american art

Hardcover. NY, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1st, 2024, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 256 pages illustrated in color. An exploration of late nineteenth-century American literary posters. a vibrant genre at the vanguard of modern commercial art and graphic design spurred by innovations in printing technology, the modern poster emerged in the 1890s as a popular form of visual culture in the United States. Created by some of the best-known illustrators and graphic designers of the period including Will H. Bradley, Florence Lundborg, Edward Penfield, and Ethel Reed these advertisements for books and high-tone periodicals such as Harper's and Lippincott's went beyond the realm of commercial art, incorporating bold, stylized imagery and striking typography. This book, based on the renowned Leonard A. Lauder Collection, explores the craze for literary posters, which became sought after collectibles even in their day. It offers new scholarly perspectives that address the aesthetic sophistication and modernity of the literary poster; the impact of early experiments in the field of advertising psychology; the expanded opportunities for women artists, who played an important role in advancing the so-called poster style; and the printmaking techniques that artists employed in this novel art form. A lively survey of a little-known but highly influential period in graphic design,

Softcover. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1st, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 155 pages. Thomas Dennis emigrated to America from England in 1663, settling in Ipswich, a Massachusetts village a long day's sail north of Boston. He had apprenticed in joinery, the most common method of making furniture in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Britain, and he became Ipswich's second joiner, setting up shop in the heart of the village. During his lifetime, Dennis won wide renown as an artisan. Today, connoisseurs judge his elaborately carved furniture as among the best produced in seventeenth-century America. Robert Tarule, historian and accomplished craftsman, brilliantly recreates Dennis's world in recounting how he created a single oak chest. Writing as a woodworker himself, Tarule vividly portrays Dennis walking through the woods looking for the right trees; sawing and splitting the wood on site; and working in his shop on the chest-planing, joining, and carving. Dennis inherited a knowledge of wood and woodworking that dated back centuries before he was born, and Tarule traces this tradition from Old World to New. He also depicts the natural and social landscape in which Dennis operated, from the sights, sounds, and smells of colonial Ipswich and its surrounding countryside to the laws that governed his use of trees and his network of personal and professional relationships. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Westport CT, Greenwood Press, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, glazed pictorial boards, 177 pages. Postma draws on primary sources and current historical scholarship to offer secondary readers and researchers a comprehensive and well-written history. He covers the entire Atlantic slave trade era, from the 1400s to the final abolition of chattel slavery in the New World in 1888. The focus is on Africa and the entire New World. While he describes the many horrors of the Middle Passage, he also examines how the slave trade contributed to the development of the modern international economy. The last chapters discuss the efforts to abolish the slave trade and its legacy. Throughout, Postma documents the sources that support his discussion and conclusions. Chapter notes are supplemented by an extensive annotated bibliography that includes books, articles, films, and electronic resources. The volume concludes with biographical sketches of important people and excerpts from primary documents written by enslaved Africans and white officials. The black-and-white reproductions of period illustrations add little to the text. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Seattle, Fantagraphics Books, 1st, 2025, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in pictorial boards, 397 pages illustrated in color. This new volume in Fantagraphics' and Marvel's collaborative Atlas Library presents Girl Comics #1-12, a long unseen subversion of romance comics beautifully designed for a new generation of readers!In 1950, Timely/Atlas/Marvel took a typical romance title called Girl Comics and turned it into a sister companion to its successful men's-adventure comics: an empowering girls'-adventure comic! Mystery, adventure and suspense was promised and delivered! At the hands of a stellar artistic line-up, including John Buscema, Mike Sekowsky, Bill Everett, Joe Maneely, Russ Heath, and Bernard Krigstein, Girl Comics evolved from heart-stricken love stories to hair-raising girl-power thrill rides like "The Death Plunge!," "The House of Shadows!," "I was a Murderer's Daughter!," "They Called me a Spy!," "The Dead Hands at the Controls," and "The Dark Hallway."This volume also features the story behind the stories, with editor Dr. Michael J. Vassallo's essays on Marvel publisher Martin Goodman's enthusiastic relationship with romance comics and magazines at a time when the art form was cementing itself into American youth culture! Clean copy. DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

Hardcover. NY, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt;, 1st, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 341 pages. Celebrating the best in graphic storytelling and literary comics, a cutting-edge collection, guest edited by the award-winning author of Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth, features excerpts from graphic novels, pamphlet comics, newspapers, magazines, mini-comics, and the Web, from R. and Aline Crumb, Art Spiegelman, Seth, Lynda Barry, Kim Deitch, Gilbert Hernandez, and others.

