery. It looked a little kitschy from the title, but as I paged through the book each haunted, eroding face seemed to me a tiny portal to some dark place in occasional nightmares. As I stared at the faces I could almost hear their names, wonder about their stories, and picture how humanity looks from their vantage point. It was a little more of a revelation than I expected.
My one disappointment was the Stephen King article. Of all people, he should have knocked it out of the park, but you could tell he did a half-baked job. much of the essay was just filler, and the rest contained some really good points, but he hinted in the essay itself that he ran into a deadline and left it unrefined. The ideas are intriguing but still too crudely put.
If I were on a desert island and could bring only one coffee table book...
no, it definitely wouldn't be this one. Unless I were Stephen King.
November 1, 2013
This was a really interesting book. Stephen King wrote the text to go along with all the very cool pictures of Gargoyles and the like on old buildings. First he talks about his surprise at being asked to take on this project, and then his surprise once again when he actually came to New York City and looked up.....the nighmares in the sky were definitely looking down at him. He goes on to talk about movies and books that have been influenced by these strange creatures. Really entertaining! And the pictures are really cool! Definitely check this out if you can! :)
October 3, 2011
Some really beautiful photography.
January 11, 2012
Wonderful photography.
January 6, 2015
Fairly interesting photographic coffee table book on Gothic architecture, specifically Gargoyles. Limited to New York though.
November 2, 2025
This was a coffee table style book with photos of gargoyles from photographer, f-stop Fitzgerald with an opening essay from the King of horror, Stephen King. Firstly and foremost, the reader did learn a lot more about gargoyles than they previously knew. They had no idea that random faces or animals carved from stone were considered gargoyles, all they really thought of as a “true” or “proper” gargoyle are the ones from the Hunchback of Notre Dame. It was interesting to see the vast collection of gargoyles that spring across the U.S. in different buildings and to learn that they’re all around us, we just miss them because we aren’t looking up. Most are up high and the majority of people don’t think to look up when they’re walking in a city. That being said though, the amount of photos collected for this felt long-winded and like we were starting to see the same things over and over again. Some were spookier than others, but it was an easy flip through that didn’t quite strike the reader as impressive. The ones that were different or harder to see because they blended into the rest of the decor are what struck the reader the most. The photos that were close-ups felt like we lost the spookiness or the essence of them because it was just the face, not the whole piece it was attached to. As for King’s part of this, it was 35 pages of him kinda rambling about his own experiences with gargoyles. He explicitly states he’s working off his own knowledge of them and wasn’t going to look anything up. He jumps around from telling us antidotal stories with his son, which was sweet, to writing about a vase his wife owns, not sure the correlation there, to talk about art as subjective? He talks of how he got the job to write the forward and how he coined them nightmares in the sky, which is an apt way to describe some of them, not all of them. It was interesting to read his musings on them and to touch upon them from a horror/gothic writer’s perspective, but that’s kinda all this was, musings. When he started talking about the barest background on gargoyles it felt useless because there wasn’t anything substantially factual about it. In the end, it was a quick read and something to flip through if you’re into gothic architecture. Even if you’re a King fan, it was interesting, but you’re not missing much if you don’t read it.
September 25, 2023
Mostly photographs without commentary, but interesting after I read Holy Terrors. I can tell a definite difference in these New World and more modern gargoyles and grotesques. I enjoyed King's lengthy introduction with really was more about how these things make us feel and why we like them rather than a true history-- which is okay. He even referenced a movie that fascinated me in my youth. I didn't remember the plot (according to King, this is probably a good thing as it was dreadful) but the imagery at times was quite good. A good book if this sort of things interests you, though I confess I would have enjoyed some commentary about the individual pieces.
September 1, 2025
A nice coffee table book with amazing and interesting pictures of gargoyles. I personally use my gargoyle to ward off evil spirits and not as a drain spout. Stephen King text. F-stop Fitzgerald with photographs. Kelly and I learned about this interesting character f-stop. 4.50 ⭐️
May 26, 2025
I saw this book many, many years ago in Syracuse, NY and passed on buying it. Found it again in Ithaca, NY last summer and loved having it. The pictures are mysterious, beautiful, and haunting all at the same time. Stephen King's introduction took my breath away.
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January 21, 2024A beautiful collection of photos of creepy grotesques from across the US with a less than stellar King's essay on his perception of this kind of architecture.
May 3, 2014
Make no mistake, the stars of the show for this book are the amazing artwork on the sculptures themselves and the photography that brings these images to us. Stephen Kings contribution is no more than an essay and the essay itself isn't really on gargoyles per say, but more on the process of becoming involved in this project and the resultant way that gargoyles began to make him feel once he began to notice them in places that he'd never seen them before he was involved in this project.
All that being said, the text of the book goes for about the first 35 pages or so and is written in King's normal engaging, if a bit rambling, style. He really doesn't give too many actual facts on gargoyles and what facts he does give are supported by his own deductive reasoning. However, King manages to do what King does best: set the tone.
When I first got this book, I had to crack it open immediately and flip through the pages. I was surprised to see that after the first third of the book there was no more text, only images. The images themselves were very interesting photographs of very interesting sculptures, but that was mainly all that I got out of the first perusal. When I picked it up again and read the essay by King in context with the photos, I got an entirely different experience. Because the tone of the piece had been so expertly set up in King's seemingly haphazard way, the photos themselves gained more of their own life and meaning. Kings words gave a much more creepy vibe to what I was looking at in the rest of the book.
Overall, a fun book to own and flip through. It's not going to change your life...unless you start noticing gargoyles where-ever you go and begin to wonder why you hadn't noticed them before and why they always seem to be watching...
