London — The Folio Society is delighted to announce they will be publishing the entire series of George R. R. Martin’s epic saga A Song of Ice and Fire, starting with the first in the series, A Game of Thrones, on 16th July 2019.

A Game of Thrones will be illustrated by award-winning artist Jonathan Burton and introduced by best-selling fantasy author Joe Abercrombie.

Folio’s stunning two-volume set of the first title includes a fold-out map of the Known World, bound in a separate volume. All are presented in a gold-blocked slipcase with a secret illustration inside.

This new collector’s edition has been approved at all stages by the author from the selection of illustrator and introducer to the bindings, materials, illustrations and map. George R. R. Martin described them as ‘masterpieces of the bookmaker’s art’.

Readers can sign up for more details on the series and pre-order to ensure a copy from the first printing of A Game of Thrones, joining the 5,000 people who have already done so at www.foliosociety.com/winteriscoming.

‘The Folio Society’s splendid new editions of the Song of Ice and Fire series are masterpieces of the bookmaker’s art lavishly illustrated by Jonathan Burton. Books collectors and fantasy fans alike are going to delight in these volumes... I know I will.’ —George R. R. Martin

Product information
Bound in three-quarter blocked cloth with a printed and blocked cloth front board. Set in Vendetta with Esmeralda as display; 824 pages in total over two volumes 6 full page and 2 double-page colour illustrations per volume.
Printed in black & gold throughout, 8 illustrated chapter openers and 9 illustrated house sigils 9 family trees in volume two. Fold-out map inserted in case, bound in blocked cloth. Printed endpapers. Coloured tops. Blocked and printed slipcase with printed illustration inside. 10 ̋x 6 3⁄4 ̋
UK £125.00 US $195.00 Can $245.00 Aus $280.00

Washington, D.C. -- Historical news reports and breaking news bulletins published by the Washington bureau of The Associated Press from 1915 to 1930, documenting a full chronology of world and national events, have been digitized and are now available online from the Library of Congress.

The collection includes news dispatches from key moments in history, from the sinking of the Lusitania ocean liner in 1915, drawing the U.S. into World War I, through the roaring 1920s to the stock market crash of 1929 and the outbreak of the Great Depression.

The AP collection includes 375 volumes of wire copy, totaling more than 387,000 images. It is online at: loc.gov/collections/associated-press-news-dispatches-1915-to-1930/about-this-collection/.

The Associated Press was formed in 1846 by five newspapers in New York City.  Other regional AP associations soon followed, as did individual bureaus in major American cities, as the telegraph and the railroad began linking the country together in the 1860s. Eventually, these later merged into one national news cooperative, headquartered in New York. 

The Washington bureau gave the news dispatches to the Library of Congress in 1944. The collection provides an unbroken chronology not only of world events, but also of national and local news, such as a daily report on the “Condition of the U.S. Treasury” and a “Lead Crop Report” describing the size of the year’s winter wheat crop.

Highlights of the collection include:
    •    A 1915 bulletin on the sinking of the Lusitania and Washington’s reaction;
    •    A report on President Woodrow Wilson asking Congress for a declaration of war to enter World War I in 1917;
    •    A 1918 bulletin on Wilson signing an armistice to end the war with Germany and report on Wilson signing the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919;
    •    News that the Senate voted 56-25 on June 4, 1919, approving a resolution for women’s suffrage and sending the constitutional amendment to the states for ratification;
    •    Reports that the Senate passed a prohibition act over the president’s veto in October 1919 to prevent the sale of alcoholic beverages;
    •    Coverage of Charles Lindbergh’s first solo trans-Atlantic flight from New York to Paris in 1927;
    •    Washington’s reaction to the stock market crash of 1929.

The coverage of Lindbergh’s history-making flight elicited colorful reaction from AP journalists. The flight, they wrote, “thrilled Washington out of its traditional stolidity.”

“The thought of this young air man, winging his way alone through the darkness of the night, over deserted ocean waters, and depending for his life on his own skill and courage, aroused the interest and touched the imagination of the capital as few things have done in the past,” the AP reported.

