Hardcover. New Haven CT, Yale University Press, 1st, 2008, Book: Near Fine, Dust Jacket: Near Fine, Hardcover, 320 pages. Like new in publisher's shrink-wrap. Jan Lievens (1607-1674) was one of the most fascinating and enigmatic Dutch artists of the 17th century. Daring and innovative as a painter, printmaker, and draftsman, he created powerful character studies, genre scenes, landscapes, formal portraits, and religious and allegorical images that were widely praised and valued during his lifetime. This beautiful book, the first overview of the full range of Lievens' career, features more than 50 paintings-many of them newly discovered in private collections-and more than 75 prints and drawings, providing a reassessment of his place in the history of art.
Hardcover. NY, Taschen, 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in pictorial boards, orange cloth spine, 176 pages. The highly public love affair of French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg and British actress Jane Birkin captured the hearts and imaginations of a generation. The moment Jane and Serge met on a movie set in 1968 sparks flew. They would spend the next 12 years together, a passionate union that produced the controversial duet "Je t'aime... moi non plus" (whose explicit lyrics and orgasmic moans caused so much fuss that the Vatican declared it offensive) and, in 1971, the legendary album Melody Nelson as well as a daughter, Charlotte, who has become a successful actress in her own right. Designed by M/M (Paris), the photo album comes in a clear plastic cover with the following goodies tucked inside:Text booklet featuring an introduction by Jane Birkin and Andrew Birkin's memoir of Jane and Serge, illustrated by Birkin family childhood photos/Softcover contact sheet booklet/Fold-out poster/5 photo prints/Sticker sheet /Embroidered patch.
Softcover. New York, Thames & Hudson, 1st, 1996, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 112 pages. Like new in publisher's shrink-wrap. This book selects from Jane Bown's whole range of her photography during the forty-five years she has worked for London's Observer, starting with scenes typical of the fifties and ending with others characteristic of the nineties. The portraits, sandwiched between these and forming the body of the book, themselves range widely - from such proven classics as those of Samuel Beckett, Mick Jagger and John Gielgud, to early studies of the Beatles and recent photos of Alan Bennett, Archbishop Tutu, Boy George and Woody Allen among a great variety of famous people in the worlds of music, literature, stage, screen, politics and the arts.
Softcover. New York, Thames & Hudson, 1st, 1996, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 112 pages. This book selects from Jane Bown's whole range of her photography during the forty-five years she has worked for London's Observer, starting with scenes typical of the fifties and ending with others characteristic of the nineties. The portraits, sandwiched between these and forming the body of the book, themselves range widely - from such proven classics as those of Samuel Beckett, Mick Jagger and John Gielgud, to early studies of the Beatles and recent photos of Alan Bennett, Archbishop Tutu, Boy George and Woody Allen among a great variety of famous people in the worlds of music, literature, stage, screen, politics and the arts. Clean. bright copy.
Softcover. NY, George Braziller, reprint, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 437 pages. New Zealand's preeminent writer Janet Frame brings the skill of an extraordinary novelist and poet to these vivid and haunting recollections, gathered here for the first time in a single volume. From a childhood and adolescence spent in a poor but intellectually intense railway family, through life as a student, and years of incarceration in mental hospitals, eventually followed by her entry into the saving world of writers and the "Mirror City" that sustains them, we are given not only a record of the events of a life, but also "the transformation of ordinary facts and ideas into a shining palace of mirrors." Frame's journey of self-discovery, from New Zealand to London, to Paris and Barcelona, and then home again, is a heartfelt and courageous account of a writer's beginnings as well as one woman's personal struggle to survive. Small patch of tanning to bottom corner of last 80 pages. Otherwise clean.
Hardcover. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1st, 1891, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, 128 pages. Hardcover with decorated front cover. Covers have heavy wear on edges. Light soil and darkening to pages. Gutter lightly cracked.
Hardcover. Boston, American Unitarian Association, 1st, nd, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 225 pages. Hardcover. No date of publication. Ex-library copy with bookplate on inside front cover and label at bottom of spine. Top edge gilt. Black & white photographs. Light wear. Clean, unmarked text.
