January 2018 Auction Ends Thursday, January 25th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 1/25/2018
Rare first U.S. edition of the classic photography book, ''The Americans'' by Robert Frank, in its original dust jacket, with both book and dust jacket in very good to near fine condition, nicer than usually found. New York: Grove Press, 1959. Considered a landmark in American photography, ''The Americans'' features 84 of Frank's iconic black and white photographs, which Jack Kerouac describes as having ''agility, mystery, genius, sadness and strange secrecy of a shadow.'' In 1955-56 the European-born Frank traveled across the United States to study and capture the country's people and culture, capturing images from various cultures and socioeconomic levels. Unable to secure an American publisher, Frank's work was initially published in France by Robert Delpire in 1958, and then by Grove Press in 1959 once Kerouac agreed to write the introduction after meeting Frank on a sidewalk and seeing his photographs. The images continue to resonate, beginning with the dust jacket where a segregated bus shows, from front to back, a white man, white woman, white children and then two black men, giving disparate looks to the camera. Bound in black cloth boards with dramatic and bold gilt lettering to spine. Dust jacket (showing the $7.50 price) is lightly toned; overall very good to near fine condition. Some toning to endpapers, otherwise book is near fine.
''The Americans'' First U.S. Edition Photography Book, With an Introduction by Jack Kerouac -- Exceptional Condition
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