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Emshwiller: Infinity x Two: The Art & Life of Ed & Carol Emshwiller
Together Ed and Carol Emshwiller formed a unique creative pair, inspiring each other on good days and giving meaning to the adage “marriage and art don't mix” on bad days, and this collection brings together their imaginative work. Ed “Emsh” Emshwiller, was one of the premiere artists working in the science fiction field (winning five Hugo awards). He used his unique multifaceted vision of the future to also become an award winning avant-garde filmmaker and computer animation pioneer. His wife, Carol Emshwiller, won the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2005, after more than 50 years of writing beautiful, jewel-like stories and witty novels.
- GenresArtNonfiction
176 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 25, 2018
Excellent biography about Ed and Carol Emshwiller.
September 2, 2019
I skimmed through this book years ago when it was first published in 2007 and came back to it now for two reasons. First, I finally saw the 2018 film First Man, about Neil Armstrong and the first moon landing. I was struck by the strong resemblance between actress Claire Foy portraying Armstrong's wife Janet and Carol Emshwiller when they both were young. The picture of Carol on page 5 in this book looks to me very much like the character in the film.
Second, when I looked up Carol Emshwiller to see if I remembered her appearance correctly, I found that she had died last month on February 2, 2019 at the age of 97.
The book celebrates the life and work of Carol Emshwiller, a very fine author, and her husband Ed (for Edmund) Emshwiller, a renowned artist and film-maker. Throughout the years when I was regularly reading science fiction, Ed Emshwiller (1925-1990) was one of the leading artists in the field. He usually signed his work "EMSH," and he was largely known under that designation. He was known for both his color work on magazine covers and his black and white interior illustrations. He and Carol were both strikingly attractive, and Carol's likeness often appeared in Ed's pictures. His work was not limited to science fiction and fantasy; this book has fine examples of his covers for mysteries, adventure stories, and westerns. Much of his work was comic; other pictures were frightening; some were simply beautiful. He won five "Best Artist" Hugo Awards.
This book shows a number of my favorite Emshwiller covers. Some of the comic ones are shown on page 40 (Galaxy, August, 1952), page 60 (Galaxy, April, 1956), and page 76 (Science Fiction Quarterly, August, 1957). One of his loveliest covers is, unfortunately, reproduced here in black and white; it is on page 49 (The Original Science Fiction Stories, August, 1956). I am particularly fond of the picture "Chamber Music Society of Deneb" (Galaxy, February, 1955) on page 88; it is a fine Star Wars illustration, more than twenty years before Star Wars existed. My favorite Emshwiller cover not included in the book is the lovely "Pygm-Alien and Galaxea" from Galaxy, March, 1954). Perhaps my very favorite Emshwiller cover is shown on page 70, an untitled picture from the cover of the January, 1957 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. It is not the sort of thing that I would ordinarily particularly like; it portrays a young woman being shot in the back. It is very similar to other Emshwiller pictures, including one shown on the following page. But the colors, the details, and the balance of this cover have long impressed me.
The book is much weaker on Emshwiller's black and white work. None of my favorites from this category are shown here.
I should add that there are pictures here that I dislike for various reasons, and a few that I think are not very well done. (See, for example, the cover picture from the July, 1964 issue of Amazing Science Fiction on page 86.)
It is very hard for me to say much about Ed Emshwiller's films, none of which I can recall seeing (although I may have; I saw a lot of "experimental" films in the late 1960s). From the still pictures reproduced here and the details given, they do sound fascinating.
Carol Emshwiller's writing was usually considered science fiction or fantasy and some of it clearly was. She was also regarded as a fabulist or a writer of magic realism. She won two Nebula Awards for "Best Short Story." The first story of hers that I can remember loving was "Adapted" (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May, 1961), which is not mentioned in this book. Her last published story appeared in 2012.
Obviously it is much easier for Luis Ortiz, author of this book, to show examples of Ed's art than of Carol's, so the book inevitably seems to be more about him. That does not mean that Carol's artistry was any less worthy of note.
