that hover within the visual traces that the camera has
set down. Part of what makes Morris’s method
unique is that the photographs and texts do not create
a sequential narrative. He utilized a boldface headline
to establish a linear, progressive unfolding over the
course of the book. At times the headlines interact
with or refer to the text that follows, especially in
thosewhichgivevoicetopeopleMorrishadmet
and sometimes knew well, such as family members.
The Inhabitants, as unique as it is, however, might be
considered the raw material or draft for what is argu-
ably a more radical experiment in photo-text—The
Home Place, published two years later in 1948.
The text ofThe Home Place is a novel, a con-
sciously crafted narrative with characters, plot, and
setting. Interwoven with the text are photographs
without captions. These images are paired on each
spread of the book with the ongoing text. The first
photograph and first sentence of the novel give a false
impression that the pairs of images and texts will
directly connect throughout the work. Subsequent
spreads, however, diverge from a direct connection.
For many spreads, there is no mention in the text of
what is displayed in the facing photograph; sometimes
there is not even any concrete reference to an image
within the entire novel.TheHomePlacewas unpre-
cedented in its design and concept and might be said
to anticipate artists’ books that emerged in the 1960s.
Because Morris had published two novels, his the-
ory and execution of the photo-text, particularly in
TheHomePlace, were confusing to reviewers (who
considered him a novelist first) as well as to his read-
ers. In an interview from the 1970s, Morris indicates
that althoughTheHomePlacewas well received, it
pointed out a dilemma: he was losing readers and
picking up lookers. By the 1950s, Morris abandoned
his photo-text experiments and concentrated on a
career exclusively in words. His publisher declined
to include photographs in Morris’s 1949 novel,The
WorldintheAttic, and although he intended his third
Guggenheim Fellowship in 1954—a trip to Mexico—
to include photography, he abandoned his photo-
graphic ambitions as he became deeply immersed in
the novel that he was writing.
By 1967, Morris had returned to photography
and photo-texts. Over the next 20 years, he pro-
duced two new photo-texts,God’s Country and My
PeopleandLove Affair—A Venetian Journal, and
provided the words to a third,Picture America.He
also published several essays and books on photo-
graphy, includingPhotographs & WordsandTime
Pieces: Photographs, Writing, and Memory. Before
his death in 1998, Morris lived to see a renewed
interest in his photographs and his photo-texts; a
major retrospective exhibition was held at the San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1992. His
legacy relates not just to the photographs that he
took but even more significantly to his ideas on and
experimentation with the creative (as opposed to
documentary) use of photography and text.
NancyM. Shawcross
Seealso:Artists’ BooksBiography
Born in Central City, Nebraska, 6 January 1910. Attended
Pomona College (1930–1933). Three John Simon Guggen-
heim Memorial Fellowships (1942 and 1946 in photogra-
phy, 1954 in literature). National Book Award (1957 for
The Field of Vision). National Institute Grant in Literature
(1960). Professor of Creative Writing, California State
University, San Francisco (1962–1975). Honorary degrees
from Westminster College and University of Nebraska
(1968) and from Pomona College (1973). Mari Sandoz
Award (1975). Senior Fellowship, National Endowment
for the Humanities (1976). Distinguished Achievement
Award, Honorary Life Membership, Western Literature
Association (1979). Robert Kirsch Award, Los Angeles
Times (1981). American Book Award (1981 forPlains
Song). Commonwealth Award for Distinguished Service
in Literature, Modern Language Association (1982). Mark
Twain Award (1982). Whiting Writers Award, The Whit-
ing Foundation (1985). Life Achievement Award, National
Endowment for the Arts (1986). Died 25 April 1998.Individual Exhibitions
1975 Wright Morris: Structures and Artifacts, Photographs
1933–1954; Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University
of Nebraska; Lincoln, Nebraska, and traveling
1979 Wright Morris; University Art Museum, University of
California; Berkeley, California
1983 Time Pieces: The Photographs and Words of Wright
Morris; Corcoran Gallery of Art; Washington, D.C.
1992 Wright Morris: Origin of a Species; San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art; San Francisco, California
2001 At Home with Wright Morris: Photographs and Books
by Wright Morris; Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Uni-
versity of Nebraska; Lincoln, NebraskaSelected Works
Picture America, with James Alinder, 1982
Photographs & Words, 1982
Wright Morris: Structure and Artifacts, Photographs, 1933–
1954 , 1976
Time Pieces: Photographs, Writing, and Memory, 1989
Writing My Life: An Autobiography, 1993 (comprisingWill’s
Boy: A Memoir, 1981;Solo: An American Dreamer in Europe:
1933–1934, 1983;A Cloak of Light: Writing My Life, 1985)Further Reading
Morris, Wright.The Inhabitants. New York: Charles Scrib-
ner’s Sons, 1946.MORRIS, WRIGHT