[Photobook] The American Monument

New York: Eakins Press, 1976. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Fine. First Printing, one of 2000 unnumbered copies, of this "encylopaedic lesson in how to put a picture together." (Parr and Badger) Oblong 8vo (293 x 418mm): unpaginated; [2]ff (title page and Walt Whitman quote), [77]ff (photographs), [6]ff (afterword), with 213 meticulous gravure plates of statues, plinths, columns, obelisks, tablets, and carved rocks from halftone negatives. Original triple-screw, post-bound, gilt-embossed aqua cloth, black lettering to spine and front cover. A very fine copy, virtually as new. Parr and Badger II, p. 28. Roth 101, pp. 236-237. Roth (Open Book), pp. 310-11. From Fair to Fine, p. 35. Auer, p. 600. The American Monument is "also a lesson in how to put a photobook together. Large-format and designed to look and feel like a photo album. . . . The printing by the Meriden Gravure Company, on heavy stock paper, is sumptuous, and Freidlander's editing is brilliant." (Parr and Badger) Typically, the monument is off in the "distance or somewhere off to the side, obscured by a road sign, a trash can, a telephone pole or foliage. . . . Maybe Friedlander deflects attention from the monuments so that we can see the larger picture: the continuity of present and past, the pointlessness of memoraslizing history without ever understanding or absorbing it." (Roth 101) N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).