The Americans. Photographs by Robert Frank. Introduction by Jack Kerouac
New York: Grossman Publishers, 1969. 2nd US Edition. Oblong quarto, publisher's black cloth.
Legendary Swiss-American photographer Frank's classic photobook, the much-loved and heavily worn copy of photographer Marcia Resnick. A heartrending, tough-as-nails documentary record of midcentury America, compiled from photos Frank took during a series of cross-country trips taken on a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation. Originally published in France in 1958 and a year later in the US in 1959, this revised and enlarged second edition presents filmstrips from Frank's filmwork of the 1960s for the first time, and retains the introductory text Beat writer Kerouac contributed to the first US edition: "That crazy feeling in America when the sun is hot on the streets and the music comes out of the jukebox or from a nearby funeral, that's what Robert Frank has captured in tremendous photographs taken as he traveled on the road around practically forty-eight states in an old used car...and with the agility, mystery, genius, sadness and strange secrecy of a shadow photographed scenes that have never been seen before on film." Illustrated with black-and-white plates. Ownership signature and inkstamp of Marcia Resnick to front endpaper (inkstamp with address crossed out in pencil). Born in Brooklyn, Resnick is best known for chronicling the downtown scene of the 1970s and 80s in real time, taking portraits of musicians, artists, filmmakers, and writers such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, John Belushi, Iggy Pop, Andy Warhol, and Susan Sontag, and for her regular feature in the SoHo Weekly News, "Resnick’s Believe-It-or-Not." This very worn copy lacks its original dust jacket, and has had its board edges and spine mummified with masking tape to hold it together. Resnick has also fashioned a pouch to the rear endpaper out of an envelope and masking tape, which she has stuffed with news clippings about Frank. Moderate rubbing and soiling to boards and endpapers. A dilapidated but complete copy with excellent provenance and aura. Item #12842
$200.00