Softcover. New York, New-York Historical Society, 1st, 1987, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 172 pages, illustrated in b&w and color. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to wrappers. Nearly sixty-five years ago the New-York Historical Society acquired its first landscape painting by Jasper F. Cropsey. Since then additional works by the distinguished Hudson River school painter have supplemented the Society's holdings. Published on the occasion of a special exhibition.
Hardcover. New York, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1st, 1984, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 211 pages. 152 illustrations, including 50 plates in full color. Clean, well preserved copy. Dust jacket in very good condition.
Hardcover. New York, Thames & Hudson, 1st, 1996, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 335 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. A very clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket edges. A tight copy.
Hardcover. Lexington KY, University Press of Kentucky, 1st, 2021, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, Jayne Mansfield (1933-1967) was driven not just to be an actress but to be a star. One of the most influential sex symbols of her time, she was known for her platinum blonde hair, hourglass figure, outrageously low necklines, and flamboyant lifestyle. Hardworking and ambitious, Mansfield proved early in her career that she was adept in both comic and dramatic roles, but her tenacious search for the spotlight and her risque promotional stunts caused her to be increasingly snubbed in Hollywood. In the first definitive biography of Mansfield, Eve Golden offers a joyful account of the star Andy Warhol called "the poet of publicity," revealing the smart, determined woman behind the persona. She discusses Mansfield's childhood, her many loves -- including her famous on-again, off-again relationship with Miklos "Mickey" Hargitay -- her struggles with alcohol, and her sometimes tumultuous family relationships. She also considers Mansfield's enduring contributions to American popular culture and celebrity culture. Clean, bright copy.
Hardcover. Boston, David R. Godine, 1st, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 112 pages. A photographer once remarked to Andre Maurois, "If I were to take a picture of a village wedding, Jean Cocteau would appear between the bride and groom." And he was right; Cocteau was photographed everywhere, by everyone, in all guises and poses. Cecil Beaton posed him smoking an opium pipe, Lucien Clergue caught him in the romantic ruins of Arles where Cocteau was shooting Orphee, Arnold Newman shot him in Paris, and Philippe Halsman in New York. Cocteau possessed, of course, a modern genius for self-promotion, but he also cared deeply about his own art and the art of a technique he embraced with passion throughout his lifetime - photography. Essay by Francis Steegmuller.
Hardcover. NY, Rizzoli, 1st, 2022, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, still in publisher's shrinkwrap. A rare and poignant compilation of photography and written anecdotes by American photographer and artist Lee Jaffe that captures his close friendship, collaboration, and travels with the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat as they traversed Japan, Thailand, and Switzerland in 1983. Lee Jaffe, a cross-disciplinary visual artist, musician, and poet, took photos of his friend, Jean-Michel Basquiat, when they traveled abroad in 1983. As a photographer, Jaffe had a connection to Basquiat, and their time spent together resulted in an archive of imagery that captured one of the art world's true legends through an unfiltered and authentic lens. Basquiat and Jaffe connected over reggae music at a mutual friend's art show. It was the early 1980s in New York, when the art scene was raw, complicated, and thriving, and Jaffe cultivated strong connections with cultural figures such as Basquiat, Bob Marley, and Peter Tosh. "For me, watching him [ Jean] paint reminded me of the times I would sit and play harmonica while Bob Marley, with his acoustic guitar, would be writing songs that were eventually to become classics," Jaffe says. "With Jean and Bob, it seemed like they were channeling inspiration coming from an otherworldly place." This beautiful volume presents snapshots of Basquiat: from the artist smiling on a bullet train to Kyoto and behind-the-scenes documentation of Basquiat creating artwork in St. Moritz, to poignant portraits that mirror his undeniable magnetism. These rare depictions of Basquiat come to life with Jaffe's unforgettable experiences of their friendship, collaborations, and travels detailed in private written memories and anecdotes. This insightful and moving illustrated volume captures the soul of the unedited, ambitious, young artist during the height of his short yet unprecedented artistic career.
Hardcover. New York, Stringer & Townsend, 1st, 1851, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, red cloth with gilt lettering, 226 pages. Previous owners bookplate on inside front cover. Some pages show minor foxing. Light rubbing to corners and at top and base of spine. Clean, unmarked text.
