Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller

A Dialogue With Solitude [INSCRIBED & SIGNED]

Heath, Dave (David); Hugh Edwards (Foreword by)

Culperer, VA: A Community Press Publication/ Horizon Press, 1965. First edition. Hardcover. Quarto. Unpaginated. [100 pages]. Original photo-illustrated dust-jacket over grey cloth with black lettering on spine. Housed in a modern custom black cloth slipcase. Pictorial title page. Inscribed and signed in black marker by photographer David Heath at the top of the page preceding the title page. In 1961, Dave Heath assembled the b/w photographs that he had been making throughout the fifties into a poetic book. The result is a tragic, comic and lyrical "Dialogue With Solitude." "It begins with a photographic prologue that sets the theme: the solitude of the individual. Photographs of lovers pursue the theme, suggesting that even this relationship may not be enough to alter the essential loneliness of the soul. A series of photographs taken in Korea shows the frustration, hardship and ennui of Army life. A group of Negro portraits, and another group exploring the bewilderments of youth, further reveal the undeniable and haunting aspects of alienation. The stunning photographs are arranged in ten sections and are designed to be viewed in sequence. They follow a progression from weariness and despair, to anger, agony, and in the last few photographs, to the joy and jubilation of shared experience. Each section is complemented by a quotation from diverse writers, among them Yeats, Rilke, Hazlitt and James Baldwin. Between words and pictures the common denominator is always a common humanity" (from the publishers).

Laid in at the front cover are two later pieces of ephemera from 1997, relating to the sale of prints from the book at the Simon Lowinsky Gallery . The first is typed letter from gallerist Simon Lowinsky, and the second is a seven-page exhibition catalog from the gallery, which includes an essay by Michael Torosin and a few finely-printed b/w photographic reproductions of from the work.

Dust jacket price clipped, with some light and rubbing creasing to extremities and a few minor closed tears. A few minor stains to the jacket and a small closed tear/abrasion to the bottom left corner of the back cover of the jacket. Laid in exhibition catalog with some foxing. Binding with the most minor rubbing to corners. Dj in very good, binding and interior in near fine condition overall. Jacket protected in modern mylar. Slipcase in fine condition. vg to near fine. Item #49663

Price: $2,500.00