Selected Bibliography
Books by and/or Illustrated by Ben Shahn
Shahn, Ben. Maximus of Tyre, On the Dispute About Images. Privately printed, 1963.
—–. Maximus of Tyre, On the Dispute About Images. New York: Pantheon Books, 1964.
—–.Haggadah for Passover. Paris: Trianon Press, 1965.
—–.Haggadah for Passover. Boston: Little Brown & Company. 1965.
—–.The Shape of Content. Harvard University Press, 1957 (Reprinted 1992).
—–. A Partridge in a Pear Tree. Privately printed, 1948. New York: Curt Valentin, 1949.
—–. A Partridge in a Pear Tree. Museum of Modern Art, 1951. Special Collections ; ROBSN M1741 .T84 1951
Books Illustrated by Ben Shahn
Berry, Wendell. November Twenty-Six, Nineteen Hundred Sixty-Three : Poem. Illustrated by Ben Shahn, 1st ed, G. Braziller, 1964. With calligraphy by Ben Shahn.
Berryman, John. Homage to Mistress Bradstreet; [Poem]. Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, 1956.
Cummings, E.E. Tom. Santa Fe: The Rydell Press, 1935. Frontispiece by Ben Shahn.
Dahlberg, Edward. The Sorrows of Priapus. Norfolk, CT: New Directions, 1957.
Hallelujah. 24 lithographs by Ben Shahn. New York: Kennedy Graphics, 1970.
Howe, Irving and Eliezer Greenberg. A Treasury of Yiddish Stories. New York: Viking, 1954.
Hudson, R. A., et al. Kuboyama and the Saga of the Lucky Dragon. T. Yoseloff, 1965.
Reid, Alastair. Ounce, Dice, Trice. [First edition], Little, Brown, 1958. Available online.
Books, Articles, and Documentaries Ben Shahn
Archives of American Art, Ben Shahn Papers.
Bryson Shahn, Bernarda. Ben Shahn. New York: H. N. Abrams, 1972.
—–. “Ben Shahn and Lettering.” The Penrose Graphic Arts International Annual 66 (1973): 90–100.
—–. “Ben Shahn and the Psalms.” In Ben Shahn. Ed. John D. Morse. New York: Praeger, 1972. 217–18.
Chevlowe, Susan. Common Man, Mythic Vision: The Paintings of Ben Shahn. New York: Jewish Museum under the auspices of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America; Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1998.
For the exhibition of the same title (The Jewish Museum, November 8, 1998 to March 7, 1999), see this website.
Greenfeld, Howard. Ben Shahn: An Artist’s Life. New York: Random House, 1998.
Katzman, Laura, Beatriz Cordero Martín, Christof Decker, and John Fagg. Ben Shahn: On Nonconformity. Madrid: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, 2023.
Kendall, M. Sue. “Shahn, Ben.” Grove Art Online, 2003 (updated 2013).
Levinson, Cynthia (text) and Evan Turk (illustrations). The People’s Painter: How Ben Shahn Fought for Justice with Art. New York: Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2021.
—–. “Ben Shahn’s New Deal Murals: Jewish Identity in the American Scene.” In Common Man, Mythic Vision: The Paintings of Ben Shahn. Ed. Susan Chevlowe. New York: Jewish Museum under the auspices of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 37–65.
Morse, John D. Ben Shahn. New York: Praeger, 1972.
Pohl, Frances K. Ben Shahn: New Deal Artist in a Cold War Climate, 1947–1954. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989.
—–. Ben Shahn: With Ben Shahn’s Writings. San Francisco: Pomegranate, 1993.
Prescott, Kenneth W. The Complete Graphic Works of Ben Shahn. New York, Quadrangle, 1973.
—–.Prints and Posters of Ben Shahn: 102 graphics, Including 32 in Full Color. New York: Dover Publications, 1982.
Shahn, Ben. Lectures at Skowhegan, 1954, 1959, 1960 or 69 (Skowhegan Lecture Archive)
Shahn, Ben and Archibald McLeish, ed. The Photographic Eye of Ben Shahn. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1975.
Soby, James Thrall. Ben Shahn: His Graphic Art. New York: G. Braziller, 1957.
Rodman, Selden. Portrait of the artist as an American; Ben Shahn: A Biography With Pictures. New York: Harper, 1951.
Wallner, Susan. Ben Shahn: Passion for Justice. PBS, 2001.
See this website that accompanies the film
Weiss, Margaret, ed. Ben Shahn, Photographer: An Album for the Thirties. New York: Da Capo Pres, 1973.
White, Lauren. Art as Activism: The Compelling Paintings of Ben Shahn. Mdhumanities. YouTube 17 June 2009 (9:59).
Books, Articles, and Essays on Bernarda Bryson Shahn
Bryson Shahn, Bernarda. The Zoo of Zeus: A Handbook of Mythological Beasts and Creatures. New York: Grossman Publishers 1964.
—–. Gilgamesh: Man’s First Story. New York, Chicago, San Francisco: Holt Rinehart and Winston, 1966.
Text and illustrations by Bernarda Bryson Shahn. Available on Internet Archive.
—–. Original Hand-Bound Mock-Up for The Grindstone of God: A Samoyed Fable, with 26 Original Pencil Illustrations by Bernarda Bryson Shahn, see here.
Edwards, Amber. StateoftheArtsNJ, A Quiet Audacity: Bernarda Bryson Shahn. 1991) YouTube 21 June 2019 (28:49).
Books, Articles, and Videos on the Shahn’s House and Collection
The house was designed in 1936 by Alfred Kastner and Louis Kahn, with a later addition by George Nakashima.
Archives of American Art. Bernarda Bryson Shahn papers.
Aubrey, Dan. “Inside the Shahn House: A Tale of Artists & Architects.” PrincetonInfo 23 June 2021.
Collection of Bernarda and Ben Shahn. Rago Arts and Auction, 14 November 2010.
Destination Anywhere, The Story of Jersey Homesteads 16 April 2019 YouTube (3:25).
Hyman, Vicki. “Family of storied N.J. artist Ben Shahn to sell home, personal collection.” NJ.com 14 November 2010
Eve M. Kahn, “Shahn Art Collection and Home Are for Sale.” New York Times 14 November 2010.
Library of Ben & Bernarda Shahn. Lorne Blair, Rare Books, Manuscripts & Ephemera.
Wallner, Susan. Dreaming of Utopia: Roosevelt, New Jersey at Morven Museum & Garden StateoftheArtsNJ. YouTube 14 December 2019 (Short documentary on Roosevelt, NJ, 7:47).
Additional Readings and Viewings
Jaffe, Irma B. “Baskin, Leonard.” Grove Art Online, 2003 (updated 2021).
Goldberg, David J., Joseph Gutmann, Bezalel Narkiss, and Shalom Sabar. “Jewish Art: History and Iconography.” Grove Art Online, 2003 (updated 2021).
Metzger, Thérèse, Shalom Sabar, and Gabrielle Sed-Rajna. “Jewish art: Hebrew Books and Illustration.” Grove Art Online, 2003 (updated 2018).
Robbins, Tim. Cradle Will Rock. Burbank, CA: Touchstones Pictures, 1999.