Literary Agents

The plates — a colophon

Eighteen archival plates, three to a voice — the worlds the styles came from, never the writers themselves. Each was taken from the named archive’s own file, treated to one duotone (shadows to ink, highlights to paper), and is public domain or CC0 per that archive’s own rights statement. The full record for any plate is one click away below.

IcebergAfter the prose of Ernest Hemingway · 1899–1961
Crowded two-tier bullring during a bullfight, Barcelona, around 1900.

Fig. 1 — Barcelona, c. 1900 — Full ring at the Plaza de Toros

Library of Congress · ppmsc-06001 · Public domainSource

Boulevard de la Madeleine with café awnings and carriage traffic, Paris.

Fig. 2 — Paris, c. 1900 — Boulevard de la Madeleine

Library of Congress · ppmsc-05201 · Public domainSource

The Alhambra on its wooded hill below the snowfields of the Sierra Nevada.

Fig. 3 — Granada, c. 1900 — The Alhambra below the Sierra Nevada

Library of Congress · ppmsca-52802 · Public domainSource

MannersAfter the prose of Jane Austen · 1775–1817
Hand-colored 1812 fashion plate of a woman in an Empire-line gown playing diabolo.

Fig. 1 — Paris, 1812 — Costume Parisien, plate 1233

Rijksmuseum · RP-P-2009-2421 · CC0Source

Georgian High Street with the Guildhall dome and carriages, Bath.

Fig. 2 — Bath, c. 1900 — High Street and the Guildhall

Library of Congress · ppmsc-08001 · Public domainSource

Haddon Hall on its wooded rise above a three-arch packhorse bridge.

Fig. 3 — Derbyshire, c. 1900 — Haddon Hall over the bridge

Library of Congress · ppmsc-08312 · Public domainSource

FathomAfter the prose of Mark Twain · 1835–1910
Two Mississippi steamboats at a levee, roustabouts carrying sacks up a gangplank, a horse cart in the foreground; Vicksburg, 1906.

Fig. 1 — Vicksburg, 1906 — A Mississippi river landing

Library of Congress · ppmsca-53310 · Public domainSource

The steamboat Belle of the Bends at the Vicksburg landing with a waiting crowd.

Fig. 2 — Vicksburg, c. 1905 — The Belle of the Bends at the landing

Library of Congress · det-4a17930 · Public domainSource

Packet steamboats and smoke plumes along the New Orleans levee.

Fig. 3 — New Orleans, c. 1900 — Steamboats along the levee

Library of Congress · det-4a05052 · Public domainSource

StreamAfter the prose of Virginia Woolf · 1882–1941
Eddystone Lighthouse standing in the open sea beside the stub of its predecessor, a rowboat below.

Fig. 1 — Plymouth, c. 1895 — Eddystone Lighthouse

Library of Congress · ppmsc-08791 · Public domainSource

Ocean surf breaking in near-abstract bands of sky, foam, and wet sand.

Fig. 2 — Atlantic coast, 1907 — Ocean surf

Library of Congress · det-4a22423 · Public domainSource

St Ives and its bay seen across the curve of Porthminster beach, Cornwall.

Fig. 3 — Cornwall, c. 1895 — St Ives from Porthminster

Library of Congress · ppmsc-08245 · Public domainSource

EpigramAfter the prose of Oscar Wilde · 1854–1900
Piccadilly Circus with the London Pavilion music hall and hansom cabs.

Fig. 1 — London, c. 1900 — Piccadilly Circus and the Pavilion

Library of Congress · ppmsc-08577 · Public domainSource

The domed New Gaiety Theatre on the Strand with a horse-drawn omnibus passing, 1903.

Fig. 2 — London, 1903 — The New Gaiety Theatre, Strand

Library of Congress · stereo-1s22795 · Public domainSource

The Strand at Lowther Arcade with gas lanterns and hansom traffic, 1901.

Fig. 3 — London, 1901 — The Strand at Lowther Arcade

Library of Congress · stereo-1s22793 · Public domainSource

SlantAfter the poems of Emily Dickinson · 1830–1886
Engraved Audubon plate of four ruby-throated hummingbirds at a trumpet vine, with nest.

Fig. 1 — Plate 253, 1840s — Ruby-throated humming bird

The Met · DP245261 · CC0Source

A pedestal sundial among flower beds and clipped evergreens in a New England garden.

Fig. 2 — Beverly Farms, c. 1920 — Sundial in a New England garden

Library of Congress · LC-USZ62-118320 · Public domainSource

The Amherst College observatory and campus spires seen from the library.

Fig. 3 — Amherst, c. 1900 — The college from the library

Library of Congress · det-4a07578 · Public domainSource