Portraits Of Greatness by Karsh, Yousuf

Portraits Of Greatness, Karsh, Yousuf, University of Toronto Press, 1961. Third printing. Signed, dated and inscribed by Karsh in black ink on front endpaper. 4to 11" - 13" tall. 207 pages. 97 full black and white photographs selected by Karsh with his personal commentary facing page. Publisher's sheet laid in referencing how the binding allows for removal and reinsertion of prints (for framing) and printing process used to achieve the quality of Yousuf Karsh's original mat-finish prints. Black cloth boards with silver titles front and spine. Boards and binding in fine condition; contents also in fine condition without marks, tears etc. Clipped jacket has 2 small closed tears to tail edge; small clear tape pieces to front flap and rear pastedown; otherwise fine.

Yousuf Karsh (1908 – 2002) was an Armenian-Canadian photographer known as one of the greatest portrait photographers of the 20th century. His stated goal, expressed in his 1962 autobiography In Search of Greatness: Reflections of Yousuf Karsh, was to distill "the essence of the extraordinary person." Several of his portraits have become icons of historical importance. Included in this fine collection are his portraits of Winston Churchill, Robert Frost, Ernest Hemingway, Carl Sandburg, John Steinbeck, Thornton Wilder, Tennessee Williams, François Mauriac, Georgia O'Keeffe and George Bernard Shaw. In 1965 Yousuf Karsh was awarded the Canada Council Medal, in 1968 the Medal of Service of the Order of Canada and he was invested as a Companion in the Order of Canada in 1990.