Hardcover. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 324 pages, illustrated throughout in color and b&w. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. This newest edition to the Best American Series--"A genuine salute to comics" (Houston Chronicle)--returns with a set of both established and up-and-coming contributors. Editor Lynda Barry and and brand new series editors Jessica Abel and Matt Madden--acclaimed cartoonists in their own right-- have sought out the best stories culled from graphic novels, pamphlet comics, newspapers, magazines, mini-comics, and the Web to create this cutting-edge collection "perfect for newbies as well as fans"--The San Diego Union Tribune. This newest volume features luminaries like Chris Ware, Seth, and Alison Bechdel alongside Paul Pope's "Batman" and beloved daily cartoonists like Matt Groening.

Hardcover. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 324 pages, illustrated throughout in color and b&w. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. This newest edition to the Best American Series--"A genuine salute to comics" (Houston Chronicle)--returns with a set of both established and up-and-coming contributors. Editor Lynda Barry and and brand new series editors Jessica Abel and Matt Madden--acclaimed cartoonists in their own right-- have sought out the best stories culled from graphic novels, pamphlet comics, newspapers, magazines, mini-comics, and the Web to create this cutting-edge collection "perfect for newbies as well as fans"--The San Diego Union Tribune. This newest volume features luminaries like Chris Ware, Seth, and Alison Bechdel alongside Paul Pope's "Batman" and beloved daily cartoonists like Matt Groening.

Hardcover. NY, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Hardcover, 400 pages. The Best American Comics showcases the work of both established and up-and-coming contributors. Editor Jeff Smith--creator of the classic comic Bone, a comedy/adventure about three lost cousins from Boneville--has culled the best stories from graphic novels, pamphlet comics, newspapers, magazines, mini-comics, and web comics to create this cutting-edge collection.

Hardcover. NY, D.A.P. /Distributed Art Publishers, 1st, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 288 pages. The Bitter Years was the title of a seminal exhibition held in 1962 at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, curated by Edward Steichen, and 2012 marks its fiftieth anniversary. The show featured 209 images by photographers who worked under the aegis of the U.S. Farm Security Administration (FSA) in 1935-41, as part of Roosevelt's New Deal. The FSA, set up to combat rural poverty during the Great Depression, included an ambitious photography project that launched many photographic careers, most notably those of Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange. The exhibition featured their work as well as that of ten other FSA photographers, including Ben Shahn, Carl Mydans and Arthur Rothstein. Their images are among the most remarkable in documentary photography--testimonies of a people in crisis, hit by the full force of economic turmoil and the effects of drought and dust storms. This volume includes all the photographs in the original show, in a structure and sequence that reflect those devised by Steichen for the exhibition. Clean copy. DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

Hardcover. NY, Pegasus Books, 1st, 2021, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 338 pages, b&w illustrations. At the turn of the last century, the Guggenheim family ran the most powerful mining conglomerate on earth. Decades later came the Guggenheim museum, which became the hub of the world's most powerful art brand. In between, the Guggenheim name was uttered in every field from aviation to politics, from journalism to rocketry. But who was behind this epic sphere of influence? It took three generations of Guggenheims to build the wealth in its first era. Yet it was the singular force of Harry Guggenheim who would guide the family's next generation of businesses into modernity. Part angel investor, part entrepreneur, part technologist, Harry launched businesses whose impact on 20th century America went far beyond the Guggenheims' mines or museum. His visionary investments continue to profoundly influence our world and hold valuable business lessons for billionaire dynasty builders like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. A flawed but brilliant man, Harry Guggenheim was the confidante to five American presidents and a key financial force behind commercial aviation and space exploration, two innovations that catapulted the nation into the future. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, The Monacelli Press, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 640 pages, pofusely illustrated. In the late nineteenth century, Chicago -- the birthplace of modern architecture in the United States -- was a magnet for aspiring architects. The city was forced to rebuild after the destruction wrought by the Great Fire of 1871 and also to expand to accommodate a surge in the population. The seemingly endless demand for taller and more sophisticated buildings offered young draftsmen an unprecedented opportunity to influence the design of the American skyscraper. The Chicago Architecture Club: Prelude to the Modern documents the history of these draftsmen, the organization they founded, and its role in shaping architectural education and modern architectural practice.

Hardcover. NY, The Monacelli Press, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 640 pages, pofusely illustrated. In the late nineteenth century, Chicago -- the birthplace of modern architecture in the United States -- was a magnet for aspiring architects. The city was forced to rebuild after the destruction wrought by the Great Fire of 1871 and also to expand to accommodate a surge in the population. The seemingly endless demand for taller and more sophisticated buildings offered young draftsmen an unprecedented opportunity to influence the design of the American skyscraper. The Chicago Architecture Club: Prelude to the Modern documents the history of these draftsmen, the organization they founded, and its role in shaping architectural education and modern architectural practice.

