Literatura v litsakh: fotografii russkikh pisatelei iz sobraniia Gosudarstvennogo literaturnogo muzeia 1850–1916 (Literature in Portraiture: Photographs of Russian Writers from the Collection of the State Literature Museum, 1850–1916)
Moscow: Tri kvadrata, 2008, pb., This catalogue of an exhibition at the Literature Museum in Moscow contributes to the early history of photography in Europe publishing 219 works from a seldom seen collection. Some of the works date to the mid nineteenth century, including some fine examples of daguerreotypes, and most were done by best photographers of the period—although some gems are anonymous and show that even amateurs on occasion realized the potential of the new medium. The scholarly apparatus consists of cataloguing data for each photograph, an index of photographers and subjects, and biographical sketches on approximately sixty photographers working in Russia in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As a source on Russian writers, the book offers outlines of each writer’s career and quotations about him or her by contemporaries. 256 pp., 8 ½ x 12 ins., 205 b-&-w illus., 14 color, Rus., Item #937
Price: $72.00