Softcover. Baltimore, John Hopkins University Press, 1st, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover in illustrated wrappers, 304 pages. Illustrated with B&W engravings. Jens Jensen was one of America's greatest landscape designers and conservationists. Using native plants and "fitting" designs, he advocated that our gardens, parks, roads, playgrounds, and cities should be harmonious with nature and its ecological processes-a belief that was to become a major theme of modern American landscape design. In Jens Jensen: Maker of Natural Parks and Gardens, Robert E. Grese draws on Jensen's writings and plans, interviews with people who knew him, and analyses of his projects to present a clear picture of Jensen's efforts to enhance and preserve "native" landscapes.
Hardcover. NY, Alfred A. Knopf, 1st, 2019, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 430 pages. The titanic choreographer, creator of memorable ballets, master of Broadway musicals, legendary show doctor and director, now revealed in his own words--the closest we will get to a memoir/autobiography--from his voluminous letters, journals, notes, diaries, never before published. Robbins was famous for reinventing the Broadway musical, creating a vernacular American ballet, pushing the art form to new boundaries where it had never gone before, integrating dance seamlessly with character, story and music, and as Associate Artistic Director, Ballet Master, and Co-Artistic Director, with George Balanchine, shaping the New York City Ballet with daring and brio for more than five decades through his often startling choreography in ballet's classical idiom. He was known as the king of Broadway, the most sought-after director-choreographer and show doctor who gave shape to On the Town (1944), Call Me Madam (1950), The King and I (1951), Wonderful Town (1953), Peter Pan (1954), The Pajama Game (1954), Silk Stockings (1955), West Side Story (1957), Gypsy (1959), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), Funny Girl (1964), Fiddler on the Roof (1964), and many other classic musicals, winning four Tony Awards, two Oscars, and an Emmy. He shocked and betrayed those he loved and worked with by naming names to the House Un-American Activities Committee. ("I betrayed my manhood, my Jewishness, my parents, my sister," he wrote in a diary. "I can't undo it.") Clean, bright copy.
Hardcover. NY, Thomas Crowell, 1st, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 224 pages, illustrated in color and b&w. Jessie Willcox Smith (1863-1935), was one of the most prominent female illustrators in the United States during the Golden Age of American illustration. She illustrated stories and articles for clients such as Century, Collier's Weekly, Leslie's Weekly, Harper's, McClure's, Scribners, and the Ladies' Home Journal. Four appendices give detailed listings of the appearance of Smith's illustrations in books, magazine covers, posters, etc. Bibliography. Notes. Index. With a lightly worn dust jacket that's been price-clipped. Previous owner's inscription on front fly lead, otherwise clean.
Hardcover. NY, Simon & Schuster, 1st, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. In a stunning feat of meticulous reportage, Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Ben Cramer ultimately puts to rest the "Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?" question with iconoclastic bravura. In Cramer's evaluation, the hero America held onto so desperately for so long was really a creation of a nation's communal imagination. The Joe DiMaggio that America tried so hard to believe in was never really here at all. There was, of course, a Joe DiMaggio, and he had a splendid career in Yankee pinstripes--once hitting safely in an unimaginable 56 consecutive games--and a troubled marriage with Marilyn Monroe, each augmenting the other in our national mythology. But myths tend to be skin-deep, and Cramer's biography thrives in an internal geography well below the surface. The map he charts is of a cold, small, often nasty, uncaring, resentful, self-centered man, a man of public grace and private misery who broke friendships, shunned family, and chased money with the same focused energies he once harnessed to run down fly balls.
Hardcover. NY, McGraw Hill, 1st, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 270 pages, b&w illustrations. This work has been prepared as a loving remembrance by the Brown Bomber's son. Joe Louis is known in history as the legend who knocked out Max Schmelling in round one of their fight in 1938. Joe's son gives full character to the man of myth and history with many details and recollections from the champ's contemporaries. There is a complete boxing record, list of contributors, bibliography, plus photographs. Clean copy.
Hardcover. London, Titan Books , 1st, 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 256 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. A very clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket edges. In his own words, this is the life of Joe Simon, one of the most important figures in comics history, and half of the famous creative team Simon and Kirby. Joe Simon co-created Captain America, and was the first editor in chief of Marvel Comics (where he hired Stan Lee for his first job in comics).