This is a volume of living history the history of our times, as seen by the photographers who captured it. It is the most comprehensive anthology of Life photography ever assembled, and illustrates the strengths that made many of these individuals famous and Life great. This book, an enormous international success in hardback, is now available in a new, compact, paperback edition.

The Great LIFE Photographers is the most comprehensive anthology of LIFE photography ever published, featuring the best work of every staff photographer who worked for the famous magazine, and that of a handful of others who shot for LIFE. It was always the photographers who made LIFE great, and this is the most vivid and exciting portrait of those men and women that has ever been produced. The book offers more than 100 portfolios including those of Alfred Eisenstaedt, Margaret Bourke-White, Carl Mydans, Gordon Parks, W. Eugene Smith, Robert Capa, Ralph Morse, Nina Leen, Harry Benson, Philippe Halsman, and Joe McNally, whose work for LIFE in the aftermath of September 11 was in the finest tradition of the magazine. Each portfolio includes a short biography, offering an intimate look at the people behind the lens. Here are the defining moments of the 20th century, including MacArthur wading ashore by Mydans, Capa's D-Day landing at Omaha Beach and, of course, Eisenstaedt's sailor kissing the nurse. Here are the first pictures taken from inside the womb and the first taken from outer space. Here are powerful scenes from Tiananmen Square and from the American South during the Civil Rights movement. LIFE helped make icons of Sophia Loren and Marilyn Monroe, the Beatles and Michael Jackson, and those indelible photographs are here too. This attractive new paperback edition is an affordable way to own some of the most memorable photographs ever made, stunningly reproduced in black and white and full color.

His talent was spectacular, electric. He was a thriller beyond compare. And he left us too soon. LIFE was there to capture the excitement that was Michael Jackson, from his earliest days when magazine's John Olson visited the Jackson 5 to the adult years when Jackson invited Harry Benson to tour Neverland for LIFE. This book is an intimate portrait of the artist and the chronicle of an extraordinary American life. There was never a performer quite like Michael Jackson and in the pages of this special commemorative book and singular superstar is captured in full.

No movie star in history is as iconic as Marilyn Monroe. This fact has had the unfortunate effect of distancing the observer from the human being. Marilyn is too often seen as an object instead of as a person. Not in this book. Carefully choosing from the portfolios of photographers who knew her well and who were with her in her unguarded moments, Life presents an intimate, warm portrait of a bravely, vulnerable woman. The work of great Life shooters — Milton Greene, Alfred Eisenstaedt, and others — is here, as is material from several other equally fine lensmen. They show different aspects of Marilyn, sometimes in famous imagery and sometimes in shots rarely if ever seen by the public. The accompanying narrative, too, tries to get in close; it lets the reader know Marilyn in a new way. In this book, Marilyn finally lives.

Life has, of course, visited its archives before — but never like this. This edition puts the photographs on display, not only as part of the page layout but as the page itself. The explanatory text will be out of the way, so that each image can be savored. Moreover, prints will be included that are not just suitable for framing, but meant for framing. And not only will there be photographic prints; there will also be 75 other famous pictures that appeared in Life 's pages, the story behind each of them and the narrative history of what Life 's photography has long meant to the country and, indeed, to the world. This is a unique, ground-breaking book. It is the ultimate treatment of our photography to date in book form. As such it is ultra-commemorative and collectible. The Classic Collection, presented in this classic way, will be a definitive Life Book-and a category leader.

For seven decades, Life has been thrilling the world with its unrivalled presentation of the very best photography to be found. Here, the editors have assembled the creme de la creme from the magazine's vast collection of images. Because Life has always dealt with matters of every sort, the entire spectrum of society is represented in these pages. One after another, there are unforgettable photos from Hollywood's greatest stars, from the wonders of small-town America, from the terrible wars, as well as from the zestful years of childhood. Life has always represented the apex in photojournalism and its roster of great photographers is unequalled.