Books by Steven Brower
Woody Guthrie Artworks
by Steven Brower, Nora Guthrie
Songwriter, poet, writer, political activist . . . and, perhaps most fundamental to his work but least known about Woody Guthrie, artist. "Contrary to popular mythology, it was with paint brushes in hand, not a guitar, that Guthrie hit the road for California. He had hocked his guitar . . . and it was his artistic skills that he brokered for room and board." So begins Nora's fascinating revelations about her father's vast body of artwork. Other than the drawings for his autobiography, Bound for Glory, few have seen Guthrie's art. This is because much of it is inextricably bound into diaries and work books into which he poured his images, and which are presented here for the first time. Guthrie worked as a commercial artist, illustrating album covers, books, and newspaper columns, and kept a daily record of his life, and of American life, in thousands of pictures. Some complement song-writing in such a fluid way that they often appear interwoven with handwritten lyrics. The stinging honesty, humor, and wit found in his music are also to be found in his art, layering our understanding of his social, political, and spiritual life. In more than 300 examples, his visual creativity is apparent, from political cartoons to bawdy and comical gouaches to children's art to abstract emotional outpourings. Drawing extensively on Guthrie's words, Brower unveils an enhanced portrait of one of America's greatest creative forces.
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Breathless Homicidal Slime Mutants: The Art of the Paperback
A visually dynamic homage to the paperback. In 1968, John Leonard, then editor of The New York Times Book Review, listed the many merits of mass-market paperbacks: "They can be stuffed in purses, left in buses, dropped in toilets, used as coasters, eaten and thrown away. Their covers can be ripped off! Their spines can be broken! To buy a paperback today is to buy the means of revenging oneself on Western culture." Fast-forward forty years. Leonard’s affectionately flippant assessment may need to be revised as the explosion of digital media threatens the livelihood of the printed word. More than an act of revenge on Western culture, to buy a paperback may be a means of preserving one of its more charismatic—and socially, politically, and aesthetically influential—species. Breathless Homicidal Slime Mutants celebrates the mass-market paperback and gives it its due. A vibrant tour that starts with books from the late nineteenth century up to today, examining the most popular genres—mystery, romance, Westerns, how-to, cooking, and diet, and highbrow literature packaged for the broader audience—it focuses on the history of the art and design of the format and how it is inseparable from the history of American literacy, tastes, and mores of the twentieth century.
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The Mighty Elvis: A Graphic Biography
by Steven Brower, Seymour Chwast
Revel in this commemoration of Elvis' life in the form of an art book told through the unique vision of legendary designer and illustrator Seymour Chwast.
Spearheading a new music form that, combined with an attitude and a look, would change the world, Elvis Presley became one of the most important cultural figures of the second half of the 20th century. Beautifully illustrated throughout, this book presents an enhanced portrait of one of America's greatest celebrities.
With text by author Steven Brower (Satchmo: The Life and Art of Louis Armstrong), The Mighty Elvis reminds us of the continuing stardom of one of the most popular American singers of all time. Through Chwast's illustrations, cartoons, and comics we get to relive his early life, his meteoric rise to fame and how he was affected by, and in turn, affected the world of music in the many genres he mastered. The book covers his first appearances on television, Graceland, his meeting with President Nixon, his wedding to Priscilla, and much more. Millions of fans loved him, purchased his records, attended his sold out shows and went to his thirty-three films. Death, forty years ago, has not diminished his fame. "Elvis Lives!"
The Mighty Elvis celebrates, in art and design, the life of a great icon of American popular culture!
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Duke Ellington: An American Composer and Icon
by Steven Brower, Mercedes Ellington
Beautifully illustrated and unparalleled in scope, this is an elegant visual celebration befitting the life and work of the "prince of the piano." Duke Ellington was the undisputed father of the American songbook. A prolific writer and consummate performer, Ellington was the author of such standards as "Solitude," "Prelude to a Kiss," and "It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got that Swing)." With a career that spanned five decades, he is one of the defining composers of the Jazz Age. With unprecedented access to the Ellington family archives, this long overdue book illuminates the life and work of an icon of twentieth-century music from his humble beginnings to his long-lasting success. Every stage of Ellington’s career is brought to life, from sepia photographs of his early days in Washington, DC, to colorful playbills from the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, his triumphant tours of Europe in the 1930s, and his pioneering explosion of form and genre in the 1940s and beyond. Alongside more than two hundred stunning images, contributions from peers such as Dave Brubeck, Cornel West, Quincy Jones, and Tony Bennett shed light on Ellington’s musical legacy, while the voice of his granddaughter Mercedes reveals the character behind the charisma, and the man behind the piano.
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Breathless Homicidal Slime Mutants The Art of the Paperback
A visually dynamic homage to the paperback. In 1968, John Leonard, then editor of The New York Times Book Review, listed the many merits of mass-market paperbacks: "They can be stuffed in purses, left in buses, dropped in toilets, used as coasters, eaten and thrown away. Their covers can be ripped off! Their spines can be broken! To buy a paperback today is to buy the means of revenging oneself on Western culture." Fast-forward forty years. Leonard’s affectionately flippant assessment may need to be revised as the explosion of digital media threatens the livelihood of the printed word. More than an act of revenge on Western culture, to buy a paperback may be a means of preserving one of its more charismatic—and socially, politically, and aesthetically influential—species. Breathless Homicidal Slime Mutants celebrates the mass-market paperback and gives it its due. A vibrant tour that starts with books from the late nineteenth century up to today, examining the most popular genres—mystery, romance, Westerns, how-to, cooking, and diet, and highbrow literature packaged for the broader audience—it focuses on the history of the art and design of the format and how it is inseparable from the history of American literacy, tastes, and mores of the twentieth century.
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2D Visual Basics for Designers
by Steven Brower, Robin Landa, Rose Gonnella
2D: Visual Basics for Designers features a concept-based approach that explores the fundamental elements, principles, and applications of two-dimensional design for print and screen-based media. This striking new book covers 2D applications in a variety of visual communications-from graphic design and advertising design to environmental design and illustration. Building a strong foundation in two-dimensional design, 2D: Visual Basics for Designers not only provides readers with essential content; it also teaches the conceptual and analytical skills designers must have to think visually, critically, and creatively.
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