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Author: Smith, Jack
Title: The Beautiful Book
Place Published: [New York]
Publisher:[Dead Language Press]
Date Published: [1962]
Description:

[20] pp. Illustrated with 19 gelatin silver contact prints, 55x55 mm (2¼x2¼”), comprising 18 photographs by Smith mounted on yellow pages, and 1 portrait of Smith by Ken Jacobs, mounted on the inner rear wrapper. (Small 4to) 23x19 cm (9x7½”) saddle-stitched card stock illustrated wrappers with a design by Marian Zazeela in black and yellow. One of likely 60 or so copies. First Edition.

This copy is inscribed by Jack Smith to poet/publisher Kirby Congdon on the inner front wrapper: ”To Kirby with choked up strangled emotions.....Jack.” A rare inscribed copy of Jack Smith‘s important artist‘s book. Present are 18 photographs by Smith and the portrait of Smith by Jacobs, as is the case with the majority of copies. There is no photograph mounted on p. [12], and no glue residue suggesting a print was ever there. The Beautiful Book was produced in an intended edition of 200, though it is generally claimed that only sixty or so copies were ever completed. The Beautiful Book is the only collection of Smith‘s photographs published in his lifetime, featuring images of New York artists.

Jack Smith was a filmmaker, actor, and pioneer of underground cinema. He is generally acclaimed as a founding father of American performance art, and has been critically recognized as a master photographer, though his photographic works are rare and remain largely unknown. The most famous of Smith‘s productions is the film Flaming Creatures, a campy satire of Hollywood B movies and tribute to actress Maria Montez. Authorities considered some scenes to be pornographic and copies of the movie were confiscated at the premiere, and it was subsequently banned from public view. The movie gained notoriety when footage was screened during Congressional hearings, and right-wing politician Strom Thurmond mentioned it in anti-porn speeches.

Light wear and toning/foxing to wrappers, with light crease at bottom corners; toning, offsetting, and some discoloration to photographs as is typical, pages with offsetting and scattered; foxing very good.