Portrait of the Writer: Literary Lives in Focus

Auden by Avedon; de Beauvoir by Cartier-Bresson; Duras by Doisneau; Proust by Man Ray; Huxley by Halsman; Apolliaire by Picasso; Arundhati Roy by Raghu Rai; Raymond Carver by Bob Adelman; Zadie Smith by Eamonn McCabe... Spanning from the late nineteenth century to the present day, Portrait of the Writer is a dazzling photographic collection of 250 stars of literature, as immortalized by some of the world's greatest photographers. Each photograph is accompanied by a biography of the writer, providing a concise overview of their life and literary accomplishments. What is clear from this extensive, wide-ranging selection is the immense skill of the photographers who have observed writers, captured them and presented them to history. Our curiosity and memories are stimulated as much by the artists behind the lens as by their distinguished subjects.