The Book of Beauty by Cecil Beaton
BEATON, Cecil. The Book of Beauty. London: Duckworth, 1930.
First edition. Beaton’s first and scarcest book. This analysis of modern beauty collects Beaton’s own photographs and drawings of leading socialites, film and stage stars, as well as modernist literary figures. There are 27 b/w photographic plates including portraits of Lillie Langtry, Tallulah Bankhead, Lilian Gish, Norma Shearer, Lady Diana Cooper, Baba and Nancy Beaton, together with numerous text drawings including illustrations of Virginia Woolf, Greta Garbo and Anita Loos. The illustrations are accompanied by highly entertaining and engaging text.
Cecil Beaton (1904–1980) was a fashionable and leading photographer of the 20th century. In a career that spanned five decades, he shot iconic photographs of celebrities and high society that capture the high glamour, beauty and elegance of the age.
xii, 67, [1] pp; colour frontis, 27 b/w plates, text drawings. 4to (280 x 220mm), original cream-coloured cloth, wear to bottom corner, old stain to the lower half of the front board, spine lettered in blue, front board lettered in blind. Binding cracked but firm. Scattered light foxing. Good.