Rare books from LEFT COAST BOOKS

New York: Jewish Museum, under the auspices of the Jewish Theological Seminary, 1963. [65] pages, illustrations; 25 cm. ASSOCIATION COPY. From the library of Allan Kaprow, whose signature appears on the inside front cover. Kaprow, founder of the Happenings, was influenced by Rauschenberg -- both artists were acolytes of John Cage. Kaprow's personal copy of Rauschenberg's first retrospective! Wraps lightly rubbed, expected age toning.. 1st. Paperback. Very Good. 8vo. Collectible.

San Francisco and New York: City Lights Books; Harper & Row, Publishers, 1980. Cloth, xi, 254 pages, illustrations; 29 cm. SIGNED. Boldly signed by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021), owner of City Lights Books; on the front free endpaper. Age toning, edges & endpapers lightly soiled. Stated First Edition. Dust jacket, with light edgewear, protected in a mylar cover. OVERSIZE! No priority/international, except by arrangement.. SIGNED. 1st. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 4to. Collectible.

New York: Aperture, 1986. Cloth, 95 pages, chiefly illustrations; 30 cm. SIGNED by both Inge Morath and Arthur Miller on the title page. A near-fine copy with very light dust spotting on the top edge. Dust jacket protected in a mylar book cover. OVERSIZE! No priority/international, except by special arrangement. A famous Magnum photographer, Morath was the third wife of playwright Arthur Miller. Profusely illustrated.. SIGNED. Hardcover. Very Good/Fine. 4to. Collectible.

New York: Harmony Books, 2009. viii, 326 pages, [16] pages of plates, illustrations (some colour); 25 cm. SIGNED. Boldly signed by Buzz Aldrin on the half-title page, no dedication. A fine copy. Dust jacket protected in a mylar cover. "On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts BUZZ ALDRIN and Neil Armstrong landed their lunar module on the Sea of Tranquillity and became the first humans to walk on the moon. Aldrin has since been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and more than fifty other awards and medals from the United States and other countries. He holds a doctorate in astronautics from MIT. Since retiring from the U.S. Air Force and NASA, Dr. Aldrin has remained at the forefront of efforts to ensure a continued leading role for America in manned space exploration. He founded a rocket design company, Starcraft Boosters, Inc., and the ShareSpace Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to opening the doors to space tourism for all people. Buzz and his wife, Lois, live in Los Angeles.… Read More

New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 2000. 144 pages, colour illustrations, col. maps; 25 x 35 cm. ASSOCIATION/PRESENTATION COPY. Signed by Edmund Morris and dedicated to the photographer, Macduff Everton/half-title page. Near-fine copy, with light edgewear to boards and dust jacket, protected in a mylar book cover. OVERSIZE! No priority/air, except by special arrangement. "'Macduff Everton updates travel photography in the same way that Ansel Adams updated 19th-century photography of the West. He captures strange and eloquent moments in which time, and the world, seem to stand still.' - Andy Grundberg, New York Times. Only a handful of photographers have succeeded in capturing the majestic landscapes of the American West. Now, Macduff Everton takes his place among them, with magnificent panoramic photographs that deserve to be viewed alongside those of Ansel Adams and Eliot Porter. Everton's lush, romantic pictures - each a cinematic tour-de-force of light and color - present… Read More

Hampton, VA, and Seattle, WA: Hampton University Museum in association with University of Washington Press, 1991. Cloth, 127 pages, illustrations (chiefly colour); 26 cm. Catalogue of a traveling exhibition held 1991-1993. SIGNED. Boldly signed & dated by the artist Jacob Lawrence on the half-title page. A fine copy. Dust jacket protected in a mylar book cover. OVERSIZE! No priority/international, except by special arrangement.. SIGNED. 1st. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. 4to. Collectible.

New York: David R. Godine Publisher in association with the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1976. Cloth, 350 pages, illustrations (some colour); 30 cm. A Bicentennial exhibition organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, shown from March 16 to September 26, 1976. PRESENTATION COPY. Signed by noted American sculptor Chaim Gross, with a sketch and personalized inscription. A very good copy, age toning. Dust jacket, with light edgewear, protected in a mylar book cover. The price of this unique book is not negotiable. OVERSIZE! No priority/international, except by special arrangement. CONTENTS: Sponsor's introduction, by David Rockefeller; Foreword, by Tom Armstrong; Aboriginal art, by Norman Feder; Images of a nation in wood, marble and bronze: American sculpture from 1776 to 1900, by Wayne Craven; The innocent eye: American folk sculpture, by Tom Armstrong; Statues to sculpture: from the nineties to the thirties, by Daniel Robbins; Magician's game: decades of transformation,… Read More

Japan: Unsodo, 1880. 2 volumes. colour illustrations; 31 cm. An attractive 2-volume Meiji period (1880) reprint of Minko Tachibana's 1771 classic Saiga Shokunin Burui (Various Classes of Artisan in Colored Pictures), with stunning woodblock illustrations in which the colors have been applied by stencils (a hybrid technique known as kappazuri-e). The outer wraps have moderate rubbing and one has a faint droplet stain on the front cover. The interior contents are in fine condition, with beautiful bright colour plates absent of any foxing or soiling. {Swordsmith depicted}.. Paperback. Very Good. 4to. Collectible.

