Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Robert Frank. THE AMERICANS. Grove Press, Inc., New York, 1959.
Price: US$750.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Black cloth over boards; gilt lettering on spine. Lacking jacket. First Grove Press Edition following 1958 French edition. Fantastic Kerouac introducton. This item is one of the best examples of poor binding. Just opening and paging through a dozen pages can cause a loose page. HANDLE WITH CARE. No pencil or pen marks inside. One or two pages may be loose by the time you receive the item through USPS. No page numbering, no list of photos.
Seller: All Booked Up, Louisville, KY, U.S.A.
Frank, Robert (Photographs) ; Introduction by Jack Kerouac. The Americans. Grove Press, NY, 1959.
Price: US$750.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: First American Edition; first edition with Kerouac's 6 page introduction. Two photos loose ; foxing on front endpaper and edges of pages. DJ missing.
Seller: Acme Book Company, Fayetteville, NY, U.S.A.
Frank, Robert. The Americans. Grove Press, New York (1959), 1959.
Price: US$1065.00 + shipping
Description: 7.25 in. x 8 in., Cloth, Unnumbered pages, substantial fading at spine. Introduction by Jack Kerouac. The First American edition of Frank's groundbreaking approach to documentary photography. This edition appeared one year after the publication of the French edition which does not feature Kerouac's introduction. Stuart Alexander, who produced an extensive bibliography on Frank, states that as many as 2600 copies of this edition may have been printed but the book was remaindered before half of the edition had been sold. edition. .
Seller: Dawson's Book Shop, ABAA, ILAB, Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.
Frank, Robert [Jack Kerouac]. The Americans. Grove Press, Inc. New York, 1959.
Price: US$1250.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Slightly oversized hardcover. Black cloth binding with gold lettering on the spine. Spine is faded toward gray form exposure to light. Gold lettering is faded and rubbed. A few light scuffs from half a century on the shelf. No DJ. Previous owner's name on the inside front cover. No date on the title page. Copyright page dated 1958 (French edition) and 1959. Stated First Grove Press edition. Black and white photographs. 6 page introduction by Kerouac. There is an eve-so-slight wrinkle to the bottom corner of the final two page and a very slight pink stain to the bottom corner of the inside back cover. Please email with questions or to request photos. Measures 8.5 x 7.5 inches. This is the first US edition of one of the 20th centuries great photography books.
Seller: Riverby Books, Fredericksburg, VA, U.S.A.
FRANK, Robert. The Americans. Grove Press, New York, 1959.
Price: US$1250.00 + shipping
Description: First edition and first printing. Small oblong hardcover. First published in France in 1958 as "Les Americains" this was the first edition to include Jack Kerouac's terrific introduction. Sixty years later Frank's images seem every bit as fresh now as they were a revelation then. A tight close to near fine copy in black cloth boards with some slight rubbing to the lettering on the spine and with a contemporary gift inscription to the front free endpaper. No dust jacket. A solid copy of easily one of the most important and influential photography books of the 20th century. (Parr & Badger v1, 247; Roth 150-151).
Seller: Jeff Hirsch Books, ABAA, Wadsworth, IL, U.S.A.
Frank, Robert. The Americans. Grove Press, New York, 1959.
Price: US$1500.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: First American edition, first printing. Bound in publisher's original black cloth with spine lettered in gilt; lacking the dust jacket. Near Fine with shallow fading to spine at top end, several very faint scratches to the cloth at the front cover, gilt lettering to spine is unusually sharp and bright. Contents tanned, former owner inkless emboss to front free endpaper, owner details written to half-title page. A very nice copy of this seminal work.
Seller: Burnside Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.
Price: US$1500.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: First Edition. First American Edition. Very Good- or Good+; Gilt-stamped black cloth; slight rubbing to gilt on spine; softening to spine ends; light foxing to top edge of textblock; binding very slightly shaken with last few pages slightly detached; overall a quite nice copy of this essential photo book. Lacks dust jacket. Pasadena's finest independent new and used bookstore.
Seller: Book Alley, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.
by Robert Frank. Foreword by Jack Kerouac.. The Americans. Grove Press, Inc, 1959.
Price: US$1800.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1959. First American edition, hardcover issue. Introduction by Jack Kerouac. It took Robert Frank two years to photograph the subjects in this book. Widely regarded as one of the most important photography books made, Frank's candid and often gritty images captured the complexities of American society in the 1950s, often offering a raw and unfiltered view of the country. His use of unconventional framing, focus, and composition helped redefine the medium of photography and influenced generations of photographers to come.
