"THERE IS AN OLD LONDON STORY THAT HAS NEVER LOST ITS LOVELINESS FOR ME": PHOTOGRAPHS BY COBURN, ESSAY BY CHESTERTON, INSCRIBED BY COBURN AND HIS WIFE

(COBURN, Alvin Langdon) CHESTERTON, G.K. London. London: Privately printed [by the Chiswick Press] for Alvin Langdon Coburn and Edmund D. Brooks & Their Friends, 1914. Octavo, original linen-backed paper boards, uncut. $4500.

First edition of this collaboration between two masters of their crafts, privately printed by the Chiswick Press, featuring 10 of Coburn's photogravures in conversation with Chesterton's London-themed essay, inscribed in the year of publication "To Gertrud Capen Whitney with best wishes from Edith W. Coburn and Alvin Langdon Coburn. Christmas 1914."

Poised at a crucial turning point in the history of photography, representing the "transition from pictorialism to modernism, from 19th- to 20th-century photography," the work of Alvin Langdon Coburn illuminates "the concern of the more advanced pictorialist with 'modern' subjects, namely the 20th-century city—a shift in attitude that triggered the final push towards photographic modernism" (Parr & Badger I:74). This sequel to Coburn's 1909 London, his magnificent first book of photography, features a luminous view of Parliament from the river as well as images of Big Ben and St. Paul's—perfectly complemented by legendary essayist Chesterton's evocative essay, which pays tribute to the city and her sense of place. Without very scarce original dust jacket. Sullivan 34.

Expert reinforcement to text block. Toning to endpapers, including inscription leaf, boards moderately soiled. A very good copy, desirable inscribed by Coburn.