The digitization of the AP collection is part of a larger effort to make historical materials available online. Other newly digitized collections include the papers of suffragists Carrie Chapman Catt, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, and others. The digitization reflects advancement toward a goal in the Library’s user-centered strategic plan to expand access, making unique collections available when, where and how users need them. Learn more about the Library’s five-year plan at loc.gov/strategic-plan/.

New York City – The New England Society in the City of New York (NES) is pleased to announce the winners for the 2019 New England Society Book Awards, which honors books of merit that celebrate New England and its culture. The winning authors were announced last night at the annual Founders’ Day celebration and will be honored at a special event on June 26 at the National Arts Club, New York. Whether connected to New England by geography, history or spirit, this distinguished group of books present a broader view of the world from a variety of perspectives. There is something for everyone among this year’s winning titles. The NES Book Awards are presented each year to authors of books published in the previous 12 months. This year’s winners include:

•    ART & PHOTOGRAPHY: The Art of Curating: Paul J. Sachs and the Museum Course at Harvard by Sally Anne Duncan and Andrew McClellan (Getty Publications)

•    FICTION: The Maze at Windermere by Gregory Blake Smith (Penguin Random House, Viking)

•    CONTEMPORARY NONFICTION/BIOGRAPHY: Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine by Alan Lightman (Pantheon Books)

•    HISTORICAL NONFICTION: Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip's War by Lisa Brooks (Yale University Press)

•    SPECIALTY TITLE: A Naturalist at Large by Bernd Heinrich (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Founded in 1805, NES is one of the oldest social and charitable and cultural organizations in the United States. For more than 100 years, prominent writers such as Mark Twain, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louis Auchincloss, William F. Buckley Jr., David McCullough, Dominick Dunne and Nathaniel Philbrick have been honored by the New England Society.  The Book Awards carry on these literary connections and recognize books that celebrate New England and its culture. “Once again, the New England Society’s winning authors have exceeded expectation, presenting remarkable books of imagination and instruction to our Book Awards juries,” said Roland Foster Miller, committee co-chair. “The range of subjects is vast – from contemplating mysteries beyond the stars to recording the intricate ecosystem of insects and birds in our backyards. We look forward to celebrating the winning NES writers in June.”

The June 26 event is open to the public, offering all NES members and literary enthusiasts a chance to mingle with winners and jury members who evaluated this year’s submissions. While enjoying culinary delights and cocktails, guests can participate in a question-and-answer discussion with the winning authors followed by the awards presentation and book signing. The reception is at New York’s venerable National Arts Club, the beautiful Victorian Gothic former home of Samuel J. Tilden, from 6 to 9 p.m. and tickets start at $70. To learn more about the New England Society Book Awards or to purchase tickets for June 26, please call 212.297.2194 or visit nesnyc.org.

ART & PHOTOGRAPHY WINNER
The Art of Curating: Paul J. Sachs and the Museum Course at Harvard by Sally Ann Duncan and Andrew McClellan (Getty Publications)

From 1921 until 1948, Paul J. Sachs (1878-1965) offered a yearlong program in art museum training, Museum Work and Museum Problems, through Harvard University and the Fogg Museum. Known simply as the “museum course,” the program was responsible for shaping a professional field -- museum curatorship and management--that, in turn, defined the organizational structure and values of an institution through which the American public came to know art.

Conceived at a time of great museum expansion and public interest in the United States, the Museum Course debated curatorial priorities and put theory into practice through the placement of graduates in museums big and small across the land. Authors Sally Anne Duncan and Andrew McClellan offer a behind-the-scenes exploration of Sachs and the role his program played in shaping the character of art museums and museum professionals in the United States in the formative decades of the twentieth century.

Sally Anne Duncan was the granddaughter of Paul J. Sachs and began the book as a graduate thesis. She wrote “Otto Wittman: Museum Man for All Seasons,” a tribute to a student of Sachs. Duncan was a social worker, quilt maker, and professor of art history at Plymouth State University, Plymouth, NH.

Andrew McClellan is trained in European art of the early modern period and has published books on painting, sculpture and architecture, as well as the historiography and institutions of art including “The Art Museum from Boullée to Bilbao.” McLellan is a professor of art history at Tufts University, MA.

