Fleur Cowles’s legendary magazine Flair is remembered for its blend of cosmopolitan sophistication, innovative design, and its intuitive discovery of many artists and writers well before they achieved fame and fortune. The magazine was celebrated not only for its content but also for its lavish production. Unfortunately the magazine was short lived, 2 monthly issues were published from February 1950 to January 1951. It was the resulting cost of production that killed the magazine, since the expensive special costs (for cover cut-outs for some issues, for example) could not be supported in the long run. Among the many contributors were John O’Hara, Saul Steinberg, Gypsy Rose Lee, Margaret Mead, Tallulah Bankhead, Salvador Dalí, Colette,  Flannery O’Connor and countless other writers and artists. The first issue issue featured Auden, Cocteau, Lucian Freud, Tennessee Williams, Angus Wilson.

Description: Hard bound with die-cut dust jacket, in original red cloth clamshell case. A beautifully produced edition with tipped-in booklets, tissue guarded reproductions of famous die-cut covers, fashion, décor, and everything that Flair was famous for. Stated first edition. Wear and minor soiling to publishers clam shell case. Some minor wear to dust jacket, otherwise flawless. This lavishly produced collector’s item combines the best material from Flair, the landmark magazine of the ’50s, with the singular design that made it so illustrious. Forty-five years after it ceased publication, Flair is still one of the most talked-about and influential magazines. It is remembered for its innovative design and production quality, its superb coverage of the arts and its intuitive discovery of artists and writers well before they achieved fame and fortune. When Flair was conceived in 1950 by Fleur Cowles and her then-husband Gardner Cowles, founder of Look magazine, it was truly on the cutting edge, with postcard inserts, die-cut covers and specially tipped-in booklets and fold-outs. However Flair published only 12 issues from February 1950 to January 1951, issues that remain treasured by those who saved them and sought by many others. The Best of Flair is beautifully illustrated in full color and produced with all the unique features of the magazine, including the best pieces from the original 12 issues and a selection of the famous die-cut covers, fold-outs and self-contained booklets.

Bookseller Inventory # 26912

$250

The Best Of Flair
Cowles, Fleur

Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: 1996
Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Fine
Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
Edition: 1st Edition

· Category: Fashion, Featured Items, Recent Acquisitions ·

Ben Shahn, the Lithuanian-born American painter, photographer, graphic artist is best known for his works of social realism, and his interest and involvement in politics. His vision included themes on modern urban life, labor, immigration and injustice, always with compassionate tone. He identified himself as a communicative artist, who challenged the esoteric pretensions of art, which he believed disconnect artists’ and their work from the public. As an alternative, he proposed an intimate and mutually beneficial relationship between artist and audience.

Description: Limited Edition, #7 of 150 printed copies. Hard bound in full parchment covered boards by Russell-Rutter, housed in paper-covered slipcase with printed label. Printed on Arches paper. Lithograph signed by Ben Shahn, laid-in as called for. Illustrated throughout with many drawings by Ben Shahn, many of which are full page, printed by offset lithography in ochre. A beautiful production produced at the Thistle Press. The work deals with the mind and body in myth and experience in vastly differing cultures. The first part is devoted to the heritage of the Western World, particularly Hebraic and Hellenistic traditions; the second ranges pre-Columbian America. Some minor wear to publishers slipcase, otherwise fine.

Bookseller Inventory # 39999

SOLD

The Sorrows Of Priapus
Shahn, Ben & Dahlberg, Edward

Publisher: New Directions
Publication Date: 1957
Binding: Hard Bound
Book Condition: Very Good
Signed: Signed by both Ben Shahn & Edward Dahlberg
Edition: First Edition, # 7 in a limited edition of 150

· Category: Recently Sold ·

Frank Budgen was an English painter who might best be remembered for his friendship with the author James Joyce. Frank Budgen the English Painter and the Irish writer James Joyce met almost daily to walk, talk, and drink wine; their talk, among other things, was of the complex novel Joyce was then writing. This captivating study is the record of these conversations, and of a continuing friendship, as well as an acute critical commentary on the work itself. The Irish novelist and poet James Joyce is considered to be one of the most influential modernist writers of the first part of the 20th century. Ulysses is his landmark work in which the episodes of Homer’s Odyssey are paralleled in an array of contrasting literary styles, perhaps most prominently the stream of consciousness technique he perfected. His fictional universe does not extend beyond Dublin, and is populated largely by characters who closely resemble family members, enemies and friends from his time there; Ulysses in particular is set with precision in the streets and alleyways of the city.

Description: Hard bound in dust jacket. First printing of the First U.S Edition. (James Joyce and the Making Of Ulysses, With a portait of James Joyce and four drawings to to Ulysses by the author). Some wear and age toning to dust jacket. Minor chipping to edges of dust jacket, otherwise very good, with interior clean and binding sound. The only first-hand account available of the growth of Ulysses. An important work for Joyce collectors.

Bookseller Inventory # 30054

SOLD

James Joyce and the Making Of Ulysses by Frank Budgen
Budgen, Frank

Publisher: Harrison Smith and Robert Haas
Publication Date: 1934
Binding: Hard Bound
Book Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
Edition: First Edition

· Category: Recently Sold ·

David Garnett was British Writer and a prominent member of the Bloomsbury Group. He ran a bookshop near the British Museum with Francis Birrell during the 1920s. He also founded (along with Francis Meynell) the Nonesuch Press. Garnett had relationships with several members of the artistic and literary Bloomsbury Group including Francis Birrell & Duncant Grant. As a child, he had a cloak made of rabbit skin and thus received the nickname “Bunny”, by which he was known to friends and intimates all his life.

Description: Hard bound in dust jacket. First printing of the First U.K Edition. Some wear and age toning to dust jacket, otherwise very good, with interior clean and binding sound. A wonderful collection of notes from a diary kept while learning to handle an aeroplane. Rare!

Bookseller Inventory # 30053

$250

A Rabbit in the Air
Garnett, David

Publisher: Chattos & Windus, London
Publication Date: 1932
Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
Edition: First U.K. Edition

· Category: Featured Items, Literary First Editions, Recent Acquisitions ·

Thomas Mann was the 1929 recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist. He will be best remembered  for his series of highly symbolic and often ironic epic novels and novellas. Lynd Ward was and American artist known for his wordless novels told entirely through dramatic wood cuts. His Art Deco style was very popular in the 1920s, and his work is still highly sought after.

Description: 1934 limited edition hardcover in decorated boards, housed in published original slipcase as issued. #384 of 1000 copies signed by Thomas Mann on the limitation page! Lithographs by Lynd Ward.Three short stories that had not previously appeared in English. Some minor wear to cloth boards. The slipcase is in fair condition, with wear to edges, and top edge detached. The slipcase of this edition is seldom found in reasonable condition.Interior clean & binding still tight. Scarce!

Bookseller Inventory #30050

SOLD

Nocturnes
Mann,Thomas

Publisher: Equinox Cooperative Press
Publication Date: 1934
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
Edition: First Edition – #384 in a Limited edition of 1000
Signed: Signed by Thomas Mann

· Category: Recently Sold ·