[SHAHN] RODMAN, Selden

Portrait of the Artist as An American. Ben Shahn: A Biography With Pictures

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1951. First Edition. Quarto (25cm). Cloth boards; 180pp; illus. BEN SHAHN'S COPY, warmly inscribed by Rodman to Ben & Bernarda Shahn in year of publication: "For Bernarda, who generously "forgot" my worst lapses, and to Ben, who won't (conveniently) stop "remembering" - with my love, Selden," datemarked Roosevelt, NJ, 1951. Mild wear; spine lettering rubbed; lacking the dustjacket. Very Good.

The first full-length biography of Shahn, written by his long-time friend Selden Rodman. Shahn was fifty-two years old and at the height of his fame when the biography appeared. According to Shahn's later biographer Howard Greenfeld, both Shahn and Rodman were very pleased with the work, Rodman immodestly declaring it "the best that has been written about an American artist" and Shahn praising it as a work whose "great beauty...lies in its critical and philosophical outlook." Many critics agreed, among them James Thomas Flexner who praised the work as the "...story of a meaningful life, evoked in all its complexity...a work of art in itself."

Price: $850.00

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