Richard Avedon

First edition presentation copy of Richard Avedon's autobiography, inscribed to Elaine Kaufman.

• Richard Avedon (American).
• New York: Random House, 1993.
• Presentation copy inscribed to Elaine Kaufman.
• Black and white photographs.
• Plain endpapers, brown cloth-covered boards with titles to spine in red and to upper side in red and burgundy, black and white reproduction of Avedon's self-portrait to lower side, in publisher's plastic dust jacket.

A presentation copy inscribed to Elaine Kaufman, proprietor of the legendary Elaine’s bar on the Upper East Side, where Avedon was a regular:

‘Dear / Elaine / “Jesus, The days / that we have / seen. Come, come ….” / Justice Shallow / Henry IV Part II / with love / Dick / 1993.'

In his introduction, Avedon writes, ‘This book tracks the path of three crucial illusions in my life. The first section is about the illusion of laughter, and a young man’s discovery of the fine line between hilarity and panic. The second section is about the illusion of power. The third section is about the loss of all illusions... The interweaving of elements from my life’s work - out of chronology, as echoes and foreshadowings - is true, I think, to the inner shape of any life, but sometimes I’ve found the image of a later event in an early photograph, and once or twice a late picture was made in the grip of a lost emotion.’