FICTION WINNER
The Maze at Windermere by Gregory Blake Smith (Penguin Random House, Viking)

When a drunken party guest challenges him to a late-night tennis match, Sandy Allison   becomes unexpectedly entangled in the moneyed world of Newport, Rhode Island. A former touring pro a little down on his luck, Sandy has nothing to stake against the vintage motorcycle his opponent wagers until Alice DuPont —heiress to a Newport mansion called Windermere—offers her diamond necklace.

With this reckless wager, begins a dazzling narrative of four centuries of aspiration and adversity in this seaside society capital. An urbane bachelor embarks on a scheme to marry into a fortune; a young Henry James, soon to make his mark on the world, turns himself to his craft with harrowing social consequences; an aristocratic British officer carries on a courtship that leads to murder; and, in Newport’s earliest days, a Quaker girl imagines a way forward for herself and the slave girl she has inherited. Gregory Blake Smith weaves these intersecting worlds into a rich, brilliant tapestry. A deftly layered novel of love, ambition, and duplicity.

Gregory Blake Smith is an award-winning author of four novels. Among his many grants and fellowships are a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University and the George Bennett Fellowship at Phillips Exeter Academy. Smith is currently the Lloyd P. Johnson-Norwest Professor of English and the Liberal Arts at Carleton College.

CONTEMPORARY NONFICTION/BIOGRAPHY
Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine by Alan Lightman (Pantheon Books)

From the author of “Einstein's Dreams,” this lyrical meditation on religion and science explores our yearning for certainty and scientific discoveries that demonstrate the uncertain nature of the world. Alan Lightman held a scientific view of the world. As a teenager, he was impressed by the logic and materiality of a universe governed by forces and laws that decree all things in the world are material and impermanence. While looking at the stars, Lightman was overcome by the sensation that he was merging with something larger than himself -- something absolute and immaterial. In “Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine,” Lightman explores these seemingly contradictory impulses.

His sources range from Saint Augustine's conception of absolute truth and certainty to Einstein's theory of relativity and recent scientific notions of multiple universes. Lightman’s journey is a profound inquiry into truth and meaning, and the different paths of religion and science.

Alan Lightman lives in the Boston area and is the author of six novels. He has worked for many years as a theoretical physicist and taught at Harvard and M.I.T., where he was the first person to receive a dual faculty appointment in science and humanities.

HISTORICAL NONFICTION
Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip's War by Lisa Brooks (Yale University Press)

With rigorous original scholarship and creative narration, Lisa Brooks recovers a complex picture of war, captivity and Native resistance during the "First Indian War" (later named King Philip's War) by relaying the stories of Weetamoo, a female Wampanoag leader, and James Printer, a Nipmuc scholar, whose stories converge in the captivity of Mary Rowlandson. Through both a narrow focus on Weetamoo, Printer, and their network of relations, and a far broader scope that includes vast Indigenous geographies, Brooks leads us to a new understanding of the history of colonial New England and of American origins. Brooks's path-breaking scholarship is grounded not just in extensive archival research but also in the land and communities of Native New England, and by reading the actions of actors during 17th century alongside an analysis of the landscape and interpretations informed by tribal history.

Lisa Brooks is a historian, award-winning author and professor of English and American Studies at Amherst College. She serves on the advisory board of the Gedakina, a nonprofit organization on indigenous revitalization in New England. 

SPECIALTY TITLE
A Naturalist at Large by Bernd Heinrich (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

In essays that span several decades, Heinrich finds himself at home in his beloved camp in Maine, where he plays host to annoying visitors from Europe (the cluster flies) and more helpful guests from Asia (ladybugs); and as far away as Botswana, where he unravels the far-reaching ecological consequences of elephants' bruising treatment of mopane trees. Heinrich turns to his great love, the extraordinary behaviors of ravens, some of them close companions for years. Finally, he asks "Where does a biologist find hope?" while delivering an answer that informs and inspires.

Bernd Heinrich lives in Maine and is an acclaimed scientist and author. Among his best-selling titles are “Winter World,” “Mind of the Raven,” “Why We Run” and “The Homing Instinct.” One of Heinrich’s many honors is the 2013 PEN New England Award in nonfiction for “Life Everlasting.”

