The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019

Price: $8,000.00

Hardcover. A large collection of over 400 works of fiction and poetry, consisting of books that feature photographs and images as an integral part of the literary text, inspired by the novels of W.G. Sebald. Sebald notably included an odd array of photographs, postcards, and other documentary images in his literature. This collection of “photography-embedded” literature documents the history of how photographs had been used in fiction and poetry prior to Sebald, and leading contemporary authors worldwide who have been influenced by Sebald. The bulk of the collection, but not all, consists of contemporary works created after Sebald’s death in 2001.

The earliest book in the collection is the Belgian Symbolist writer Georges Rodenbach’s *Bruges-la-Mort*, published in Paris in 1892, which includes photographs of Bruges selected by Rodenbach. Also among the early works is Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s *Poems of Cabin and Field* (1899), which features photographs taken by African-American students at the Hampton Institute; Joseph Battell’s *Ellen or The Whisperings of an Old Pine* (1901), a truly eccentric piece of American writing taking the form of a Platonic dialogue between a teenage girl and the narrator, who happens to be an old pine tree; and John Spivak’s *Georgia Nigger* (1933), in which Spivak augments his fictional narrative of the chain gang system in Georgia with photographs taken by him to more effectively convey the brutalization of black prisoners.

Included among the later pre-Sebald titles are well-known writers like John Updike, Anthony Burgess, Martin Amis, and Kobo Abe, each of whom had produced at least one book with embedded photographs. The collection contains works by authors from more than 20 nationalities on six continents. There are over 90 works Signed by the author, including titles by Claudia Rankine, Ransom Riggs, Carole Maso, Iain Sinclair, Umberto Eco, and Melvin Van Peebles, together with 12 signed limited editions. The collection also includes a handful of academic titles devoted to the study of the use of photographs in literature.

An historically important and unique collection that brings together many diverse titles of both celebrated and overlooked works of literature with embedded photographs and other images. A detailed list of all 419 titles in the collection is available.


Item #436534

item image

Item #436534 The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019
The Photography-Embedded Literature Collection, 1892-2019