SIGNED BY HIRSCHFELD AND 34 STARS OF BROADWAY—INCLUDING ERIC BOGOSIAN, KEVIN KLINE, JONATHAN PRYCE, F. MURRAY ABRAHAM, STOCKARD CHANNING, HAROLD PINTER, BERNADETTE PETERS, AND JACK KLUGMAN—NEXT TO THEIR CARICATURES

HIRSCHFELD, Al. Hirschfeld: Art and Recollections from Eight Decades. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, (1991). Oblong quarto, original half black cloth, original dust jacket. $5500.

First edition, signed and dated on the title page by Hirschfeld "3/24/92," and additionally signed by 34 stars of stage and screen next to their caricatures, among them Frank Langella, Eric Bogosian, Kevin Kline, Jonathan Pryce, F. Murray Abraham, Stockard Channing, Bernadette Peters, Uta Hagen, Eli Wallach, B.D. Wong and Jack Klugman.

Al Hirschfeld's devotion to line comes from a fundamental aesthetic—respect for absolute simplicity: "When I'm rushed I do a complicated drawing. When I have the time, I do a simple one." Hirschfeld: Eight Decades provides a fantastic retrospective of this artist's prolific career, with an introduction by Alistair Cooke and an essay by Hirschfeld on his beginnings and his process. "The drawing itself, whether it is of Chaplin or Garbo or someone completely unknown, has to communicate something about the personality that exists in that human being I am drawing. To capture personality in graphic terms is the problem I try to solve in every drawing, and every drawing dictates its own solutions."

Inner hinges expertly reinforced, expert restoration to spin head of dust jacket. A wonderful collection of caricatures and signatures.