New York: Taplinger Publishing Company, 1979. 288 pages, illustrations; 22 cm. SIGNED. Boldly signed by the editor Rackstraw Downes (Realist painter and ally of Porter) on the title page, no dedication. Dust jacket, with moderate edgewear & a faded spine, protected in a mylar book cover.. SIGNED. 1st. Hardcover. Very Good/Good. 8vo. Collectible.

New York: Sidney Janis Gallery, 1972. 24 pages, illustrations; 28 cm. With an introductory text by Janis. Near fine. Firm binding, clean inside copy. Light shelfwear to wraps, age toning. This important exhibition introduced "Super-Realism" or "Photorealism." Includes: Tom Blackwell, Claudio Bravo, Robert Cottingham, John De Andrea, Don Eddy, Richard Estes, Ralph Goings, Robert Graham, Duane Hanson, Jann Haworth, Guy Johnson, Howard Kanovitz, Ron Kleeman, Marilyn Levine, Noel Mahaffey, John Mandel, Richard Mac Lean, Willard Midgette, Malcolm Morley, Lowell Nesbitt, David Parrish, Philip Pearlstein, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Stephen Posen, John Salt, Paul Sarsikian, Paul Staiger, and Evelyn Taylor.. 1st. Paperback. Very Good. 4to. Collectible.

San Francisco and Seattle: San Francisco Museum of Art; University of Washington Press, 1985. 207 pages, illustrations (some colour), portraits; 29 cm. Exhibition held at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art 12 September to 10 November 1985 and at 4 other museums through 9 November 1986. SIGNED and inscribed by artist Wayne Thiebaud, "Thank you for your kindness," with a heart. A near-fine copy, age toning. OVERSIZE! No priority/international, except by arrangement. Richly illustrated with colour plates. "Wayne Thiebaud first captured the attention of the art world in the early sixties when he exhibited paintings of cakes, hot dogs and gumball machines. Initially identified, by the subject of these works, with American Pop artists, Thiebaud has since shifted his attention to other subjects ranging from the figure to landscape. He has established himself as a preeminent American realist exploring traditional subjects with a fresh and contemporary eye. This major monograph traces the… Read More

Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1980. Cloth, x, 324 pages, [20] leaves of plates, illustrations; 24 cm. PRESENTATION COPY. Signed by artist Robert Rauschenberg, with a personalized inscription to Joan and Paul. A fine copy of the first printing. Age toning. Stated First Edition. Dust jacket protected in a mylar book cover. This monograph remains the most well-known biography of the mercurial artist Robert Rauschenberg, who bridged the gap between art and life with his combine paintings and performance works.. SIGNED. 1st. Hardcover. Very Good/Fine. 8vo. Collectible.

Atlanta: Turner Publishing Company, 1994. 383 pages, illustrations; 24 cm. Introduction by Neil Armstrong. PRESENTATION COPY. Signed and warmly inscribed by coauthors Alan Shepard, Jay Barbree, and Howard Benedict to NBC/ABC journalist Sander Vanocur. The title page contains plain signatures of Shephard, Barbree, and Benedict, and each has added a separate personalized message on the facing leaf. Dust jacket protected in a mylar cover.. SIGNED. Hardcover. Very Good/Fine. 8vo. Collectible.

Washington D.C.: New Republic Books, 1977. Cloth, xiv, 316 pages, illustrations; 27 cm. PRESENTATION COPY. Signed by the artist Raphael Soyer, with a personalized inscription, accompanied by a portrait sketch in ink. A very good copy, age toned. Dust jacket price-clipped on the front flap, with light edgewear, protected in a mylar book cover.. SIGNED. 1st. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 4to. Collectible.

New York: Hacker Art Books, 1974. Cloth, 4 volumes (xvii, 1578 pages, chiefly illustrations; 35 cm. COMPLETE SET. All 4 volumes in near-fine condition, with light soiling to some of the edges. OVERSIZE! No priority/international, except by arrangement. Profusely illustrated. NOT FOR SALE ON AMAZON. "This catalogue is based on the work of Max Geisberg, Der deutsche Einblatt Holzschnitt in der ersten Halfte des 16. Jahrhunderts (The German Single-Issued Woodcuts of the First Half of the Sixteenth Century), Munich, 1924-1930. Geisberg was the first to assemble a comprehensive collection of the woodcuts of that period. He issued them in forty-three large portfolios, arranged according to repositories. A great number of woodcuts omitted by Geisberg, or unknown to him, have been added. These volumes are not intended to be a catalogue raisonne , but to serve primarily as a pictorial catalogue in a practical format of the singly-issued woodcuts of the first half of the sixteenth century in Germany, as… Read More