Photographs by Roloff Beny have until now pictured images of classical art and architecture, nature and foreign lands. This book is a collection of recently-discovered portraits of some famous figures from the world of visual and performing arts, from literature and fashion, from politics, society and royalty. These figures include Jean Cocteau, Tennessee Williams, Henry Moore, Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Peggy Guggenheim, Elizabeth Taylor, John Huston, Noel Coward, Ezra Pound, Leontyne Price, Rudolf Nureyev, Margot Fonteyn, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and Coco Chanel. Mitchell Crites juxtaposes these celebrity shots with photographs of Renaissance and oriental sculpture, and pictures of ordinary people and ritual life taken during Beny's travels. Complementing the photographs is an anecdotal commentary, including extracts from Beny's personal diaries.