THE PHOTOBOOK OF THE PHOTOBOOKS. HERE IN THE ORIGINAL FIRST AMERICAN PRINTING - WITH THE EXTREM SCARCE, VERY BEAUTIFUL DUSTJACKET. SUPER SCARCE OPPORTUNITY to purchase Robert Frank's legendary title "The Americans" in the 1959 version. SUPER SCARCE OPPORTUNITY to purchase THE MOST INFLUANTIAL PHOTOBOOK EVER PUBLISHED - Andrew Roth, Book of 101 Books, page 150/151 Martin Parr, The photobook, vol 1, page 247 Hasselblad Center, page 176/177 802 books of the M.+M. Auer collection, page 375 Robert Frank portrays the shops, funeral parlors, and Fourth of July jamborees, of picnics, newsstands, crap tables, cocktail parties, jam sessions, and the drive-in movies. Here is the face of America illuminated by an unusual talent. An outsider's nuanced view of American society, as seen through the Swiss-born photographer's lens. "It is diffcult now to remember how shocking Robert Frank's book was ten years ago. The pictures took us by ambush then. We knew the America that they described, of course, but we knew it as one knows the background hum in a record player, not as a fact to recognize and confront. Nor had we understood that this stratum of our experience was a proper concern of artist. The fact that Frank's America was not in conventional terms edifying was not the point. The shocking thing was that it was not in conventional terms tragic, but merely untidy and trival. Yet Frank recorded with such clarity and purity his own sense of what was basic to us that the trivial was transfigured, and became symbol. Robert Frank established a new iconography of contemporary America, comprised of bits of bus depots, lunch counters, strip developments, empty spaces, cards, and unknowble faces. This iconography has become a common coin, used now perhaps too easily as a substitute for observation. But here in the original the acuity of Frank's own sensibility is alive and relevant." (John Szarkowski) Grove Press, New York. 1959. First American edition, first printing. Hardcover, bound in publisher's original black cloth binding with gilt titles on spine plus original dustjacket. 220 x 185 mm. 190 pages. 82 black and white plates. Photos: Robert Frank. Introduction: Jack Kerouac. Text in English. Condition: Dustjacket with some small imperfections (professionally restored); well protected by a professional (easily removable) plastic jacket. Book outside fresh and flawless. Book inside clean with no marks of previous owner, with some stains at the bottom, but only of the first pages, otherwise fresh; most of the pages a bit bumped at the bottom right corner (not dramatic, but there). Overall fine condition. WONDERFUL, SUPERSCARCE FIRST AMERICAN EDITION of that legendary photobook title - with the EXTREM SCARCE ORIGINAL DUSTJACKET (hard to find in any condition). Robert Frank was born in Zurich, Switzerland in 1924 and went to the United States in 1947. He is best known for his seminal book The Americans, first published in 1959, which gave rise to a distinct new art form in the photo-book, and his experimental film Pull My Daisy, made in 1959. His other important projects include the book Black White and Things (1954) the book Lines of My Hand (1972) and the film Cocksucker Blues (1972). Frank s work has been the subject of major exhibitions around the world and is included in many significant public and private collections. He divides his time between New York City and Nova Scotia, Canada. #ExclusivePhotographersStudio