The Americans. by Frank, Robert; Introduction by Jack Kerouac - 1959

New York: Grove Press, 1959. First edition of the photographer's masterpiece with 83 black-and-white full-page photogravures. Oblong quarto, original cloth, illustrated throughout, Presentation copy, inscribed by the photographer opposite the title page, "To Linda Robert Frank." An excellent near fine example in a very good dust jacket that shows light wear and a few small closed tears. Introduction by Jack Kerouac. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. Jack Kerouac wrote in his preface of The Americans, "Robert Frank he sucked a sad poem out of America onto film, taking rank among the tragic poets of the world. To Robert Frank I now give this message. You got eyes." Frank’s Americans eventually achieved legendary status as "the most renowned photobook of all It struck a chord with a whole generation of American photographers Many memorable photobooks have been derived from this mass of material. None has been more memorable, more influential, nor more fully realized than Frank’s masterpiece" (Parr & Badger I:247). "From the more than 20,000 images that resulted, Frank eventually chose 83 of them and arranged them into four chapters ‘With these photographs,’ he later wrote, ‘I have attempted to show a cross-section of the American population. My effort was to express it simply and without confusion. The view is personal’ Such a simple intention for a book that would so alter the course of modern photography" (Roth, 150).