Seller: Marninart, Inc (ABAA - ILAB), Reston, VA, U.S.A.
Price: US$2500.00 + shipping
Description: American first edition (per publisher's requisite statement "First Grove Press Edition" upon copyright page). [4], i-vi, [2], [83 leaves of b/w plates], [1]. Hardcover: H 19.25cm x L 21.25cm. Dust jacket rubbed and soiled with some toning and foxing; front panel chipped at top right with unfortunate long jagged tear with associated creasing ascending from bottom right to center left; shallow chipping at spine ends with nicks and other much lesser tears at panel edges; front flap retains publisher's original printed price "$7.50" at top right; dj now presented in a mylar Brodart protector. Black cloth with vibrant gilt stamping to spine. Text block's top edge well foxed with much lighter presence to fore-edge. Some toning to endpapers; past owner's personal bookplate affixed to front pastedown; scattered spots of light soiling at margins of interior leaves. Slight sag to text block but binding is firm. A very good copy in only a good dust jacket. Aided by his mentor Walker Evans, Swiss-born American photographer Robert Frank secured a Guggenheim Fellowship for 1955and 1956 with the goal of documenting the dichotomies of American society. Travelling nationally, usually via long road trips sometimes with his family and sometimes without, Frank visited all regions and almost all states including Savannah, Miami Beach, St. Petersburg, New Orleans (a Crescent City streetcar being the locale of famous photo illustrating the dj's front panel), Houston, Los Angeles, Reno, Salt Lake City, Butte, Detroit, Chicago, etc. Initially unable to secure an American publisher, Frank convinced Paris publisher Robert Delpire to issue the book in 1958 under the title "Les Amà ricains." Grove Press quickly followed with this first American edition in 1959 and its success led to prominent solo exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1961 and at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1962. Regarded as one the most significant works in the history of photography, THE AMERICANS was republished in 1969 and 2008.
Seller: David Hallinan, Bookseller, Columbus, MS, U.S.A.
Frank, Robert and Jack Kerouac (Intro.). The Americans. Grove Press, New York, 1959.
Price: US$4000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: unpaginated. 83 black and white photographs. Black Cloth with gilt lettering on the spine. Introduction by Jack Kerouac. Toning to the pages, once corner bumped,.and a light dampstain on the bottom edge of a few of the first and last pages, not affecting the text or photos. and publisher's stamp (Grove Press Library) on the front and rear endpapers. Internally a clean, tight copy. The price-clipped pictorial jacket is significantly wrinkled on the covers and spine, with closed tears, and small chips on the front and rear extremities. in mylar sleeve In this volume of 83 deeply moving and unconventional photographs, "Robert Frank portrays the shops, funeral parlors, and Fourth of July jamborees, of picnics, newsstands, crap tables, cocktail parties, jam sessions, and the drive-in movies. Here is the face of America illuminated by an unusual talent" Size: Octavo
Seller: The Chatham Bookseller, Madison, NJ, U.S.A.
Frank Robert and Jack Kerouac (intro.). THE AMERICANS, Photographs by.. Grove Press, Inc.: NY, 1959.
Price: US$5744.25 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Photos by Robert Frank, oblong 8.5 x 7.5", black cloth, unpaginated, covers with a little shelf wear, old drip mark on foredge of textblock, former owner's bold ink inscription on front fly else a good copy in a rubbed, edge-worn/creased/torn, toned dustjacket with ink price below original price ($7.50) and some stray cello tape on flaps; makes you want to throttle the former owner. FIRST GROVE PRESS (AMERICAN) EDITION.
Seller: John K King Used & Rare Books, Detroit, MI, U.S.A.
Frank, Robert. The Americans: Photographs by Robert Frank;. Grove Press, New York, 1959.
Price: US$7000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: vi, 83 unnumbered black and white full-page photos with brief captions on otherwise blank facing pages. Original black cloth. Oblong (21 x 19 cm.). Some of the gilt is gone from lettering on the backstrip which is also a little faded at both ends. A few light marks on front and back cover. No jacket. INSCRIBED in black ink on front free endpaper by Frank ("To Ray of New Haven 1997 Nov 18. This is the PRESENT . gone Robert Frank"). Classic photographic work. Six page Introduction by Jack Kerouac.
