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

by James Gulliver Hancock

This cultural who's-who illuminates 50 famous figures, from Leonardo da Vinci to Coco Chanel, through the fascinating trivia of their lives. Artist James Gulliver Hancock depicts historical icons in quirky annotated portraits surrounded by their associated possessions, baggage, and foibles. Hemingway's hobbies, Amelia Earhart's preferred dessert, Martin Luther King Jr.'s favorite TV show—each portrait reveals the ordinary quirks of these extraordinary people and captures their personalities in the process. An exquisitely illustrated almanac and cultural literacy cheat sheet, this fun and informative collection offers both history buffs and art lovers a treasure trove of interesting facts about beloved artists, writers, thinkers, and dreamers.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Art, Graphic Novels, Writing, History, Ebooks

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 28, 2014

About the author

James Gulliver Hancock’s obsession with re-imaging his world has seen him work for major print, TV and music publishing releases including: Coca-Cola, Ford Motors, Herman Miller, Businessweek Magazine, The New York Times and Simon&Schuster. He has participated in projects in the USA the UK, Indonesia, Austria, Germany, France and Australia, taking his whimsical perception around the world.

He grew up in Sydney, Australia, and studied Visual Communications at the University of Technology, Sydney. In kindergarten he remembers devising the most complex image he could think of … refusing to move on to the next activity after painting, instead detailing a complex drawing of a city of houses including every detail, every person, and every spider web between every house. He still has the drawing.

In high school he discovered technical drawing. He has always been obsessed with machines and the way things work and rendering the meeting of tiny screws in perfect perspective was a delight. This is now married with a love of colour, paint, and controlled mess as well as connecting it to deeper conceptual and philosophical meaning.

He has traveled extensively including an overland journey from Sydney to London via S.E. Asia, China, Japan, Russia and Europe. Rolling in a typhoon in the sea between Japan and Russia he wondered how he’d save his sketchbook when the ship sank. He undertook artist residencies all over Europe and most recently has been living in New York where he has worked for a wide variety of high profile clients and taken the city by storm with his personal project www.allthebuildingsinnewyork.com

Currently he works out of two studios: one in The Pencil Factory in Brooklyn, New York, and from his homeland studio by the beach in Sydney, Australia.

Source: Biography.

Reviews

[♏ Gina☽ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an interesting book filled with drawings of the "weird" stuff that belonged to, or were liked by, 50 famous people.

The array of people the author chose to highlight in this book are worlds apart, ranging from long-dead artists to cultural icons to aviation pioneers - you name it, he or she's included an example.

It's a treasure trove for trivia buffs. Want to know what Amelia Earhart liked to have when her sweet tooth beckoned? It's in here. What did that one celebrity carry in her purse? It may be in here. What do celebrities pack when they travel (some of it is definitely weird) - it's in here.

It's not a book to sit down and read in the "normal" sense of the word. The pages are a collage of drawings and notes facing this way and that way, almost like a cork board with push pin notes in it - and that's what makes this book so much fun to delve into.

This artist also has a series of books with his drawings of famous buildings in cities he has visited. I plan to check those out soon too.

[reading is my hustle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was another great book for the kitchen table. This morning my son flipped through it skimming it here and there and throwing out questions. Who is Bonnie and Clyde? Who is Margaret Thatcher? Oh, look here is Michael Jackson! And, Jacques Cousteau! And here is that artist you like so much- the one you were for Halloween (Frida Kahlo). Look! So we looked over the pages together and ended up talking about artists and art.



We also talked about Margaret Thatcher and the Falkland Islands. Overall a pretty fact filled morning and that was before he went off to school.

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Love the concept here: creating a visual web full of biographical elements relating to artists, writers, thinkers, dreamers aka people who made history around the world.

What I didn't like was the overly negative tone of some portaits (i.e. Billie Holiday) and the inclusion of many of the facts seemed to be more scintillating than the 5-10 things that a person was most known for. In some cases, facts were wrong (i.e. Barack Obama was depicted as having won a Grammy award which is labeled as an Emmy award).

Often, arrows pointed to drawings that represented a fact, but it was difficult to figure out what the drawing represented so the fact was lost on me. With such a visual approach paired with a thoughtful introduction, I expected there to be profiles on all the people covered in text so if a drawing was unclear to a reader, they could reference the back matter.

While I still very much love the heart of the idea here, I would suggest this based on its artistic merits rather than on its biographical trivia.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Experience fifty of the world's most famous people with a visual portrait of each one surrounded by key objects and people and events from their lives. Fun.

[Ḳristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

For any visual lover, this was such a cute read!

[Bobby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting concept. The subtitle explains it well: "Portraits of 50 Famous Folks & All Their Weird Stuff." I learned many new facts about figures I have always admired (Einstein, Da Vinci, MLK Jr. etc). But the graphics were a bit too busy at times, making it hard to follow some of the arrows and the correct order of the text. And I noticed at least a couple of errors, albeit minor ones.

[Shilpa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Portraits of 50 Creative Folks

What couldn’t Ernest Hemingway eat? What car did he drive?

Who said, “I don’t take drugs, I am drugs?”

It’s nice to look at some of the everyday obsessions of the world’s most notable thinkers. It feels like we can relate to them. Obviously not everyone played the banjo as a child like John Lennon, but it’s lovely to uncover another relatable fact about him such as he drank lots of tea and was blind without his glasses. Perhaps now aspiring musicians (and everyone who wears glasses) can believe that they too can become the next great Lennon.

