ELLISON, Ralph [Arnold Newman].
Invisible Man.
New York: Random House, 1952.
$4,800.00
In Stock
Item Number: RRB-152713
+$500
“For Arnold - The artist who manages, again and again to express himself through that imperious instrument, the camera - with an admiration that borders on envy": Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man; Lengthily Inscribed by Him to Photographer Arnold Newman
First edition, third printing of the author's landmark first novel, which went on to win the National Book Award, his first and only work published during his lifetime. Octavo, publisher’s black-and-white pictorial cloth stamped in white and grey. Association copy, uniquely inscribed by Ellison on the title page to the legendary photographer Arnold Newman, “For Arnold - The artist who manages, again and again to express himself through that imperious instrument, the camera - with an admiration that borders on envy. Sincerely, Ralph Ellison.” The recipient, Arnold Newman, was one of the foremost American portrait photographers of the twentieth century, celebrated for his environmental portraits. He photographed Ellison in 1953, shortly after Invisible Man won the National Book Award, and this copy may well have been a gift to Newman following that session. From the library of Newman with his ownership signature to the front free endpaper. Very good in a very good later dust jacket. A superb association copy uniting two great American artists.
Ralph Ellison’s first novel is “one of the most important works of the 20th century” (New York Times). Published in 1952, it won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1953, making Ellison the first African American to receive the honor. It was named by the Modern Library one of the 100 greatest novels of the twentieth century and included on Time magazine’s list of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005, which called it “the quintessential American picaresque of the 20th century.” Invisible Man was the only novel Ralph Ellison (1913-1994) published in his lifetime; a second, left unfinished at his death, appeared posthumously as Juneteenth.
Invisible Man.
$4,800.00
In Stock