THE AMERICANS: THE STEIDL "ROBERT FRANK PROJECT" 50TH-ANNIVERSARY EDITION by Frank, Robert (Photographer) & Kerouac, Jack (Contributor) - 2008

Gottingen, Germany: Gerhard Steidl Druckerei Und Verlag, 2008. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. As New/As New Dust Jacket.. Gottingen, Germany: Gerhard Steidl Druckerei Und Verlag, 2008. Hardcover. As New/As New. First Edition/First Printing. 180 pages. The 50th-Anniversary Edition of the photographer's classic. One of the greatest photography books of the 20th century. The Steidl "Robert Frank Project" First Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only as the linchpin of the "Robert Frank Project" that sold out shortly after publication. The First Edition Thus is now rare. An austerely elegant production by Robert Frank and Gerhard Steidl: Regular-sized volume format. Black cloth boards with gray titles on spine, as issued. Photographs by Robert Frank. Essay by Jack Kerouac. Red promotional bellyband. Printed in tritone on pristine-white, thick coated stock paper in Gottingen, Germany to the highest standards. The reproduction quality is outstanding in every respect. In pictorial DJ with black titles on the cover and spine, as issued. Re-presents, in its First Steidl Edition, Robert Frank's "The Americans". His unsurpassed - and unsurpassable - masterpiece. Frank retained both the size and format of the 1959 First American Edition. But he re-scanned and re-cropped all of the images, and replaced two of them, a change not found in any of the book's previous editions. Swiss-born Robert Frank travelled throughout the continental United States (ALL 48 states, according to Kerouac) between 1955 and 1956. The oft-quoted line from Kerouac's essay is, "After seeing these pictures, you end up finally not knowing anymore whether a jukebox is sadder than a coffin". Which sums up the fact that a Robert Frank photograph is characterized by profound sadness and incomparable visual genius. Robert Frank died on September 9, 2019 at the age of 94 as the greatest photographer of our time. An absolute "must-have" title for Robert Frank collectors. <b><i> This title is a great book. This is one of few copies of The First Steidl "Robert Frank Project" Edition/First Printing ("First Steidl Edition published in 2008" Statement with NO further printing indications) still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. It comes with a pristine copy of " 'The Americans' List". Please note: This comes with the red promotional bellyband, initially issued with the First Printing only. However, the presence of the bellyband is NO longer a First Printing indication, and does NOT guarantee that a copy is the First Edition because Steidl has since re-issued it for Later Printings on an "ad hoc" basis (especially those "sealed" copies). "New" copies are 10th or Later Printings as of 2019, all of them meticulously indicated as such by the publisher. Copies of various editions of "The Americans" available online, not one of them is in even Near-Fine condition, command thousands of dollars. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare copy thus. </b></i> 83 tritone plates. At the age of 92, Robert Frank was profiled in 2016 by The New York Times as "the greatest photographer of our time". A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER ROBERT FRANK TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 386521584X.