Much of the text and many of the picture captions are fine. However, the book does have problems. The most basic one is that, understandably, most of Ed Emshwiller's work could not be included, and that none of Carol Emshwiller's fiction is either. I think that the front cover of the book, assembled from pieces of Ed Emshwiller's work, is ugly. I also do think that there should have been more attention to Ed's black and white work, as well as much more space given to discussion of Carol's work. This is a good book but I believe that it could have been a better one.
RIP Carol Emshwiller
Second, when I looked up Carol Emshwiller to see if I remembered her appearance correctly, I found that she had died last month on February 2, 2019 at the age of 97.
The book celebrates the life and work of Carol Emshwiller, a very fine author, and her husband Ed (for Edmund) Emshwiller, a renowned artist and film-maker. Throughout the years when I was regularly reading science fiction, Ed Emshwiller (1925-1990) was one of the leading artists in the field. He usually signed his work "EMSH," and he was largely known under that designation. He was known for both his color work on magazine covers and his black and white interior illustrations. He and Carol were both strikingly attractive, and Carol's likeness often appeared in Ed's pictures. His work was not limited to science fiction and fantasy; this book has fine examples of his covers for mysteries, adventure stories, and westerns. Much of his work was comic; other pictures were frightening; some were simply beautiful. He won five "Best Artist" Hugo Awards.
This book shows a number of my favorite Emshwiller covers. Some of the comic ones are shown on page 40 (Galaxy, August, 1952), page 60 (Galaxy, April, 1956), and page 76 (Science Fiction Quarterly, August, 1957). One of his loveliest covers is, unfortunately, reproduced here in black and white; it is on page 49 (The Original Science Fiction Stories, August, 1956). I am particularly fond of the picture "Chamber Music Society of Deneb" (Galaxy, February, 1955) on page 88; it is a fine Star Wars illustration, more than twenty years before Star Wars existed. My favorite Emshwiller cover not included in the book is the lovely "Pygm-Alien and Galaxea" from Galaxy, March, 1954). Perhaps my very favorite Emshwiller cover is shown on page 70, an untitled picture from the cover of the January, 1957 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. It is not the sort of thing that I would ordinarily particularly like; it portrays a young woman being shot in the back. It is very similar to other Emshwiller pictures, including one shown on the following page. But the colors, the details, and the balance of this cover have long impressed me.
The book is much weaker on Emshwiller's black and white work. None of my favorites from this category are shown here.
I should add that there are pictures here that I dislike for various reasons, and a few that I think are not very well done. (See, for example, the cover picture from the July, 1964 issue of Amazing Science Fiction on page 86.)
It is very hard for me to say much about Ed Emshwiller's films, none of which I can recall seeing (although I may have; I saw a lot of "experimental" films in the late 1960s). From the still pictures reproduced here and the details given, they do sound fascinating.
Carol Emshwiller's writing was usually considered science fiction or fantasy and some of it clearly was. She was also regarded as a fabulist or a writer of magic realism. She won two Nebula Awards for "Best Short Story." The first story of hers that I can remember loving was "Adapted" (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May, 1961), which is not mentioned in this book. Her last published story appeared in 2012.
Obviously it is much easier for Luis Ortiz, author of this book, to show examples of Ed's art than of Carol's, so the book inevitably seems to be more about him. That does not mean that Carol's artistry was any less worthy of note.
Much of the text and many of the picture captions are fine. However, the book does have problems. The most basic one is that, understandably, most of Ed Emshwiller's work could not be included, and that none of Carol Emshwiller's fiction is either. I think that the front cover of the book, assembled from pieces of Ed Emshwiller's work, is ugly. I also do think that there should have been more attention to Ed's black and white work, as well as much more space given to discussion of Carol's work. This is a good book but I believe that it could have been a better one.
RIP Carol Emshwiller
April 13, 2011
A book both good-looking and interesting. But the author was a bit too much of a rooter for complete comfort.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews