Artists, Writers, Thinkers, Dreamers: Portraits of Fifty Famous Folks & All Their Weird Stuff

113 Pages·2014·74.43 MB·English

by  James Gulliver Hancock

ARTISTS
Writers
THINKERS
DREAMERS
PORTRAITS OF
50 FAMOUS FOLKS
& ALL THEIR WEIRD STUFF
BY
JAMES GULLIVER HANCOCK
CHRONICLE BOOKS
SAN FRANCISCO
Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of all
information included in this volume. Any errors that may
have occurred are inadvertent and will be corrected in
subsequent editions, provided notification is sent to the
publisher.
Copyright © 2014 by James Gulliver Hancock.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
in any form without written permission from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available.
ISBN: 978-1-4521-1456-9 (pb)
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2998-3 (epub 2, mobi)
ISBN: 978-1-4521-3749-0 (epub 3)
Chronicle Books LLC
680 Second Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
www.chroniclebooks.com
CONTENTS
Abraham Lincoln ....................................8 John Lennon ........................................58
Albert Einstein ......................................10 Julia Child ............................................60
Alfred Hitchcock ..................................12 Leonardo da Vinci ................................62
Amelia Earhart .....................................14 Leo Tolstoy ...........................................64
Andy Warhol ........................................16 Louis Armstrong ...................................66
Babe Ruth ...........................................18 Madonna .............................................68
Barack Obama .....................................20 Mahatma Gandhi .................................70
Billie Holiday ........................................22 Margaret Thatcher ...............................72
Bonnie & Clyde ....................................24 Marie Curie ..........................................74
Bruce Lee ............................................26 Marilyn Monroe ....................................76
Buzz Aldrin ..........................................28 Martin Luther King Jr. ...........................78
Charlie Chaplin ....................................30 Michael Jackson ..................................80
Che Guevara ........................................32 Muhammad Ali ....................................82
Cleopatra .............................................34 Napoleon Bonaparte ............................84
Coco Chanel ........................................36 Oprah Winfrey ......................................86
Edith Piaf .............................................38 Oscar Wilde .........................................88
Elvis Presley .........................................40 Princess Diana .....................................90
Ernest Hemingway ...............................42 Queen Elizabeth I .................................92
Frida Kahlo ..........................................44 Salvador Dalí ........................................94
Grace Kelly ..........................................46 Sigmund Freud ....................................96
Harry Houdini ......................................48 Thomas Edison ....................................98
Helen Keller .........................................50 Vincent van Gogh ...............................100
Howard Hughes ...................................52 Winston Churchill ...............................102
Jacques Cousteau ................................54 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart .................104
Joan of Arc ..........................................56 The Wright Brothers ...........................106
INTRODUCTION
THE HUMAN RACE
IS SURROUNDED BY
STUFF
I love visiting a new friend’s witnessed the waxing and
house and discovering that waning of my possessions with
he collects antique squeezeboxes, or that the different locations. There are
bracelet she wears is made from her great aunt’s things that have stuck with me out of necessity
hair. It’s beautiful that we are like little planets and things that I hold on to for no reason other
pulling detritus into orbit around us. We all know than I like having them around. I love both the
it’s hard to get rid of things from our lives, and feeling of freedom that carrying only a suitcase
hoarding looms just around the corner. But there can bring and the strong sense of security that
are some items you would never think to part keeping a collection of personal trinkets provides.
with; they are linked to us through events in our Sometimes stuff feels like a burden and other
lives or they just fit perfectly. times it seems to connect us more strongly to our
world. I’ve become hyper-aware that I hold onto
People seem to relax when they are around their certain things, that they are mine,
things. It is how they define themselves and and that they are important. My father
make their living situation “home.” These worked in estates of the deceased and
things are extensions of us, props the collections of each life’s worth of
that we gather to help project an “stuff” was always a fascinating sum-
identity and help us interact mary of that person.
with the world. We can learn a
lot about a person from looking at Like possessions, small quirks reflect
what they choose to surround themselves a person’s identity; their clothes,
with. In his book Blink, Malcolm Gladwell notes their favorite food, the house they
that students are far more successful at assessing grew up in, the people they know.
someone’s personality from a glance at their dorm I’m a visual communicator and
room possessions than spending time with the I always found it interesting that
actual person. people have these props that
become extensions of who
I have always been intrigued by people’s relation- they are. When I think of Che
ship to objects. Having traveled extensively, I’ve Guevara I think of his beret;
when I think of Grace Kelly I think The people in this book are all extraordinary in
of that classic scarf; when I think of some way and have inspired me because of the
Elvis I think of that super sandwich. lives they’ve lived. By reducing them to these
They are physical objects that provide basic equations of ordinary life it’s fascinating to
visual clues about who a person is see how much their everyday choices make them
or has decided to be. They may seem more human. How some of their habits and ritu-
to be on the surface, decoration on the als are within basic human need; what they like
façade, but the fact that these particular to eat, where they were born, even the stories of
bits and pieces become easily associated their unusual deaths or marriages can make them
with and connected to these particular seem normal in this context. Obviously not
people says something about who everyone has a 10-carat engagement
they are. ring like Grace Kelly, but most people
do love a slice of cheesecake now and
This project started when I was living then. Collecting people’s detritus at
in New York. I was drawing buildings CHEESECAKE once makes them extraordinary and
for my blog allthebuildingsinnewyork. human at the same time.
com and started to think about the people
who were inside those buildings. As a newcomer This book is a visual encyclopedia, allowing
to the city from Australia, I was amazed at how glimpses into iconic figures’ personalities.
many characters you would see walk by on a daily These props and events tell a part of
basis and I would wonder which building was the story of who they are in a way that
theirs. Everyone seemed to have their own style is sometimes clearer and more
or quirk. Who are they? What stuff do they use? revealing than words. These
How do they get around? What do they eat? What are not meant to encompass
are their routines? What makes each one different their entire lifetime of achieve-
from the next person on the street? It was these ments but they do reflect
potentially infinite characters with their infinite the one solid identity of each
quirks that I loved and wanted to explore. Initially person built up over years of
not having too many friends in New their life. They are refined here
York I started to make them up, to to their favorite things, shuffling around them, and
invent characters and draw them: we are left wondering why the universe gave those
office workers who loved bees, particular things to them.
tugboat drivers who collected
toy trains and caught the A train So I invite you to explore these people in this
to work. Somehow it helped me visual summary. I guarantee you will learn some-
organize the chaos of a huge society thing about people you thought you knew, and
of individuals. hopefully gain an insight into the quirky nature
of the human experience.
Over time I started applying this style of draw-
ing to people I knew and capturing their visual JAMES GULLIVER HANCOCK
summaries (you can see mine at the end of
the book). And later I became intrigued by
searching out these same kinds of objects
and icons for the great figures of history.
It’s a voyeuristic attempt to delve deeper
into people I have no primary access to, an
obsessive sorting of the human experience.
ABRAHAM
LINCOLN
8
KENTUCKY
HATED THIS
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SAVED AWKWARD WITH THESE
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