Persona Grata

[Cecil Beaton. Kenneth Tynan]


The world's greatest photographer and the 'enfant prodigue' of our dramatic critics have, in this beautifully designed book, joined forces to produce an anthology of unique human beings: a portrait gallery, in words and photographs, of about 100 living people whom they, its self-appointed curators, both admire…'
 
An amusing alphabetical anthology of 100 living people admired by the two contributors. Cecil Beaton provided the photographs and book design, including the dust jacket; Kenneth Tynan, the theatre critic, provided the text. Under B there is John Betjeman, Richard Burton, Balenciaga and Francis Bacon, G hosts Greta Garbo, Judy Garland and John Gielgud, whilst S features Edith, Osbert and Sacheverell Sitwell.


Cecil Beaton & Kenneth Tynan. Allan Wingate. London. July 1954. Second impression. First published in 1953. Hardback, large octavo; light-blue cloth-bound boards, with silver decoration to front board and title to spine, dust jacket. 99 pages. Many b&w photographs on hors texte plates, and decorative letters and text illustrations. English. 245 x 185mm. 0.7kg. . Very good, in very good dust jacket; slight shelf wear to jacket, spotting to jacket flaps and verso, slight toning to spine; light uneven toning to boards, light spotting and offsetting to prelims and edges.