Photographs of Authors

December 24, 2007 6:17 PM

Pictures of writers in a thread on I Love Music. Lots and lots of pictures of lots of writers. Another thread from the same board with more pictures (some duplicates). Author photos are most often seen on dust jackets or in the back of books, a practice Frances Wilson wishes to see abolished. One famous connoisseur of pictures of writers is Javier Marías who wrote a whole book on the subject, Written Lives. Here are a few excerpts from the book: William Faulkner, Isak Dinesen (pen name of Karen Blixen) and an edited extract covering a whole lot of authors.

Bonus: Julia Lipman riffs on a pair of photos of Jonathan Franzen in Flak Magazine.

posted by Kattullus (11 comments total)

Isn't that all from the ILE (I Love Everything) rather than I Love Music?

I mean, they're not all the same.
posted by klangklangston at 6:24 PM on December 24, 2007

It is from I Love Everything, you're right. Shoot... I thought ILX was I Love Musice and ILE was I Love Everything, but it seems ILX is the term for both of them.
posted by Kattullus at 6:28 PM on December 24, 2007

Yeah, the X is a variable.

Sorry, don't mean to derail. I remember these threads when they were happening.
posted by klangklangston at 6:37 PM on December 24, 2007

where are the best writers working today?
posted by jonmc at 8:30 PM on December 24, 2007

The picture of Tim Willocks inside the back cover flap of The Religion is possibly one of the most disturbing sights I have ever seen, though I've a vague idea I might have seen a newspaper clipping containing a photot of a nude Charles Stross at some point - mercifully the details are hazy, probably my brain blotted it out to prevent lasting harm.
posted by Artw at 11:46 PM on December 24, 2007

On the one hand, it always makes me itchy when ILX is linked to, though perhaps for no good reason. On the other hand, I had forgotten about that picture of Daniil Kharms, eep!
posted by Casuistry at 2:10 AM on December 25, 2007

There's a flickr group of portraits of poets and writers.

(I don't know why they think "poets" and "writers" are separate categories.)
posted by jdfalk at 10:01 AM on December 25, 2007

I made a giant poster of Joan Didion using the photo of her in the link and the Rasterbator. She stares down at me at my desk, cigarette in hand.
I personally love Neal Pollack's photo.
posted by 235w103 at 2:53 PM on December 25, 2007

This is great! I especially like the Jonathan Franzen article.

I think Bill Bryson takes good but not exactly flattering author portraits. Granted, he is going for a more affable image than the rest of them.
posted by Corduroy at 9:42 PM on December 25, 2007

We need a "Poets", "Writers" and "Drunks" Venn diagram.
posted by Artw at 12:28 AM on December 26, 2007

The Franzen one is great...

The picture of Tim Willocks

There's a video interview with him on his web site and he looks totally different... like the Franzen disconnect. I suspect the author pic is from way back in the day, when he was shagging Madonna (allegedly)

I've a vague idea I might have seen a newspaper clipping containing a photot of a nude Charles Stross

Well I definitely have... thanks for putting that image back into my brain.

I particularly hate the 'hand under/around chin' shots... there's one I remember of Ben Elton like that where he looks even more of a smug bastard than normal. (I've tried to find it but I find trawling through pictures of him on Google more than slightly nauseating)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:34 AM on December 26, 2007