Lost Lady, A.
Inscribed By Cather To Edward Steichen
In Thanks For His Famous Portrait Of Her
Cather, Willa. A Lost Lady. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1924.
8vo.; orange patterned endpapers; brown cloth stamped in gilt, black and orange; tips and spine bumped. In a specially made quarter-morocco slipcase.
First edition, seventh printing. Crane A13. Published a year after her Pulitzer Prize-winning One of Ours, A Lost Lady received even more critical praise; because of its success, it is perhaps surprising that Cather never returned to a Nebraska setting in her fiction.
A remarkable presentation copy, inscribed to the photographer Edward Steichen on the occasion of her August 24, 1927 sitting scheduled to coincide with the publication of Death Comes for the Archbishop; that sitting resulted in the now canonical portrait photo which adorns the dust-jackets of Cather biographies by E.K. Brown and Hermione Lee: “For Steichen A face for a face Willa Cather.” Cather inscribed two other books to Steichen that day: a second edition of My Antonia and a prepublication copy of Death Comes for the Archbishop.
One of the most influential photographers of the 20th-century, Luxembourg-born Edward Steichen (1879-1973) began his career as a painter but gained recognition abroad and made his name in the United States with his photographic work. In the course of his career he left his mark in the art world, as co-founder with Alfred Stieglitz of Photo-Secession (“291”) and Camera Works in 1905 and as the director of the Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art from 1947-62 (The Edward Stiechen Photography Center was established at MoMA in 1964).
Steichen twice held leadership positions in the armed forces, first as commander of the photographic division of the Army Expeditionary Forces in World War I, and then as Director of the U.S. Naval Photographic Institute and commander of combat photography during World War II. Additionally, he infiltrated the worlds of advertising, working for J. Walter Thompson, and fashion, as chief photographer for Condé Nast Publications from 1923-1938. During the twenties and thirties his work appeared regularly in Vogue and Vanity Fair, and some of his better-known sitters included Cather—who thanked him for his efforts with the above inscriptions—and Carl Sandburg (his brother-in-law), Greta Garbo, Charles Chaplin, Gloria Swanson, and H.L. Mencken.
A great book.
(#3787)
Print Inquire
