The humble Eames chair—with its fiberglass seat perched on a four-legged metal base—might just be the poster child for midcentury-modern furniture , its balance of form and function perfectly summing up the popular design theory of the era. Now a new book provides an inside look at the life of its creators, Charles and Ray Eames. Produced in collaboration with the Eames estate, The World of Charles and Ray Eames (Rizzoli, $75) showcases the design duo through the decades with photographs of their graphic, forward-looking home as well as their endlessly innovative office. Pictures of their creations—the famous Eames lounge chair, an abundance of toys for children, a molded plywood splint developed for the U.S. Navy—join a selection of reprinted texts, archival images, and hand-scrawled letters and pages ripped straight from the notepads of the designers themselves.

The living room of Charles and Ray Eames’s house in the Pacific Palisades, California.

Ray and Charles Eames selecting slides in their office.

The courtyard of the Eames House.

Charles and Ray Eames pinned down by their metal chair bases.

The staff of Evans Products Molded Plywood Division with whom the Eamses constructed a nose section of a CG-16 Flying Flatcar, an experimental military glider, in 1943.

Charles Eames directing a photo shoot for Aluminum Group furniture.

Ray and Charles Eames with a panel of work made for the American Institute of Architects in 1957.