Lewes, East Sussex, UK — Our next book sale on Monday May 20th is devoted to the dispersal of a two-owner collection of mainly KENT TOPOGRAPHICAL WORKS, from the libraries of a private collector, residing in East Kent, and that of the late John Dean Marshall, of Mid Kent.
 
With over 200 lots on offer including numerous rare volumes — William Boys, History of Sandwich 1792  (£300-500) William Coombs, Tonbridge Legends 1866 (£300-500), as well as a number of Kent classics — Edward Hasted’s monumental History and Topographical Survey of Kent, 4 vols, 1778-90 (£800-1200) and the very first county history -- William Lambarde’s, A Perambulation in Kent 1576, (although defective - £150-200), together with several fine works on Canterbury and the Cathedral -- John Hidyard and others An Accurate Description and History......of Cathedral Churches of Canterbury 1756 (£200-300).
 
We have deliberately split the collection into affordable lots, to, hopefully, result in the widest possible distribution to dealers and private collectors, with individual lots, including rare early guides, relating to small towns, as well as Kent’s great cities.
 
This is an opportunity to purchase from the best collection of Kent Topographical books to come on the market in recent years.

New York – Swann Galleries’ sale of Illustration Art on Tuesday, June 4 is set to offer original works by favorite illustrators from literature, theater, advertisements and more. Auction debuts from some of the fields brightest ensure a standout auction.

Mead Schaeffer’s frontispiece and dust jacket design for the 1922 reissue of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick leads the sale at $25,000 to $35,000. In the midst of a Melville rediscovery in the 1920s, Schaeffer was commissioned by Dodd, Mead & Co. to produce illustrations for a series of classic novels. His dramatic illustration of Ishmael and Ahab in the crow’s nest propelled his long career and aided in the revival of interest in the author.

Frederic Remington’s depictions of the American frontier are highpoints alongside Schaeffer, with a pen and ink illustration for his story A Scout with the Buffalo Soldiers, published in the April 1889 issue of The Century Magazine ($25,000-35,000). Also of note is the 1888 drawing Baily Looking at the Photo of his Wife for the story One Touch of Nature ($6,000-9,000).

Miriam Troop makes her auction debut with Rain on Laundry Day, an oil on canvas used as the cover for the June 15, 1940 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. The cover made Troop the youngest woman to have a produced a cover for the publication. Rain on Laundry Day is expected to bring $4,000 to $6,000. Troop, a prolific magazine illustrator of the golden age, is also known for her illustrations in the 1977 printing of the beloved children’s book Heidi.

The 1940s staging of Shakespeare’s Othello staring Paul Robeson was the first time an American production of the play cast a black actor in the titular role with a white supporting cast; Al Hirschfeld’s drawing, Paul Robeson as Othello, published on August 9, 1942 in The New York Times, captures this groundbreaking moment. Offered at $25,000 to $35,000, it is also the only portrait of Robeson by Hirschfeld. Additional Hirschfeld theater portraits published in The New York Times include The Merry Widow at the Majestic Theatre in 1943, and Great to Be Alive! at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1950, both offered at $10,000 to $15,000. Eugene Berman’s first ever foray into the world of the theater with Decor Musical, a neo-Roman installation for the lobby of the Avery Memorial Theater on the occasion of the first annual Hartford Festival in 1936, is available at $2,500 to $3,500.

The original cover illustration for the first mass marked paper edition of Stephen King’s Carrie by James Barkley is set to come across the block. Carrie, King’s fourth novel but the first to be published, launched his career. The initial first edition sold thirteen thousand copies when it was released in 1974, but it was the Signet/New American Library edition with Barkley’s iconic cover, launched a year later, that sold over a million copies. The illustration is offered at $4,000 to $6,000. Sci-fi treasures from the estate of David G. Hartwell feature designs by Richard Powers including the alternative cover design for the book Rissa Kerguelen, 1976 ($2,000-3,000), the illustration for Star Mother, 1976 ($4,000-6,000), and the rear cover illustration Star Science Fiction Stories, 1953 ($3,000-5,000), as well as Lee Brown Coye’s cover for the 25th anniversary issue of the fantasy and horror pulp magazine, Weird Tales Vol. 40, No. 3, 1948 ($3,000-5,000).

