SCARCE PRESENTATION COPY OF PORTRAIT OF MYSELF, INSCRIBED BY BOURKE-WHITE, WITH A TYPED LETTER SIGNED BY HER, ACCOMPANIED BY LAID-IN GELATIN SILVER LIFE PRINT OF BOURKE-WHITE

BOURKE-WHITE, Margaret. Portrait of Myself. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1963. Octavo, original half black cloth, original dust jacket. WITH: Typed letter signed by Bourke-White; two Time magazine typed letters signed; gelatin silver Life magazine print (4 by 5-1/5 inches), circa 1945, with inkstamp, penciled notations on verso, ephemera laid in. Housed together in a custom clamshell box.

First edition, presentation/association copy of Bourke-White’s wonderfully illustrated autobiography, inscribed to an old college friend, “For Wilma Smith Leland, my dear friend of long ago, Sincerely, Margaret Bourke-White,” accompanied by a typed letter on Bourke-White letterhead, dated “January 11, 1932,” signed by her, in which she talks of “writing articles on my last Russian trip for the New York Times,” together with two typed letters signed by associates at Time Magazine, with dates of February 1932, each responding to Leland’s request for a “cut” (i.e. photograph) for use in an forthcoming article. Also laid-in is a gelatin silver print of Bourke-White, circa 1945, stamped on the verso, “Life Photo by Margaret Bourke-White,” and related ephemera.

This presentation/association copy of Margaret Bourke-White’s autobiography recalls the outstanding life of this photographer who “epitomized the dynamic spirit of her age” (McDarrah, 52). The first photographer at Fortune magazine and “one of the four original photographers at Life, along with Alfred Eisenstaedt,” Bourke-White was also the “first woman photographer accredited to the U.S. Air Force,” and her WWII photographs of Buchenwald have achieved iconic status (ANB). This copy is warmly inscribed by Bourke-White to an old friend Wilma Smith Leland, who knew the photographer when both women were in the same Alpha Omicron Pi college sorority. Accompanying the book is a letter typed on Bourke-White Studio letterhead with its printed address of the Chrysler Building. The letter reads: (typescript) “January 11, 1932. Mrs. Leland F. Leland, ALPHA OMICRON PI, 313 Twelfth Street, NEENHAH, Wisconsin [upper case in original]. Dear Mrs. Leland, Yes indeed I am the same Margaret Bourke White! In regard to your request for material for an article both by and about me, I am so busy writing articles on my last Russian trip for the NEW YORK TIMES [upper case in original] and other magazines that I could hardly squeeze in time to do an article, but if you wish to send someone in to interview me, I shall be very glad to give her a few facts and a photograph or two if you wish. Sincerely yours, [signed] Margaret Bourke-White [typescript] MBW:EPF.” This letter is joined by two typed letters on Time letterhead (one from the New York Editorial Office and one from the Chicago Production Office, both dated in February 1932), signed by magazine associates and agreeing to send Smith Leland a “cut” (i.e. photograph) for the proposed article. With laid-in gelatin silver print (measures 4 by 5-1/2 inches) of the photographer, circa 1945, with inkstamp “Life Photo by Margaret Bourke-White” on verso, along with penciled notations, such as “To Bleed side.” Also with laid-in promotional materials from Columbia University Press, including six small photogravures (measuring 3 by 6 inches) with facsimile signatures. Book with over 70 black-and-white photographic illustrations. Wilma Leland Smith remained an important figure in the management of Alpha Omicron Pi sorority throughout her life.

Book fine; slight chipping, edge-wear to extremely good price-clipped dust jacket. Minor offsetting to one Time letter, faint corner crease to laid-in Life photo.