23 photos of famous writers as few have seen them (23 photos)

When we hear the names of writers, we often remember their works, not their appearance. It is still interesting to imagine what these talented people were like, to learn about their character. And sometimes a photograph can say more than words.

1. John R. R. Tolkien in his study with a map of Middle-earth he drew





It can be difficult for readers to enjoy a work if they know nothing about its context.

Some literary scholars believe that photographs can give an idea of ​​the state in which the author wrote the book, what kind of person he was, and how all this influenced his work.

2. Mark Twain with a Kitten



A photograph with its social or cultural context helps the reader understand that the person who wrote the text is (or was) a real person, and not just a name on the cover of a book.

Of course, relying only on a photograph of the author is a bad idea. If the writer seems like a simple, down-to-earth person, then it may seem like his or her themes are the same. This is why critical thinking is so important. You shouldn't let one photograph influence your perception of the entire text.

While art, including books and photographs, is subjective by nature, we still need to strive for objectivity in our perception of it. As you look at these rare photographs, remember that they only capture a fragment of life.

3. A portrait of Edgar Allan Poe, believed to be the earliest known photograph of him





4. Oscar Wilde at a Garden Party



5. Franz Kafka with his dog



6. Rare portrait of Virginia Woolf



7. Rare daguerreotype of Charles Dickens



8. Alexander Solzhenitsyn on the day of his release after 8 years imprisonment in forced labor camps



9. Ernest Hemingway with his driver Adamo Simon



10. Clive Staples Lewis with pipe



11. The first known image of Friedrich Nietzsche



12. 46-year-old Charles Darwin



13. Leo Tolstoy



14. Portrait of a Young Sigmund Freud



15. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois at Age 4



16. John Steinbeck



17. The Last Photograph of Fyodor Dostoevsky



18. Jorge Luis Borges with a Basket of Bread on His Head



19. Francis Scott Fitzgerald



20. Albert Camus in dance



21. Karl Marx



22. Anna Julia Cooper on graduation



23. Young Gilbert Keith Chesterton