The Art of the Moving Picture.
New York: The Macmillan Company, 1922. Hardcover. Small 8vo. Tan cloth with green lettering and white/black/green pictorial stamping. xliii, 289pp. Very good. Faint binding wear only, mainly some chipping of the white on the front board graphic depicting a film screen in a movie theatre. Item #47128
Tight, handsome revised edition of this 1915 study often considered the first book of film criticism. Based on a lengthy inscription facing the half-title page, this was Lindsay's personal copy. In full: "To my friend / Herbert Georg -- / I present 'The Art of / the Moving Picture' -- / This is one (of two / volumes) of Vachel's / that he used in / his talks -- I hope / you enjoy this / one as much as I / do the one I am / keeping -- / Sincerely / Romaine Proctor." Proctor (1899-1961) was a Springfield freelance artist whose book illustrations include Benjamin Thomas's "Lincoln's New Salem" (1934) and "Portrait for Posterity: Lincoln and His Biographers" (1947) and William Baringer's "Lincoln's Vandalia: A Pioneer Portrait" (1949); he and wife Ellen were also noted puppeteer innovators who turned this hobby into a profession and toured the country with their "Proctor Puppets"; he was a friend of Lindsay and served as one of the pallbearers at the poet's funeral in 1931. Herbert Georg (1893-1964) changed the name of his father's photography studio, Victor Georg Studio (founded 1897), to Herbert Georg Studio in 1923 and made it one of the country's premiere portrait studios; he too was a friend of Lindsay. Whether Lindsay himself gave Proctor this book or it was given him by Lindsay's widow after his suicide by lye is not known. In addition, laid into this copy is a scarce 5¼" X 8" promotional leaflet for this book's first edition, the recto reproducing the book's pictorial front cover and the verso a plug for this book ("...one of the first to be written in appreciation of the moving picture") and its predecessor, his 1914 "The Congo and Other Poems." Very good. Faint wear only and ¼" chip near center.
Price: $1,500.00