presentation copy

A presentation copy, inscribed to abstract realist painter De Hirsh Margules and his sister Annette, both active in Greenwich Village social circles:

'Why am I asked to ruin this / nice clean book? And why do I / acquiesce? And why will the / printer turn out spotty pages of / illustrations? And why / must I when seeing them feel / impelled to "retouch" them / & or cover up the faults of / one not caring? Oh why oh / why? - In spite of why, I / think this Book a Book - / It is a Book - so a / rare event - in my life / & all the lives of those / who may see the Book / whether they know it or not. / [?]. For Margules - / him & her — / [signed] Stieglitz / Dec. 2 1934 / An American Place'.

De Hirsh Margules (1899-1965) was born in Romania and arrived in New York City with his parents aged ten months. In 1929, he met Alfred Stieglitz, who quickly became one of his most trusted friends and advisors. Between 1936 and 1937, Margules established 'Another Place,' an exhibition space set up in his New York City apartment at 43 West 8th Street, which showed fourteen solo exhibitions by Margules and other artists.

First edition, presentation copy with a lengthy inscription in black ink on the first page; 8vo (234 x 155 mm, 9¼ x 6 in); 64 pages of black & white plates; black topstain, plain endpapers, hinges cracked, black cloth-covered boards, titles in silver and design stamped to spine in blind, Stieglitz's monogram in blind to upper board, corners bumped, light wear to extremities, dust jacket illustrated with photographs and reproductions of artworks, printed in black and silver, text in black and white, chipped and worn, a very good copy; [ii], x, 339, [1]pp.