AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHS.; Essay by Lincoln Kirstein by Evans, Walker - 1962

NY: Museum of Modern Art, 1962. Reissue of 1938 first edition. Evans, Walker. Small 4to., 195 pp., 87 photographic plates. Cloth, titled in gilt on the spine; a fine copy. The photographically illustrated dust wrapper is lacking a few tiny chips at the top of the spine, is price-clipped and moderately soiled. This copy is inscribed on the blank front fly leaf, "for John and Dorothy - my patrons, with love - Walker. June 1962". Walker Evans first met John McDonald and Dorothy Eisner in the early 1940's at one of the frequent gatherings of artist and writers at the home of Lionel and Diana Trilling. John McDonald, a writer, had been an assistant to Leon Trotsky during his exile in Mexico; Dorothy Eisner, a painter, was also in Mexico at the time and made several portraits of Trotsky. Walker Evans and John McDonald became collaborators on articles when McDonald joined the staff of Fortune in 1945. Evans and the McDonalds often spent weekends together; their intimate friendship lasted the rest of their lives.