Literature & Photography: Interactions 1840-1990 : A Critical Anthology

Ever since the daguerreotype was announced in 1839, literature and photography have shared a close relationship. Many writers--Lewis Carroll, Émile Zola, August Strindberg, George Bernard Shaw, Jack London, and Eudora Welty, to name a few--were avid amateur photographers. And, of course, many photographers had deep interests in literature; included are texts by Nadar on Balzac, Steiglitz on Stein, and Man Ray on Hemingway. Finally, there is the collaboration: Agee and Evans, Steinbeck and Capa, Capote and Avedon. This book provides a fascinating look into the dynamic relationship between the printed image and the printed text.

Edgar Allan Poe heralded its discovery. Mark Twain was quick to take advantage of it. Henry David Thoreau pondered its implications. Franz Kafka questioned its veracity. Few writers have been able to deny the impact of photography over the past 150 years, from Walt Whitman, who wholeheartedly embraced it, to Samuel Beckett--who used it as the inspiration for his only film script--and Allen Ginsberg, who employed it to supplement his poetry. Jane M. Rabb has harvested 100 selections and 169 images that explore the cross-fertilization of these sister disciplines. Many voices in this anthology belong to avid photographers--Conan Doyle, Bernard Shaw, Eudora Welty--who are better known as wordsmiths.