In 1992 Edward Gorey proposed three illustrations for covers of The New Yorker, and two of these feature in the sale: the recently rediscovered Cat Fancy, featured on the December 10, 2018 issue, is one of only two published covers by the artist ($10,000-15,000), and Flappers and Topiary, which was used in memoriam of Gorey upon his death in 2000 ($7,000-10,000). Additional New Yorker material includes cartoons by Liana Finck and Liam Walsh, both auction debuts.

Likely advertisements for Abercrombie & Fitch by macabre icon Charles Addams include Morticia in the Market for Arsenic and Fester Shopping for Knives, available at $6,000 to $9,000 apiece. Two “gentlemen in the know” oil on canvas advertisements for Four Roses whiskey by John Philip Falter are set to be offered at $12,000 to $18,000 each.

Exhibition opening in New York City May 30. The complete catalogue and bidding information is available at swanngalleries.com and on the Swann Galleries App.

Additional highlights can be found here.

Dallas, TX – Objects flown to the moon and kept for 50 years in the private collection of “First Man” Mission Commander Neil Armstrong sold for more than $4.57 million during Heritage Auctions' Space Exploration auction May 9-11.

The sale featured the second presentation of 620 lots of mementos and NASA-related items saved by the first man who walked on the moon, July 20, 1969.

Special keepsakes owned by Armstrong brought top dollar, particularly the moonwalker’s collection of pieces of the Wright Flyer, which was flown on Apollo 11 to commemorate mankind’s first successful airplane flight made by Orville and Wilbur Wright in 1903. A group of nine pieces sold for a combined $888,750, the most expensive piece being a rare swatch from the wing fabric from flyer, which sold for $175,000, as did a section of the propeller.

Additional highlights include:
·         A single Apollo 11 flown crew-signed and stamped "Type One" Quarantine Cover also sold for $93,750. Signed by Armstrong and crew astronauts Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin, Armstrong did not receive the piece until three weeks later when the crew completed mandatory quarantine following Apollo 11’s splashdown.
 
·         One of six Apollo 11 Flown Mission Insignias, 6-inch-by-6-inch swatches made from fire-safe fiberglass Beta cloth used in the space suits worn by the Apollo astronauts, sold for $25,000.
 
·         Among pieces of Apollo flown artifacts, a module flown spacesuit comfort glove originally from the personal collection of Mission Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin, sold for $68,750.
 
·         An extraordinary complete set of 135 commemorative sterling silver medals, referred to as a Robbins Medallions, one for Each Mission and assembled by former NASA astronaut Colonel Jerry Ross, sold for $55,000.
 
·         A one-of-a-kind NASA color lunar planning chart signed by one moonwalker from each landing mission ended at $55,000.
 
“Heritage Auctions’ next presentation of Armstrong’s collection is July 16, the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 space launch and just four days before Armstrong’s historic moonwalk.”
 

Dallas, TX – A pair of paintings by iconic American artist Newell Convers Wyeth combined to sell for more than $1.1 million, leading Heritage Auctions’ American Art Auction to a record $7,294,250 in total sales with a sell-through rate of 90 percent by value. The final total for the sale, in which auction records were established for eight artists, was the largest ever for American Art in Heritage Auctions’ history.

“This is the highest-grossing American Art sale in our company’s history,” Heritage Auctions Vice President and American Art Director Aviva Lehmann said. “With a 90% sell-through rate by value, this auction is a clear indicator that Heritage Auctions is firmly rooted as a leader in the field of American Art.”

Multiple bidders lifted the result for Newell Convers Wyeth “I am Sir Launcelot du Lake, King Ban's son of Benwick, and knight of the Round Table,” The Boy's King Arthur: Sir Thomas Malory's History of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table interior book illustration, 1917 to $615,000 to claim top-lot honors. This illustration by Wyeth, the patriarch of what many consider “the first family of American Art,” shows the pivotal moment at which, after hours of battle, Sir Launcelot reveals his true identity to Sir Turquine, a move that required a fight to the death. This image is a star of the Andrew J. Sordoni Collection, 12 of which were offered in the auction.