Hardcover. NY/Cleveland, World Publishing Company, 1st US, 1969, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. First American edition 8.25 x 7.75". Unpaginated [52 pages]. Essentially an artists' book created by the noted Italian futurist, Munari, widely regarded as one of the most influential book-designers of the 20th century. Illustrations feature translucent overlays and brightly colored pages with die cut edges and windows. Voted the New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book 1969 winner. Previous owner;s inscription on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. Lexington KY, University of Kentucky Press, 1st, 1968, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, light green cloth, 307 pages. This volume of Eaton's selected writings forms a rich and provocative mosaic of southern life from the years of Thomas Jefferson to the close of the Civil War. These selections, perceptively edited by Albert D. Kinvan, show the wide range of Eaton's interests, including the impact of slavery, the influence of religion, and the art of politics, and they demonstrate the depth of his insight into the civilization of the Old South. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. Washington DC, Counterpoint, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 642 pages. Hailed in 1849 as "a new department in the literature of civilization," the slave narrative forms the foundation of the African American literary tradition. From the late-eighteenth-century narratives by Africans who endured the harrowing Middle Passage, through the classic American fugitive slave narratives of the mid-nineteenth century, slave narratives have provided some of the most graphic and damning documentary evidence of the horrors of slavery. Riveting, passionate, and politically charged, the slave narrative blends personal memory and rhetorical attacks on slavery to create powerful literature and propaganda.The Civitas Anthology presents the seven classic antislavery narratives of the antebellum period in their entirety: The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave , the first slave narrative published by a woman in the Americas; The Confessions of Nat Turner , written when Turner was asked to record his motivation for leading the bloodiest slave revolt in U.S. history; The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass , an international bestseller and the first narrative to fashion the male fugitive slave into an African American cultural hero; The Narrative of William W. Brown , an account that explored with unprecedented realism the slave's survival ethic and the art of the slave trickster; The Narrative of the Life of Henry Bibb , the story of the struggles of the most memorable family man among the classic slave narrators; Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom , a gripping chronicle of one of the most daring and celebrated slave escapes ever recorded; and Incidents in the Life of Slave Girl , a dramatic text that exposed the sexual abuse of female slaves and pioneered the image of the fugitive slave woman as an articulate resister and survivor.Born out of lives of unparalleled suffering, the slave narrative captures all the bravery, drama, and hope that characterized the African American struggle against slavery. From these beginnings came some of the most influential novels in American literature, for the works of writers such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain, and Toni Morrison owe much of their power and social resonance to the slave narrative tradition. The Civitas Anthology gathers the most important narratives in this tradition into one volume for the first time, an indispensable resource for scholars, students, and general readers. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Prion, 1st, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 230 pages. In terms of both words and images the world had never seen the like of the American comic book. They were bizarre, morbid, lurid, risque and bursting with subconscious desires of burgeoning youth culture. By the time 1954 arrived their were 500 different comics being published by 35 different companies, selling over 60 million copies a month between them. This is the history of the era and the art it produced. The book looks at the pioneers of the comic book and the comic's founding links with sleazy pulp magazines; the campaign for censorship; the fraught relationship between the comic book artists and their publishers; how what they did was rarely recognized as art at the time - and of course the comics themselves.

Softcover. Houston, TX, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, 1st, 1972, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover. Exhibition catalog. 93 pages, illustrated throughout in color and b&w. White stiff wrappers, black/red titles. Light wear to edges and spine, front cover slightly sunned, small tear to spine, else a very nice, clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, Metropolitan Museum of Art/ The Viking Press, 1st, 1978, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket. In addition to being one of the preeminent American photographers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Alfred Stieglitz was an avid collector of the works of other photographers. From 1894-1910, he collected over 650 prints from a variety of photographers. He donated 400 of these to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1939, and the balance was given in a bequest to the museum in 1949. Photographers included in the collection include Edward Steichen, Gertrude Kasebier, Baron de Meyer, Ansel Adams, Eliot Porter, and Julia Margaret Cameron. This substantial volume was produced by Weston Naef, who was Associate Curator of Prints and Photographs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It includes a black-and-white reproduction of all the photographs in the Stieglitz Collection, some full-page and many in smaller size. It also includes details about, and portraits and signatures of each of the painters. Small closed tears to dust jacket, otherwise a clean, bright copy.

