Writers: Photographs

by Nancy Crampton, Mark Strand

Here are more than a hundred wonderful and sensitive duotone portraits of our major novelists, poets, and playwrights. Paired with the photographs are fascinating texts from each writer on writing—thoughts on the craft, recollections of significant moments from their personal history, meditations on the civic importance of writing, and so forth. Some of these photographs are well known—Bellow, Mailer, Cheever, and Capote—and others have never before been published. Many were taken on location, from Muriel Spark in Tuscany and James Baldwin in Provence to Gabriel Garcia Marquez in Mexico City. All are strikingly fresh and authentic. The pithy and idiosyncratic thoughts on writing are a perfect complement to the superb portraits; often words and pictures seem to exist in a magical rapport. For all of us who care about the American literary scene, Nancy Crampton's gift is an intimate look at our literary heroes, our Writers . 104 duotone photographs.

Genres: Photography, Art, Nonfiction, Writing

224 pages, Hardcover

First published September 15, 2005

Reviews

[Anthony McGill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely collection of photos of famous writers by photographer Nancy Crampton. Many of these you will recognize instantly as so many of her portraits have appeared on the jackets of our favorite books over the years.
Combined with the full-page portraits, each of the writers has penned a thoughtful text on their craft, significant moments in their life, the importance of writing and other observations which us, the reader, should find both informative and inspiring in our love of books.
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Bit unfair to single out favorites amongst the 100 or so featured in this varied collection but I felt compelled to mention a few that were exceptional: Alice Walker, Albert Murray, William Steig (and cat), James Jones, George Plimpton (and cat), Brendan Gill, Maya Angelou, Jorge Luis Borges, Gwendolyn Brooks, William Shawn, Robert Penn Warren, James Baldwin, Beryl Bainbridge, Muriel Spark, Seamus Heaney, Eudora Welty, Doris Lessing, Peter Carey, Alice Munro, Joyce Carol Oates, Toni Morrison and Studs Terkel (with 12 different reactions!) - but each photograph is a tantalizing glance at a few of our most treasured writers, honored here in fine black and white portraits by a distinguished photographer.

[Eden Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Visit JetBlackDragonfly (The Man Who Read Too Much) at www.edenthompson.ca/blog

Writers is a compilation of photographs by Nancy Crampton, highlighting a wide range of authors in duotone/hardcover coffee table format.
Nancy is the official photographer of New York's Unterberg Poetry Center, famous for its literary readings, and this publication coincided with a nationwide exhibition

These photographs, dating from the 1970s through the 1990s, range from the well known (Steinem, Capote, Mailer) to posed studio shots, candid at home shots to casual street locations. Each full page photograph is accompanied by a few paragraphs by the authors in their own words - their motivations, inspirations or personal schedules - on writing in general. This book works on several levels: as an enduring record of twentieth-century writers, for those into the art of photography and portraiture, and for readers wanting to learn more about the artists who created their favourite novels. While there is no question writers deserve a glossy top-rate shout out, I found I was attracted more to their practice rather than their portrait. Some may be drawn to look into their eyes, seeking a glimpse of their imagination, while for me the power of writing is the printed/written word. I am always about the yolk, not the shell. My favourite profile in the book (besides seeing the library office of John Updike) is a shot of John Cheever and his dog, which only encourages me to go back and read his work again.

If you are a lover of literature, especially of the now classics of the 1960s - 90s, this is a quality book.
Featured are Toni Morrison, Edward Albee, Maya Angelou, Margaret Atwood, Saul Bellow, Peter Carey, Truman Capote, Billy Collins, Muriel Spark, Richard Ford, Jonathan Franzen, Gunter Grass, Joseph Heller, Christopher Isherwood, Tony Kushner, Doris Lessing, David Mamet, Alice Munro, Joyce Carol Oates, Edna O'Brien, Annie Proulx, George Plimpton, Oliver Sacks, Philip Roth, Sam Shepard, Susan Sontag, Gloria Steinem, Tom Stoppard, Paul Theroux, Alice Walker, and Tennessee Williams, amongst many others.

[Annabelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a coffee table book comprised of portraits of contemporary writers, or at least contemporarily famous between 1973 and 2004. Each portrait comes with the writer's thoughts on writing and the writing process, and they range from the cerebral (Saul Bellow), the mystical and profound (Isaac Bashevis Singer, James Baldwin), candid and comical (Tom Wolfe, Brendan Gill), and the downright pretentious (Junot Diaz). Now I thought I was a wide reader, but going through the book, I realized I've only read about two dozen of the 104 writers featured here. What's more, I didn't even recognize the names of at least a quarter of them. Perhaps it was the convenience of geography for NY resident Nancy Crampton, since most of the writers featured here were based in New York City, or New York State--so basically the list is NY-centric. Even more amazing, the writers I'm partial to (Roth, Cheever, McEwan) had some of the most uninspiring, tepid opinions on their craft. Meanwhile, I'm off to find me some more Eudora Welty...

* This being a picture book for the literary type, one can't help noting the writers who were easiest on the eyes. Mark Strand, John Irving, Ann Sexton, Paul Theroux. And surprisingly, Harold Bloom, whom I've always thought of as a humbug, has the only intentionally jocular pose here.

[CD · Rating 4 out of 5]

A new addition to the favorites shelf and relatively equally recent addition to my book collection. The cover photograph of Saul Bellow jumped out at me and I had to have this for that image if nothing more.

That image is complimented with many more captivating photos of some the greats of the 20 the century pantheon of primarily English language writers. Gunter Grass is as well or better known I suppose in English than in his native tongue.

Novelists, historians, one-hit wonders, poets, and playwrights are included in this somewhat eclectic volume of portraits.

Each writer's image is accompanied on the facing page with a short written commentary by the person depicted of their thoughts on writing or a particular work or facet of their writing life and career. This device pushes the book way up the list of fine works of photographic compilations I have owned or seen.

The selection of prose are rarely self serving and in many cases most revealing. A quote I added to Goodreads list from Susan Sontag comes close to summing up a common sentiment running through many of these authors brief notes:

"If I thought that what I'm doing when I write is expressing myself, I'd junk the typewriter. Writing is a much more complicated activity that that."
— Susan Sontag

The very well presented photographs are much more than just another set of head shots. Photography too, is much more complicated.

There is a bookshelf, 104-writers, that this book inspired. Writers: Photographs has been added to that list as a reference alongside the 104 authors whose photos and excerpts are part of this wonderful work.

[MaryWeatherwell]

Fantastic pictures; I especially like the one of Auden in all his craggy glory.