All that being said, the text of the book goes for about the first 35 pages or so and is written in King's normal engaging, if a bit rambling, style. He really doesn't give too many actual facts on gargoyles and what facts he does give are supported by his own deductive reasoning. However, King manages to do what King does best: set the tone.
When I first got this book, I had to crack it open immediately and flip through the pages. I was surprised to see that after the first third of the book there was no more text, only images. The images themselves were very interesting photographs of very interesting sculptures, but that was mainly all that I got out of the first perusal. When I picked it up again and read the essay by King in context with the photos, I got an entirely different experience. Because the tone of the piece had been so expertly set up in King's seemingly haphazard way, the photos themselves gained more of their own life and meaning. Kings words gave a much more creepy vibe to what I was looking at in the rest of the book.
Overall, a fun book to own and flip through. It's not going to change your life...unless you start noticing gargoyles where-ever you go and begin to wonder why you hadn't noticed them before and why they always seem to be watching...
April 7, 2014
A large format (coffee table) book of photographs of gargoyles. I'm so glad this book exists because look up at all the new buildings and not a gargoyle in sight! Pity. I guess I never paid much attention to gargoyles until I rode on the top of a double deck bus south on Central Park West and passed the Dakota. Those gargoyles really woke me up!
This brings me to a few complaints about this book that have nothing to do with the fabulous photographs. In my view, the index stinks. It's sparse and incomplete and there should be some discrete captions on the photos. Instead of, or perhaps in addition to Stephen King's meh essay, a historical background essay about gargoyles would have been welcome. We know they have been around for centuries, but why and where did they first start to appear? I for one would like to know.
And King is right when he says that during his second search for them it seemed there were fewer. It's like I said, look up at new buildings, not a gargoyle in site. Enjoy them and let them give you a shiver while they're still here.
This brings me to a few complaints about this book that have nothing to do with the fabulous photographs. In my view, the index stinks. It's sparse and incomplete and there should be some discrete captions on the photos. Instead of, or perhaps in addition to Stephen King's meh essay, a historical background essay about gargoyles would have been welcome. We know they have been around for centuries, but why and where did they first start to appear? I for one would like to know.
And King is right when he says that during his second search for them it seemed there were fewer. It's like I said, look up at new buildings, not a gargoyle in site. Enjoy them and let them give you a shiver while they're still here.
November 12, 2015
I, just like many others I'm sure, picked this coffee-table photography book up because of Stephen King.
While the photos were nice, and I certainly appreciated the idea behind a collection of all the different gargoyles and statues hiding in the architecture of New York City--I lived there for a year and never noticed them--it wasn't really enough to keep my interest. Like I said, it was King's essay that kept me around.
I love reading King's little intros and essays and non-fiction, because I can almost hear him talking and he has such a way with words, doesn't he? In this one, he first chronicles how it came to be that he was writing the intro to a book on photography and architecture, two things he knew nothing about. Once he gets that out of the way, he spends the rest of the time debating with himself on the meaning of art, and talking about, of course, gargoyles.
Fascinating stuff. And come on: don't you think a person's opinion has merit if that person had spent 20 years previous becoming a world-wide phenomenon for writing novels (ART) about monsters (GARGOYLES)?
While the photos were nice, and I certainly appreciated the idea behind a collection of all the different gargoyles and statues hiding in the architecture of New York City--I lived there for a year and never noticed them--it wasn't really enough to keep my interest. Like I said, it was King's essay that kept me around.
I love reading King's little intros and essays and non-fiction, because I can almost hear him talking and he has such a way with words, doesn't he? In this one, he first chronicles how it came to be that he was writing the intro to a book on photography and architecture, two things he knew nothing about. Once he gets that out of the way, he spends the rest of the time debating with himself on the meaning of art, and talking about, of course, gargoyles.
Fascinating stuff. And come on: don't you think a person's opinion has merit if that person had spent 20 years previous becoming a world-wide phenomenon for writing novels (ART) about monsters (GARGOYLES)?
July 24, 2017
"We don't see them," he said, "but they see us."
Creepy, but true! I picked this up because of Stephen King, but his essay isn't much of a read. Although, I did learn that some gargoyles are used as part of the drainage system for buildings, so that's kind of neat! The pictures are cool, creepy at times, and it was fun to flip through the pages. In fact, I was doing so at a coffee shop, and a homeless guy sat down next to me to look at them too! He told me he felt like gargoyles were made to protect the home or building by scaring off would be evil doers. I felt like I made a friend, even if it was for only a 100 pages or so.
If you like gargoyles, or starting conversations with the homeless, this is your book!
Creepy, but true! I picked this up because of Stephen King, but his essay isn't much of a read. Although, I did learn that some gargoyles are used as part of the drainage system for buildings, so that's kind of neat! The pictures are cool, creepy at times, and it was fun to flip through the pages. In fact, I was doing so at a coffee shop, and a homeless guy sat down next to me to look at them too! He told me he felt like gargoyles were made to protect the home or building by scaring off would be evil doers. I felt like I made a friend, even if it was for only a 100 pages or so.
If you like gargoyles, or starting conversations with the homeless, this is your book!
December 6, 2012
Beautiful pictures of gargoyles, accompanied by a short, vaguely amusing, but shallow essay by Stephen King that spends way too much time discussing the TV-movie Gargoyles. I read this as a kid, swiping my brother's copy, and it was fun to do so before. I'm also curious if the ones in Boston are still there!
February 17, 2013
Found this book by chance and really liked it. Stephen King's "essay" was very entertaining and the pictures were fascinating. Some of the gargoyles pictured were genuinely creepy, but all of them were beautiful works of art. Not much to say about the book since it is basically a book of photographs, but I recommend it to anyone interested in these beautiful and disturbing sculptures and statues.
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