John Berger

“A life, as [Berger] saw it, doesn’t become a story until it ends, and the writer’s task is to bear witness to that process, connecting us to the past…This is the through line Overton finds in Berger’s widely varied life and work: a conviction that the dead, by dying, leave us with their stories, and that our common life depends on how well we remember and tell them.”
—Scott Schomburg, The Paris Review

“[Overton] offers new glimpses into the great critic’s life and mind.”
—Art in America

“His exuberant biography is thick with detail and lit by wonder. It strains to paint the whole canvas and give us the man in full, warts and all.”
—Xan Brook, Guardian

“In From Life, Overton blends the patient, meticulous, clear-eyed archival research we might expect from a professional historian with the subjective and intimate familiarity of the memoirist to offer a complete and comprehensive portrait of his subject. The biography provides an excellent introduction to new readers who may have first encountered Berger through the recent rerelease of G. For the already initiated, From Life draws useful connections between Berger’s myriad projects, explores the surrounding context from which they arose, and teases out through lines that remained consistent across his lengthy career.”
—Los Angeles Review of Books, Zach Gibson

“Overton follows his subject through an imposing span of 20th century artistic, literary, and political concerns—from cubism to the Second Intifada—in a painterly manner, leaving traces of his materials and his process on the page like brushstrokes.”
—Andrew Holter, Protean Magazine

“An authoritative, nuanced biography…Overton, archivist of the papers of John Berger at the British Library and editor of several collections of his essays, draws on a trove of primary sources, interviews, and his personal relationship with Berger to create a perceptive portrait of the influential painter, novelist, and critic.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Beautifully evocative, very moving, and splendidly written”
—Lisa Appignanesi

“There couldn’t be a better way to celebrate the centenary of John Berger, born in 1926, than this extraordinary biography, written by Tom Overton. John Berger: From Life reveals not only the innovative and experimental nature of Berger’s historical and political insight, but the immense range of his intellectual output”
—Hans Ulrich Obrist, author of Ways of Curating

“In Tom Overton’s remarkable biography, we meet Berger again as someone who touched every soul he met, and whose determination to find a way through and beyond the twentieth century saw him change with the times without ever relinquishing his faith in the things that could shore us up against the ravages of history: art, universalism, Marx, nature, humanity, friendship, love. A wonderfully tender monument to a unique and inspiring man.”
—Devorah Baum, author of On Marriage

“A life, as [Berger] saw it, doesn’t become a story until it ends, and the writer’s task is to bear witness to that process, connecting us to the past…This is the through line Overton finds in Berger’s widely varied life and work: a conviction that the dead, by dying, leave us with their stories, and that our common life depends on how well we remember and tell them.”
—Scott Schomburg, The Paris Review

“[Overton] offers new glimpses into the great critic’s life and mind.”
—Art in America

“His exuberant biography is thick with detail and lit by wonder. It strains to paint the whole canvas and give us the man in full, warts and all.”
—Xan Brook, Guardian

“In From Life, Overton blends the patient, meticulous, clear-eyed archival research we might expect from a professional historian with the subjective and intimate familiarity of the memoirist to offer a complete and comprehensive portrait of his subject. The biography provides an excellent introduction to new readers who may have first encountered Berger through the recent rerelease of G. For the already initiated, From Life draws useful connections between Berger’s myriad projects, explores the surrounding context from which they arose, and teases out through lines that remained consistent across his lengthy career.”
—Los Angeles Review of Books, Zach Gibson

“Overton follows his subject through an imposing span of 20th century artistic, literary, and political concerns—from cubism to the Second Intifada—in a painterly manner, leaving traces of his materials and his process on the page like brushstrokes.”
—Andrew Holter, Protean Magazine

“An authoritative, nuanced biography…Overton, archivist of the papers of John Berger at the British Library and editor of several collections of his essays, draws on a trove of primary sources, interviews, and his personal relationship with Berger to create a perceptive portrait of the influential painter, novelist, and critic.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Beautifully evocative, very moving, and splendidly written”
—Lisa Appignanesi

“There couldn’t be a better way to celebrate the centenary of John Berger, born in 1926, than this extraordinary biography, written by Tom Overton. John Berger: From Life reveals not only the innovative and experimental nature of Berger’s historical and political insight, but the immense range of his intellectual output”
—Hans Ulrich Obrist, author of Ways of Curating

“In Tom Overton’s remarkable biography, we meet Berger again as someone who touched every soul he met, and whose determination to find a way through and beyond the twentieth century saw him change with the times without ever relinquishing his faith in the things that could shore us up against the ravages of history: art, universalism, Marx, nature, humanity, friendship, love. A wonderfully tender monument to a unique and inspiring man.”
—Devorah Baum, author of On Marriage