Steichen at War: The Navy's Pacific Air Battles

New York: Portland House, 1987. Cloth, 256 pages, illustrations; 32 cm. Near fine. Firm binding, clean inside copy. Age toning. First thus. Dust jacket, with light edgewear, protected in a mylar cover. OVERSIZE! No priority/international, except by special arrangement. Profusely illustrated. "Photographs by Steichen and his crew of photographers in the Naval Aviation Photographic Unit: Wayne Miller, Horace Bristol, Victor Jorgenson, Fenno Jacobs, Barrett Gallagher, Charles Kerlee, and Paul Dorsey. For four years, Steichen and his hand-picked crew of professional photographers joined the air craft carriers, recording the battle against the Japanese in the Pacific, as well as several ventures in the Atlantic. At Steichen's urging, they focused on the sailor and showed the war close up, sending back to Washington countless rolls of film with powerful images--the launching of the torpedo-bombers; terrifying kamikaze attacks; young pilots debriefing after exhausting missions; deck and support crews on shipboard relaxing, exercising, preparing for action. Steichen edited their work, saw that it was printed to the highest standard, and released it to major magazines and newspapers. Steichen himself went out for tours on the USS Lexington and other ships, and was on Iwo Jima soon after the island was secured. His men were also on the island bases from which Marine pilots launched their crushing strikes; they were in Washington when FDR died, and photographed the tearful progress of his funeral corte`ge; they were in Tokyo when the gaunt but joyous American prisoners were released; and one of them was among the first photographers into the devastated city of Hiroshima at war's end." - Publisher.. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. Folio.