Softcover. Seattle, Fantagraphics, 1st, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Large softcover, 263 pages, b&w photos ad illustrations. In-depth, career-spanning interviews with the cartoonists - Crumb, Shelton, and more - who forever altered the course of American comics with their anthology title, Zap Comix.The definitive Comics Journal interviews with the cartoonists behind Zap Comix, featuring: Supreme 1960s counterculture/underground artist Robert Crumb on how acid unleashed a flood of Zap characters from his unconscious; Marxist brawler Spain Rodriguez on how he made the transition from the Road Vultures biker gang to the exclusive Zap cartoonists' club; Yale alumnus Victor Moscoso and Christian surfer Rick Griffin on how their poster-art psychedelia formed the backdrop of the 1960s San Francisco music scene; Savage Id-choreographer S. Clay Wilson on how his dreams insist on being drawn; Painter and Juxtapoz-founder Robert Williams on how Zap #4 led to 150 news-dealer arrests; Fabulous, Furry, Freaky Gilbert Shelton on the importance of research; Church of the Subgenius founder Paul Mavrides on getting a contact high during the notorious Zap jam sessions; and much more. In these career-spanning interviews, the Zap contributors open up about how they came to create a seminal, living work of art. Partial color.

Softcover. Seattle, Fantagraphics, 1st, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Large softcover, 263 pages, b&w photos ad illustrations. In-depth, career-spanning interviews with the cartoonists - Crumb, Shelton, and more - who forever altered the course of American comics with their anthology title, Zap Comix.The definitive Comics Journal interviews with the cartoonists behind Zap Comix, featuring: Supreme 1960s counterculture/underground artist Robert Crumb on how acid unleashed a flood of Zap characters from his unconscious; Marxist brawler Spain Rodriguez on how he made the transition from the Road Vultures biker gang to the exclusive Zap cartoonists' club; Yale alumnus Victor Moscoso and Christian surfer Rick Griffin on how their poster-art psychedelia formed the backdrop of the 1960s San Francisco music scene; Savage Id-choreographer S. Clay Wilson on how his dreams insist on being drawn; Painter and Juxtapoz-founder Robert Williams on how Zap #4 led to 150 news-dealer arrests; Fabulous, Furry, Freaky Gilbert Shelton on the importance of research; Church of the Subgenius founder Paul Mavrides on getting a contact high during the notorious Zap jam sessions; and much more. In these career-spanning interviews, the Zap contributors open up about how they came to create a seminal, living work of art. Partial color.

Softcover. Seattle, Fantagraphics Books, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 144 pages, b&w drawings throughout. The Compleat Cannon reprints the entirety of cartoonist Wally Wood's classic sex and violence strip from the 1960s. Super-spy John Cannon is the American's answer to James Bond, fighting the Cold War with a license to kill.Wally Wood is of course the legendary cartoonist known for his contributions to the original Mad magazine. Always regarded as one of comics' great craftsmen, Cannon is simply one of the most beautiful strips ever produced. Featuring outrageous parodies of pop culture icons of the time, the Cold War, and the secret agent genre, Cannon is Wood at his most gregarious and incisive, working on one of the few projects in his career where he had no editorial constraints.Like Fantagraphics' The Compleat Sally Forth, also by Wood, this oversized collection includes a section of never-before-seen Cannon ephemera in the form of sketches, notes and annotated information about the strip.

Softcover. London, Carlton Books, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 128 pages. "Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons" is one of the better "Supermarionation" series that came from the hands of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, known by Americans as well as those in the UK for their many classic puppet series "Supercar", "Fireball XL5", "Stingray", and especially "Thunderbirds"- and their classic live action "UFO" and "Space Precinct".The Captain Scarlet series also was shown in the USA, but in a limited market originally and with wider exposure via compilation films on Showtime and HBO and later on SciFi Channel. Captain Scarlet marked one of the first Supermarionation series to have a truly dark and serious storyline, with an invisible alien race, the Mysterons, seeking revenge for an attack made in error on their cities on Mars. The Mysterons then declared war on Earth. Chris Bentley presents a complete production history and guide to all 32 episodes of the Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons series, plus information about voice artists, merchandising and spin-offs. PLEASE NOTE: the book is clean and tight, but was once owned by a smoker and has a smoke odor.

Hardcover. Princeton WI, Remco/Kitchen Sink Press, 1st, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 95 pages in color, black cloth covers, bright and unclipped dust jacket. Introduction by Art Spiegelman. Cliff Sterrett was one of the outstanding newspaper cartoon artists in the formative period of this 20th Century art: a skilled draftsman, borderline (and sometimes over the line) surrealist, and humorist. Polly and Her Pals is now considered one of the masterpieces of American comic strips of the Interwar period, both for its graphic qualities and its storytelling and humor. DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

Hardcover. Seattle, 1st, 2019, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in pictorial boards, mostly b&w, some color, 472 pages. These erotic comics stories span 1968-1986. "The Man from Harlem" is Crepax's ode to boxer Joe Louis and jazz. In other tales, Valentina attempts to balance new relationships with lovers Bruno and Effi alongside the domestic life she shares with Phil. Bonnie and Clyde, Louise Brooks, and the globetrotting photographer Valentina (a movie and TV star herself!) take center stage in this collection of erotic comics stories.