Through the lens with George Bernard Shaw.

George Bernard Shaw.
Library of Congress,
Prints and Photographs Div.

An interesting online exhibition by the London School of Economics archives looks at playwright George Bernard Shaw as a skilled photographer. Photo subjects include sci-fi and mystery author Grant Allen (I introduced the Valancourt Books edition of Allen's Miss Cayley's Adventures), writer Rebecca West, and artists Augustus John (father of Ian Fleming's half-sister Amaryllis) and Neville Stephen Bulwer Lytton (grandson of novelist Edward). Also featured are some photos by Shaw's friends such as T. E. Lawrence (aka Lawrence of Arabia) and Shaw productions such as Major Barbara with Wendy Hiller.

A selection of Faber's mystery cover art.

Some historical samples of Faber's online archive of cover art include the following mystery works:

• The Black Tower by P. D. James (1975)

• Death at Crane's Court by Eilis Dillon (1953; new ed. from Rue Morgue P)

• Death by Request by Romilly John and K[atherine]. John (1933). Romilly was the son of painter Augustus John and the half-brother of cellist Amaryllis Fleming, half-sister of Ian Fleming.

George Antheil, NYPL

• Death in the Dark by Stacey Bishop (aka composer George Antheil, 1930)

• An English Murder by Cyril Hare (aka Alfred Alexander Gordon Clark, 1951)

• Famous Crimes, retold by "The Prince of Criminologists," William Roughead (1935)


• The Mummy Case by Dermot Morrah (1933; review here)

• The Ticker-Tape Murder by Milton Propper (1930; review here; partially serialized in the Border City Star, parts 1, 2, 3)

• A Tomb with a View by BBC producer Lance Sieveking (1950)

And of interest to Rex Stout fans:
• Forest Fire by Stout (1934; review here)
• Mr. Cinderella by Stout (1939; better cover of U.S. ed. here; review here)

Cellist Amaryllis Fleming, half-sister of Ian.

My Georgetown classmate Lucinda Ebersole discusses the career of Amaryllis Fleming, half-sister of Ian Fleming (Amaryllis's father was the artist Augustus John), and her cameo appearance in her half-brother's work.

About the image: Sculpture of Amaryllis Fleming by Fiore de Henriquez, Renishaw Hall, Derbyshire, UK (home of the Sitwells)