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JAMES AGEE & WALKER EVANS. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.

JAMES AGEE & WALKER EVANS.
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.

Three Tenement Families. Text by James Agee. Illustrated with 31 reproductions of Evans' evocative photographs of the Great Depression. 8vo, silver-stamped black boards; photo-pictorial dust jacket, very fine condition; housed in a custom clamshell box of brown morroco and cloth, titled in gilt on the spine. Roth 108; Parr/Badger I 144; Auer 293. FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY JAMES AGEE.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1941

This copy is inscribed and presented by James Agee to his friend, photographer Florence Meyer Homolka on the front free endpaper, " Flo, with love - Jim, December 11, 1948."

Florence Meyer Homolka was born in New York City, January 22, 1911, the eldest daughter of Eugene Meyer, financier and publisher of the Washington Post, and Elizabeth (Ernst) Meyer. She studied dance and acting in Paris and Berlin, associating with artists; she once played her violin in the studio of Constantin Brancusi. In Berlin, she met and married the noted actor, Oskar Homolka. The couple left Berlin in 1939, spent a few years in London, were part of the New York acting and literary circle, and in 1943, settled in Pacific Palisades. During her Paris years she met Man Ray, and living close to him in the Los Angeles area, became his student of photography. "Man Ray is my revered teacher, and I am proud when he tells me that I am following in his footsteps as a photographer," she noted.

With her connection to Hollywood, she worked as a photographer on several film sets, and after her divorce in 1946, she returned to New York. She regularly sold her portraits for publication; among her sitters were: Judy Garland, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Thomas Mann, Vladimir Horowitz, Arnold Schoenberg, Christopher Isherwood, Edward Steichen, Brassaï, Man Ray, and for Charlie Chaplin she made over 150 photographs on the set of Limelight. Among her friends were Walker Evans and James Agee; she made portraits of both. For Agee's posthumously published, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, A Death in the Family, one of Homolka's portraits was used on the dust jacket. Florence Homolka died in Los Angeles, November 27, 1962.

  • Condition: This extremely rare signed association copy of James Agee and Walker Evans' Let Us Now Praise Famous Men is in very good condition. The book is signed in ink by Agee on the front free endpaper "Flo, with love - / Jim / December 11 '48" in ink.

    The dust jacket on this exceptional example is in very good condition. The tones are overall bright, and the surface clean and neat. There are some tiny creases along the fold of the front internal flap, and the rear panel (which is light colored) evidences scattered soiling and slight warming at the edges. A careful review of the top edges of the jacket from the verso show some professional repairs; this is seamless and goes nearly unnoticed. The spine is faded, as is nearly always the case.

    The black boards evidence only very slight handling, and are overall tight, neat, and clean. The head and tail of the backstrip show exceedingly faint rubbing, as do the tips of the boards. The front and back both show faint, scattered, and isolated rubs, but again, these are superficial and minor. There is a tiny pinpoint hole at the center of the front joint, but this is nearly imperceptible.

    Internally the book is neat and clean. The binding is tight and the reproductions of Evans' photographs bright and without handling imperfections. The foredge evidences slight warming along this section, but this is not apparent on the pages themselves. There are a couple text pages that appear to be slightly unevenly cut, but this is only noted for the purposes of a detailed report.

    The title is housed in a custom clamshell box of brown morroco and cloth, titled in gilt on the spine.

    Of this first edition, only 2416 copies were printed. Copies signed or inscribed by James Agee (1909-1955) are rare, let alone such an association copy. Only one inscribed copy has appeared for auction from 1982 - 2022.


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May 8, 2025 12:00 PM EDT
New York, NY, US

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