Francis Bacon’s Library

Reading Francis Bacon's art through his personal book collection

This is the first book to deal exclusively with the fascinating subject of Francis Bacon's collection of books and magazines and its role as visual and intellectual source material for his paintings.

Bacon was a bibliophile who owned around 1300 publications on a host of subjects as diverse as art, photography, cinema, sport, travel, cookery, the occult, politics, philosophy, history, antiquity, medical issues, and many more. His interest in literature ranged from W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Aeschylus, and Shakespeare to Jane Austen and Agatha Christie.

Francis Bacon's Library reveals the wealth of material in Hugh Lane Gallery's archive of Francis Bacon material, which was generously donated by the Estate of Francis Bacon. The richly illustrated book contains texts by Dr Monika Keska, who catalogued Bacon's library and Dr Barbara Dawson, Director of Hugh Lane Gallery.