“THE INDIAN AS HE HAS HITHERTO BEEN IS ON THE POINT OF PASSING AWAY”: VOLUME II OF CURTIS’ THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN, WITH 75 PHOTOGRAVURE PLATES OF THE YUMA, PIMA, AND MOJAVE TRIBES

CURTIS, Edward. The North American Indian, Volume II. (Cambridge, Massachusetts): Edward Curtis, 1908. Folio, later full brown morocco gilt (in the style of the original binding), raised bands.

Volume II of this monumental 20-volume work, number four of a limited edition of 500 copies (but probably only 272 copies bound and sold), finely printed on Japan vellum, with 75 sepia photogravure plates, handsomely bound by Blackwell to appear uniform to the original full morocco-gilt.

“The North American Indian by Edward S. Curtis is one of the most significant and controversial representations of traditional American Indian culture ever produced. Issued in a limited edition from 1907-1930, the publication continues to exert a major influence on the image of Indians in popular culture” (Library of Congress). The volumes of Curtis’ epic series are “without a doubt… jewels of twentieth-century bookmaking, hailed as ‘the most gigantic undertaking in the making of books since the King James edition of the Bible… [the photographs] are exquisitely beautiful, preciously printed, warm-toned and hand-pulled gravures filled with the carefully composed masses of light and shadow that link them unmistakably to Stieglitz and the Pictorialists” (Roth, 4-5). “Edward Curtis was not like most photographers. He was not the first person to photograph American Indians, or the last… However, there can be no doubt that he was the most prolific, the most dedicated, and the most influential. He spent the best part of his life-nearly thirty years-documenting what he considered to be the traditional way of life for Indians living in the trans-Mississippi West. He took more than 40,000 photographs, collected more than 350 traditional Indian tales, and made more than 10,000 sound recordings of Indian speeches and music… His magnum opus was The North American Indian” (Pritzker, Edward S. Curtis, 6). This volume of Curtis’ beautiful and important work is dedicated to the Pima, Yuma, Mojave (Mohave), and Maricopa tribes of Arizona, Mexican Sonora, and eastern California. While the limitation page indicates that 500 sets were printed, it is believed now that only 272 sets were actually bound and sold.

A fine and most desirable copy.