Does anyone know...

[Philly_SWAT]

What book this is, or who this author is? I assume that is a pic of the author on the back of the book.

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l150/Philly_SWAT/book.jpg

At the present time, there had been 26 views and no responses. :(

Any thoughts on how to figure out who that is?

[Philly_SWAT]

What book this is, or who this author is? I assume that is a pic of the author on the back of the book.

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l150/Philly_SWAT/book.jpg

At the present time, there had been 26 views and no responses. :(

Any thoughts on how to figure out who that is?

Any thoughts at all?

[ProfessorChaos]

sorry, brother. nothing to report from my camp.

[AcesandEights]

Any thoughts at all?

Yes...

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l150/Philly_SWAT/venncircle.jpg

If A, in the above Venn diagram, equals all people currently out of luck, then B would equal you. ;)

Or, if you prefer:

http://www.codeodor.com/images/magic_8ball_outlook_not_so_good.jpg

Seriously though, you stumped me, Philly. I trust someone will come up with something for you, though.

[Philly_SWAT]

Lol! :)

[LoSTBoY]

I can tell you that because the spine is on the left side that the old guy is the front cover.

There is some red writing in the bottom left of the cover though. Looks like one word.

So your looking for a one word Title with an old guy as the front cover. :)

Why are you so determined to find this?

[axlish]

Lostboy, if you look at the 20's you can see that they are reversed, so this is the back of the book.

It is a book from the gambling scene in Dawn.

Philly, try running it through one of those face recognition software things online.

[Philly_SWAT]

Lostboy, if you look at the 20's you can see that they are reversed, so this is the back of the book.
Wow! I didnt even notice that the 20's were reversed. Good eye! I guess my subconscious mind must have picked up on that, which explains why I thought it was the back of a book even though the spine is on the left.




It is a book from the gambling scene in Dawn.Not quite.


Philly, try running it through one of those face recognition software things online.

I didnt know that there was such a thing online. Do you know of a link?

[brer]

The guy is wearing a shirt with french cuffs for what it's worth.

His manner of dress says style and old money, that along with pose makes me think politician or a money man.

The twenties look like old style twenties, so that would date the image also.

[Philly_SWAT]

Thats something. Anyone else?

[krakenslayer]

Looks a little bit like Ian Fleming, but I don't think it's him.

On the off chance, I tried running the picture through the facial recognition software on MyHeritage.com but the site wouldn't recognise that there is even a face in the image. I tried reorientating the image so the face is upright, stretched out to normal relative dimensions, blown up to fill the whole image, but still no luck. I think the fact that the image is in black and white and that his left eye is in shadow are possibly confusing the software.

[Eyebiter]

Print out the image in color pic and take it to a large bookstore or library. Find an older employee (50+ years old) and show them the picture.

[krakenslayer]

Not quite.


If this is not from Dawn of the Dead, where is it from? If you give me film title, it would help to date the book, the author in question and potentially help narrow down our list of candidates.

Here's what I'm gonna do for you Philly, because I'm a jobless loser at the moment and I've got nothing better to do with my time:

ASSUMING this image is from Dawn of the Dead, that means this book was published some time during or before 1977. Bear in mind also, that the photo could have been taken quite some time before the book was printed.

Now, we can't say for sure that this book wasn't published long before this date and was reprinted, or that the book itself wasn't an old copy - but judging from the clothing he's wearing and the quality and style of the photograph, I think we can safely say this pic is certainly not much older than World War 2 (the contrast levels and the naturalistic pose do not correspond to the portrait style used before this time).

So that gives us a date range for the photograph - lets say this photo was taken (to be safe) sometime between about 1935 & 1977.

Okay, so looking at the mystery author's face, we would appear to be somewhere in his late fifties/early sixties when this photo was taken. This means he was very likely born some time between 1870 and 1922. Bear in mind that these are at the extreme ends of what is likely and his actual birth date is probably somewhere in the middle of that.

So we're looking for a man who was probably a novelist (although we can't rule out the possibility he was a biographer, celebrity or politician) born between 1870 and 1922. It's not a lot to go on, really, but it's a start. And if I take the liberty of admitting a hunch that, based on his face and clothing, he is/was a European (he just doen't look American or Australasian), then I've got a foundation on which to start my armchair investigations...

[Philly_SWAT]

Originally Posted by axlish View Post

It is a book from the gambling scene in Dawn.


Not quite.
It is from Dawn, but not from the gambling scene. Hence the reply "not quite" :)

And he does look European for some reason to me too. But that could be entirely false, even with our two great minds thinking alike.

