with the scarce dust-jacket

Alvin Langdon Coburn began gathering these portraits in 1904 when, shortly before sailing to London, he asked Perrirton Maxwell, editor of the Metropolitan Magazine of New York, for a list of authors and artists to photograph during his visit. Coburn's first sitter was George Bernard Shaw, who was particularly helpful in making introductions to potential subjects on Coburn's behalf, and the two became friends. Other sitters include Frank Brangwyn, H. G. Wells, Auguste Rodin, Henry James, Arthur Symons, Theodore Roosevelt, W. B Yeats, Mark Twain, Clarence H. White, Roger Fry, and Henri Matisse. The portraits are reproduced chronologically, the photogravures printed under Coburn's supervision on his own press. The day, month, and year for each sitter are included in the index, with Coburn insisting that these facts added a 'very considerable interest to a portrait considered as a "human document."'

First edition; 4to (304 x 238 mm, 12 x 9¼ in); 33 tipped-in photogravures from plates prepared by Coburn, with the subject's facsimile signatures in the margins, light spotting and cockling to top edge, guards toned, occasional light wear, one with a short tear; endpapers browned, linen-backed grey cloth, titles to the front in gilt; printed dust-jacket, toned, spine slightly darkened, rubbing to lower panel, edges chipped, a near-fine copy in a very good example of the scarce dust-jacket; 29, [1], [66]pp.

The Truthful Lens 37; Imagining Paradise p236.