A stunning journey into the world of Peter Beard "This extravagant and magnificent book is a work of art in itself." - L'EXPRESS, Paris Photographer, collector, diarist, and writer of books Peter Beardhas fashioned his life into a work of art; the illustrated diaries he kept from a young age evolved into a serious career as an artist and earned him a central position in the international art world. He was painted by Francis Bacon, painted on by Salvador Dalí, and made diaries with Andy Warhol; he toured with Truman Capoteand the Rolling Stones, created books with Jacqueline Onassisand Mick Jagger,all of whom are brought to life, literally and figuratively, in his work. As a fashion photographer, he took Voguestars like Veruschkato Africa and brought new onesmost notably Imanback to the U.S. with him. After spending time in Kenya and befriending the author Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen) in the early 1960s, Beard bought a piece of land near hers. He witnessed the dawn of Kenya's population explosion, which challenged finite resources and stressed animal populationsincluding the starving elephants of Tsavo, dying by the tens of thousands in a wasteland of eaten trees. So he documented what he sawwith diaries, photographs, and collages. He went against the wind in publishing unique and sometimes shocking books of these works. The corpses were laid bare; the facts were carefully written down, sometimes in type, often by hand, occasionally with blood. Peter Beard's most important collages are included, along with hundreds of smaller-scale works and diaries, magnified to show every detailfrom Beard's meticulous handwriting and old-masters-inspired drawings to stones and bones and bits of animals pasted to the page. First published in two volumes as a TASCHEN limited collector's edition now available in a new one-volume popular hardcover edition!