[Cecil Beaton]
A first edition of Beaton's witty and glamourous snapshot of Manhattan in the 1930s. Cecil Beaton first sailed to New York in November 1928, it was the first of many annual trips he was to take, spending the winter in a hotel in Manhattan creating portraits and fashion photographs for Condé Nast. It was in New York that Beaton steadily built up a reputation as a leading international photographer, American society embraced him enthusiastically and he was able to earn significant sums of money. Cecil's Beaton's New York is a personal account of the city - its style, exuberance, diversity, people and culture. Beaton translates the visual impressions he has gained from New York into written prose. He talks about the weather, the architecture, transport, the food, the press, crime, the museums, the theatres, and society figures. The text is accompanied by numerous black-and-white photographs and line drawings by Beaton, supplemented with additional press photos and images by photographers such as E. O. Hoppé, Higdon Cato and Ben Sahn.
A dedication copy with the book warmly inscribed by Beaton to Mona Harrison Williams. The ink inscription to the front free endpaper reads ‘To my darling / Mona, / with more love / Cecil’, followed by Beaton's often used loopy paraph. Beaton met Mona Harrison Williams (later Von Bismarck) in 1928 during his first visit to New York. The pair formed a lasting and mutually beneficial friendship. Mona introduced him to Café Society and entertained him in her various homes. Beaton acted as image-maker, promoting her in the pages of Vogue and publishing many photographs which helped sustain her place on the International Best Dressed list. It was an attachment that was to last the test of time. In a letter from Beaton sent after his debilitating stroke in 1974 he writes, ‘Dearest Mona: There is a slight vacuum in my life… but please remember, when I don’t write, that you are far & away my favourite. With love, Cecil.’
Cecil Beaton. B.T. Batsford Ltd. London. 1938. First edition. Inscribed in ink to the front free endpaper by Beaton to the dedicatee Mona Harrison Wiliams - 'To my darling / Mona, / with more love / Cecil'. Hardback, octavo; yellow cloth-bound boards, black title to front board and spine, purple top edge, without dust jacket. viii, 261 pages. Colour frontispiece, over 100 b&w photographs and line-drawings within the text. English. 230 x 160mm. 0.8kg. . Very good; some light general shelf wear, light marks to boards and edges, spine lightly browned, small bookseller's label for 'Brentano's, Paris' to rear pastedown, internally clean.
