Landmark Books in All Fields
ItemID: #64148
Cost: $3,000.00

Weegee by Weegee

Weegee

“YOU MAKE WONDERFUL CAMERAS…”: RARE PRESENTATION/ASSOCIATION COPY OF WEEGEE BY WEEGEE, INSCRIBED TO A MEMBER OF THE FAMILY THAT FOUNDED KONICA CAMERAS

WEEGEE. Weegee by Weegee: An Autobiography. New York: Ziff-Davis, (1961). Octavo, original black cloth, original dust jacket. $3000.

First edition of Weegee’s colorful autobiography, profusely illustrated with 116 black-and-white photographs, boldly inscribed to a member of the family that founded Konica cameras in the 1870s, “To Mr. R. Sugiura-You make wonderful cameras-Weegee, May 1962.”

Polish-born Arthur Felig was dubbed “Ouija” by New York City cops in the 1930s for his uncanny ability to appear at crime scenes before the police did. A tabloid-news photographer for the Daily News and other newspapers, he “had a gift for highlighting the unexpected, stylish and even humorous aspects of dark scenes… Weegee’s classic film-noir style… is credited with helping create American tabloid journalism” (New York Times). Weegee was first and always ”a news photographer, and if we accept the definition of poetry as ‘news that stays news,’ he was a poet with a camera” (Roth, 118). Weegee by Weegee recalls the famed photographer’s early years and features an account of Hollywood’s adaptation of his book Naked City. This rare association copy was inscribed by Weegee to a descendant of the Japanese pharmacist who founded Konica in 1873, predating Kodak’s entry into photography. Inscribed copies of his autobiography are quite scarce.

Book fine; light edge-wear to bright near-fine dust jacket.

Main Office & Gallery: 1608 Walnut Street, 19th Floor .::. Philadelphia, PA 19103 .::. 215-546-6466 .::. fax 215-546-9064
web: www.baumanrarebooks.com .::. email: [email protected]