LIFE 75 Years: The Very Best of LIFE

by LIFE

@font-face { "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { 0in 0in 0.0001pt; 12pt; "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { Section1; } In this deluxe commemorative edition, LIFE's editors focus on the publication's achievements more tightly than they ever have This is truly the best of everything LIFE has accomplished. In these pages are the best war photos ever taken for LIFE; the best photo essays ever to grace our pages (including the works of Capa and Parks and Smith); the loveliest pictures from Hollywood (in fact, the best pictures of Marilyn Monroe ever taken by such as Halsmann, Eisenstaedt and her dear friend Milton Greene), the best sports pictures, the funniest pictures we ever ran. The best pictures from the space race, and the most significant pictures to the human race, including Lennart Nilsson's "Life Before Birth."

This is a premium volume of LIFE, and beyond its 200-plus pages, which include a review of every LIFE cover ever published, there is, included here, the ultimate The first-ever LIFE issue, with the Margaret Bourke-White photograph of the Fort Peck Dam on the cover, reprinted in its entirety, at actual size (which was really big 10 1/2" x 14") and able to be detached.

We've come a long We, you, those places, LIFE itself. This book tells, and celebrates, that voyage.

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction, History

224 pages, Hardcover

First published November 8, 2011

About the author

Life was an American magazine published weekly from 1883 to 1972, as an intermittent "special" until 1978, and as a monthly from 1978 until 2000. During its golden age from 1936 to 1972, Life was a wide-ranging weekly general interest magazine known for the quality of its photography.

Reviews

[Jan Polep · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book must weigh 20 lbs or more and includes pictures that represent what Life considers to be their very best. Some pictures are so iconic that you recognize them right away. Some from the 1930/1940's not so much, so the short paragraph captions come in handy. Also included is a complete copy of the first issue...Nov 23, 1936, which I didn't think was very well laid out but the ads were fascinating. It is fun to track through all the weekly covers to see what was happening around the time you were born, graduated, married, etc. The evil in Goebbels eyes still haunts me but is outweighed by the beauty of the nature shots.

[Stacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I LOVE LIFE magazine - great pictures and articles, it is (or was) such a slice of Americana. When I was a kid, my parents had a book of LIFE photographs and i would just pour over it. I loved looking at the pictures and creating stories...who are these people? What are they doing? I just checked this out from the library and again had a lovely afternoon looking over the photos. My daughter and i sat on the front porch and looked at the people in the pictures and told stories...What is their name? What are they doing? Why are they smiling, laughing, frowning? Pictures can move us in so many ways, i hope my daughter appreciates a great photograph, like I do.

[Cathi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is filled with incredible, amazing photos from the beginning days of LIFE magazine all the way to the current special issues, which come out occasionally still. Wow! I learned so much from the brief articles that were written, telling about the photographers, the famous and sometimes not-so-famous subjects of the photos, and the interesting circumstances surrounding the photos. The book was a sometimes fluffy, sometimes gritty, always informative look at the 20th century, and I thoroughly enjoyed it all. The only downside to the book was its large size. It was rather unwieldy to hold, but that's not exactly the worst thing you can say about a book.

[Melly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really terrific. A bit too harshity-harsh for the kids just yet, but would make a wonderful addition to the home library. Amazing photography and great coverage of 20th century American history -- I found the photos of the civil war movement to be particularly moving.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great iconic pictures full size