[krakenslayer]

It is from Dawn, but not from the gambling scene. Hence the reply "not quite" :)

Okay, I'm gonna find out that guy's name if it kills me. :)

I was just thinking, could the fact that the book is propped open with money be some kind of satirical or visual in-joke? Like if the guy was a politician known for taking bribes or something...

[Philly_SWAT]

Okay, I'm gonna find out that guy's name if it kills me. :)

I was just thinking, could the fact that the book is propped open with money be some kind of satirical or visual in-joke? Like if the guy was a politician known for taking bribes or something...

I doubt it. I think money was used as bookmark simply because they had all that money they took from the bank.

[krakenslayer]

I doubt it. I think money was used as bookmark simply because they had all that money they took from the bank.

Yeah, but like it could have been any book lying in a pile of money. Maybe they chose this one for a reason. Probably not though.

[strayrider]

This looks to be the book that was laying on Peter's bed, seen while he was gearing up to take on the bikers.

:D

-stray-

[Philly_SWAT]

This looks to be the book that was laying on Peter's bed, seen while he was gearing up to take on the bikers.

:D

-stray-

It looks to be the book on the bed because that is what it is! :)

I searched for popular/best sellers of 1978, searched for "African American" books of interest in 1978, etc., the searches were not helpful. None of the authors appear to be the guy on that book.

[krakenslayer]

I KNOW WHO IT IS!

Actually, you have my girlfriend to thank for this one, Philly. When she saw me looking at the face she knew she'd seen it somewhere before. She loves puzzles (and is a bit of a nerd) so last night she went through Wikipedia looking up all her favourite authors to find out...

And it's... (DUM DUM DUUUUM)

VLADIMIR NABOKOV, author of Lolita, Pnin and Pale Fire. Here's Nabokov's wiki page, you'll find the picture on his page rather familiar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Nabokov

The novel in question is probably Lolita, the story of a man's unhealthy obsession with a flirtatious underage girl. So now we know a little more about Peter's reading preferences. ;):lol:

It's also worth noting that Nabokov died in 1977, just before filming commenced on Dawn of the Dead in Autumn of that yet. So the inclusion of his photograph in the movie is probably Romero's little tribute to the author.

[Philly_SWAT]

Wow, your girlfriend is the man!!! Well, she isnt a man....you know what I mean! That is simply amazing, I really didnt think I would find out, but figured it wouldnt hurt to ask. Yes, that is an interesting choice of story for Peter to be reading. Of course, assuming that Pregnant Fran wasnt giving Peter a little lovin on the side, it had been at least... several months since Peter knew the comforts of a woman. And seeing as porn normally isnt available in shopping malls, this may have been the best thing he could find to.... spark his "imagination". Excellent dectective work!

[AcesandEights]

Wow, dude...Kraken, that is some ace detective work by the girlfriend!

I think this is one of the coolest little tidbits to come to light about the movie in a while. It's little, tiny even, but that's what makes it so interesting. Good subject for research, Philly and great find, Kraken!

[DjfunkmasterG]

That book looks like something political. Check stuff having to do with the FORD/NIXON or even CARTER Administrations.

[krakenslayer]

That book looks like something political. Check stuff having to do with the FORD/NIXON or even CARTER Administrations.

We found out who it was DJ, read above!

[DjfunkmasterG]

i know who it is!

actually, you have my girlfriend to thank for this one, philly. When she saw me looking at the face she knew she'd seen it somewhere before. She loves puzzles (and is a bit of a nerd) so last night she went through wikipedia looking up all her favourite authors to find out...

And it's... (dum dum duuuum)

vladimir nabokov, author of lolita, pnin and pale fire. Here's nabokov's wiki page, you'll find the picture on his page rather familiar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/vladimir_nabokov

the novel in question is probably lolita, the story of a man's unhealthy obsession with a flirtatious underage girl. So now we know a little more about peter's reading preferences. ;):lol:

It's also worth noting that nabokov died in 1977, just before filming commenced on dawn of the dead in autumn of that yet. So the inclusion of his photograph in the movie is probably romero's little tribute to the author.

nice work


We found out who it was DJ, read above!


My bad for not scanning through the thread. I read the first entry and hit reply. Then noticed when it posted you guys figured it out.

[JDFP]

The book you have there is possibly "Ada" since it is a black cover (or appears to be from the spine), but I could be completely wrong. Nabokov was a great, perhaps brilliant, writer. I always preferred his short stories.

I read too much.

j.p.