Full review:
http://thinkblink.ca/blog/?p=834

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cute illustrations, but avoided problematic behaviour of male subjects, while pointing out substance abuse by female subjects.

[Cadence Hiles]

This was a very informative book! It told me all about different people and what they did in their life, etc. If you are looking for a "line book on different lines", this book might not be for you. It just has little bubbles of information.

[Amber Polo · Rating 5 out of 5]

So clever. Loved the concept of drawing biographies. Found a couple of surprise facts. A fun book to get lost in.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a clever way to share facts about people. I love the concept of the art and mind-mapping combination to think about unique aspects of these individuals. It serves as a wonderful way to get students thinking about themselves and their interests — could be a great introductory tool in discovering what books they themselves might be interested in reading?

[Malvika · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well interesting book and cool illustrations. However facts were wrong at some places (don't remember exactly where). And so I can't really bring myself to trust this book lol. Also I knew a lot of things already so it wasn't particularly exciting for me.

[MK · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed to see that the beautiful faces of Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, and Grace Kelly were drawn in such terrible ways.

Margaret Thatcher's dignity and her strong leadership came through. The character of Muhammad Ali was also conveyed well.

[Chan Ngok Fung Keison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book listed down the 50 famous person in the world and wrote down their weird things which we don't often know

[Maggie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting idea, but too busy and sometimes the drawings weren't clear.

[Joann Naval · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun read! I would have loved more random information from the famous people, but nonetheless still a cool book! The author is amaziing!

[Jen CE · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neat illustrations and trivia... inspired me to look up more about many of those featured!

[Nancy Sebert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Using this for a visual autobiography assignment to start the year with my students.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love the concept- some issues with his execution. I was also promised stuff. I wanted more weird stuff, haha.

[Jessie Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Greatly entertaining! It contains one page doodles of each of the famous persons featured here.

[Sabra Kurth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting trivia and great illustrations.

[Elliot · Rating 1 out of 5]

Twee as shit

[Rohan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cute for casual perusing, don't think I would remember these facts after just one read.

[Cristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting and quick read filled with quirky drawings and fun facts.

[Marina · Rating 3 out of 5]

** Books 255 - 2015 **

This books to accomplish Yuk Baca Buku Non Fiksi 2015

3,4 of 5 stars!

I love the way this books illustration can summarizing the biographies of the famous people. Instead writing all about the information, the author choose the unique way to describes with graffiti, graphic images and some fun facts. I love when behind the sketches there is some caption or fun facts that grab my attention a lot. I can know the information what i did'nt learn before at school or another biography books.

For example, Have you known before that when Abraham Lincoln was child he being kicked by horse? Alfred Hitchock dislike fried egg and doesn't have an navel in his stomach? Charlie chaplin have four wives and when he died his corpse being stolen by someone? But the interesting fact is i just know that Elvis Presley is have black belts for martial arts (karate) and Hellen keller can read german, italy,greek and french Woww! >__<

I recommend this books for a reader who doesn't love read biography since it is biography with different packaging is. You will love the illustration and some fun facts behind this books :)

John Lennon


Michael Jackson

[Molly]

I borrowed this from my library to put onto my Kindle--what a strange book to "read" on a device! My screen is one of the smaller models, so I couldn't read everything written, but I got the gist--and I think it's a clever concept, a nice gift book, OR, as I'm seeing in the comments, a really smart tool to use in the classroom. I could imagine this as being a good book to use in a creative writing class on writing portrait poems or finding a way to take a few elements and develop character (clearly would work better if students picked a person they are not familiar enough with in the first place). Or a way for younger students to pick a historical figure to study more in depth. Or for art students, etc.

[Gretchen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this way of summarizing and presenting biographies. Instead of writing the typical information, in the typical format, this author took and almost made graffiti pages for each biography. Between the sketches and the captions, it really grabs your attention. Some of the information is information you would know about these people no matter what type of biography you read, and yet some of it is different and just fun which has you getting to know the person in a different way. This could be done on paper or in an iPad and would be much more fun than the posters we have created in the past for our biography wax museum. I think this book would get students to think more about some of these people and then do some research on their own.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating book! 50 famous faces and lots of interesting facts about them. Each of these 50 famous artists, writers, thinkers, and dreamers is captured in beautiful illustrations, surrounded by lots of stuff to tell you more about them. From pictures of their family, to pictures of what made them famous, to their favourite foods, along with fun facts - for example did you know that Alfred Hitchcock didn't have a belly button? I enjoyed reading a couple a day, as I think it would all blur into one if you tried to read them all in one go. But a lovely book, fantastic illustrations, and lots of interesting information.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just finished a 3 day workshop with Leslie Maniotes on guided inquiry. This would be such a great book to use as a foundation for almost any kind of research--especially if you allow the students to choose what they include in their "portraits." Of course, it would only be a beginning but would be great for the beginning stages and could be used as part (but not all, at least for older students) of the share. It also is great because it's a way to go beyond "bird units" and let kids do more than do research that is just finding answers to questions.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great picture book about famous people from recently as my lifetime to that of ancient Egypt. Essentially, this picture book is actually composed of 50 infographics about the nuances of successful people. In a way, kind of reminds me of a book I read earlier this year called "Daily Rituals". My only critique for this book is all of the infographics use the same verbiage and style. Variety would be nice.

I can see this being used as an activity for students to introduce themselves as sort of a beginning of the year activity.