Skip navigation
London Review of Books London Review Bookshop

Bought a gun, found the man subscriber-only content

Anne Hollander

The frontispiece to this biographical study is an unknown photographer’s portrait of the bearded Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) taken in about 1872. He sits awkwardly hunched on a crate with his back against a sequoia, grimly frowning into the distance, wearing a wide-brimmed hat and a rumpled three-piece suit. His ragged trouser hems are prominent in the foreground, along with his muddy wrinkled boots. He looks the image of a rebel, an uneasy outsider, perhaps mad, bad and dangerous to know, perhaps a genius, certainly a vexed spirit.

subscriber-only content Subscribers to the print edition can log in to view the entire article. For information about subscribing to the London Review of Books click here. This article is available for purchase online. Buy this article.

Anne Hollander wrote the text for Woman in the Mirror, Richard Avedon’s last collection of photographs. She is now at work on a study of literary clothing.

LRB cover artwork

From the archive

Husbands and Wives
Terry Castle: Claude & Marcel, Gertrude & Alice

A Little Swine
Sheila Fitzpatrick on Snitching

The Eerie One
Bee Wilson on Peter Lorre

The Savage Life
Frank Kermode: The Adventures of William Empson

Black and White Life
Mark Greif on Ralph Ellison