Seller: McBlain Books, ABAA, Hamden, CT, U.S.A.
Frank, Robert; Introduction by Jack Kerouac. The Americans.. Grove Press, New York, 1959.
Price: US$9200.00 + shipping
Description: First edition of the photographer's masterpiece with 83 black-and-white full-page photogravures. Oblong quarto, original cloth, illustrated throughout. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Introduction by Jack Kerouac. Jack Kerouac wrote in his preface of The Americans, "Robert Frank he sucked a sad poem out of America onto film, taking rank among the tragic poets of the world. To Robert Frank I now give this message. You got eyes." Franks Americans eventually achieved legendary status as "the most renowned photobook of all It struck a chord with a whole generation of American photographers Many memorable photobooks have been derived from this mass of material. None has been more memorable, more influential, nor more fully realized than Franks masterpiece" (Parr & Badger I:247). "From the more than 20,000 images that resulted, Frank eventually chose 83 of them and arranged them into four chapters With these photographs, he later wrote, I have attempted to show a cross-section of the American population. My effort was to express it simply and without confusion. The view is personal Such a simple intention for a book that would so alter the course of modern photography" (Roth, 150).
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.
Price: US$10902.72 + shipping
Description: First US edition, first printing, entailing the first appearance of Jack Kerouac's poetic introduction constituting his own ode to America. Frank's Les Americains was originally published in France on 15 May 1958 by Robert Delpire as part of its Encyclopédie Essentielle series. In the French edition Frank's photographs were accompanied by text by authors such as Simone de Beauvoir, Erskine Caldwell, William Faulkner, Henry Miller and John Steinbeck. In this edition the photos are not accompanied by that text; Kerouac's controversial introduction instead was added which further cemented Frank's position as bête noire of US photography. Roth 101, p. 150; Parr & Badger I, p. 247. Oblong quarto. Original black cloth, lettering to spine in gilt. With the photographic dust jacket, collage on the back panel designed by Alfred Leslie. Presented in a champagne cloth clamshell box with black sides. 83 full page black and white photogravures by Frank throughout. Light wear to base of spine, unclipped dust jacket minimally rubbed with three small pieces of tape strengthening folds to verso, a very nice copy.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
Price: US$12500.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: Oblong small quarto, unpaginated. Mild foxing and a few pieces of non-staining tape on the verso of the dust jacket, reinforcing a few tiny closed tears, otherwise a remarkably fine copy of this foundational volume of 20th century photography, hardly ever found this nice.
Seller: Cleveland Book Company, ABAA, Rocky River, OH, U.S.A.
Price: US$12500.00 + shipping
Description: Oblong 4to, original cloth, dust jacket. A few pieces of non-staining tape inside the dust jacket, reinforcing a few tiny closed tears, otherwise a remarkably fine copy. A few pieces of non-staining tape inside the dust jacket, reinforcing a few tiny closed tears, otherwise a remarkably fine copy First American edition, preceded by the French edition, which did not include the Kerouac introduction or Frank's textual comments. "The Delpire first edition Les Américains (1958) is more like a sociological study, wherein Frank's photographs appear as illustrations of the probing texts printed on facing pages, gathered by Alain Bosquet from dozens of illustrious writers. . . . When Barney Rosset at Grove Press agreed to publish The Americans in the U.S., Frank pulled out all the text, leaving only blank pages with captions facing the images, mirroring the layout of Evans's American Photographs. . . . The French edition is sociology, the American edition is poetry." - David Levi Strauss, as quoted by Roth, The Book of 101 Books, p. 150.
Seller: James S. Jaffe Rare Books, LLC, ABAA, Deep River, CT, U.S.A.
Frank, Robert; Jack Kerouac [Introduction]. The Americans. Grove Press, New York, 1959.
Price: US$25000.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: First edition, first printing. Signed by Robert Frank and inscribed to "MacDowell Aug .18.02 For Mr William Banks under trees in a wonderful country Robert Frank". William Banks was the longest standing board member of the MacDowell Colony, which is the oldest art colony in the United States. Bound in publisher's original black cloth binding with gilt titles on spine. Near Fine with light fading to cloth at edges, cloth worn through in small patches at bottom corners and a tiny spot to the bottom textblock edge, pages lightly tanned and lightly bumped at the bottom corners. In a Very Good restored dust jacket with some mended tears and infill. An outsider's nuanced view of American society, as seen through the Swiss-born photographer's lens.
Seller: Burnside Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.