The second painting by the same artist and the Sordoni Collection at the top of the auction, Newell Convers Wyeth “Mr. Cassidy ... Saw a crimson rider sweep down upon him ... Heralded by a blazing .41,” Bar-20 Range Yards, Part VII - Cassidy at Cactus, The Outing Magazine interior illustration, December 1906 realized $555,000. The painting is a nod to the artist’s roots painting cowboys and Western pioneers, and is significant as one of the earliest illustrations of the story of Hopalong Cassidy, the fictional cowboy created in 1904 by author Clarence E. Mulford. In this image, Slim Travennes, having been caught rustling horses, waves his .41-caliber pistol while fleeing town on horseback with Cassidy and his Bar-20 gang close behind.

Six collectors made bids on Norman Rockwell The Night Before Christmas (Santa Peering over Chair at Sleeping Child), Literary Digest magazine cover, December 22, 1923 before it finished at $500,000. It is one of 16 Rockwells offered in the sale, and one of 11 from the Collection of Jack and Martha Campbell of Houston, Texas. This image of Santa Clause peering over the back of a chair at a sleeping boy and his dog, appeared on the Dec. 23, 1923 cover of Literary Digest and was Rockwell’s fifth and final cover illustration for the magazine.

Norman Rockwell’s Girl at Mirror, The Saturday Evening Post cover study, 1954 drew a winning bid of $399,000. Accompanied by a copy of the magazine featuring the completed image, it was created originally as the cover of the March 6, 1954 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Featured in the painting is Mary Whalen, whom Rockwell called “the best little girl model I ever had.” Rockwell executed a number of changes between his color study and the final work, including the omission of the Jane Russel headshot that appeared in the girl’s lap in the final work – an addition he later admitted he regretted adding.

The auction established new records for several artists:

·         John Philip Falter Snow Day, The Saturday Evening Post cover, December 18, 1948: $325,000

·         Amos Sewell Kids Playing Cowboy, The Saturday Evening Post cover, March 11, 1950: $225,000
 
·         Judah LeVasseur Fishing on the Lake of Managua, Nicaragua: A Pair of Works, circa 1840: $137,500
 
·         C. Coles Phillips Orders/Skirts Will be Shorter this Fall, Life Magazine cover, August 28, 1924: $81,250
 
·         George Hughes Coming Up Roses, The Saturday Evening Post cover, June 8, 1957: $62,500
 
·         Herbert Gute Haying, 1933: $57,500
 
·         Al Moore Look at It! The Saturday Evening Post cover, October 10, 1942: $42,500
 
·         Francis Lee Jacques Great White Herons, The Saturday Evening Post cover, June 19, 1937: $16,250

Other top lots included, but were not limited to:
·         Maxfield Parrish A Man of Letters [The Mudball], Life Magazine cover, January 5, 1921: $300,000
 
·         Joseph Christian Leyendecker New Year's Baby 1919, The Saturday Evening Post cover, December 28, 1918: $275,000
 
·         Joseph Christian Leyendecker Circus Corner, The Saturday Evening Post cover, May 23, 1908: $162,500
 
·         John Ford Clymer Farm Children Seeing the First Robin of Spring, The Saturday Evening Post cover, May 7, 1955: $150,000
 
·         Amos Sewell Let's Go Fishing, The Saturday Evening Post cover, August 25, 1962: $112,500
 
·         Milton Avery Untitled (Landscape), circa 1940: $112,500

Los Angeles – The J. Paul Getty Museum announced an exhibition of photographs by celebrated artist Gordon Parks (American, 1912-2006). On view July 9-November 10, 2019 at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Center, Gordon Parks: The Flávio Story explores one of the most important photo essays Parks produced for Life magazine and traces how its publication prompted an extraordinary sequence of events over several decades. The exhibition is co-organized by the Getty and the Ryerson Image Centre in Toronto, Canada in partnership with Instituto Moreira Salles, Brazil, and The Gordon Parks Foundation, New York.

“Gordon Parks’ photographs chronicling social justice, civil rights, and the African-American experience in the United States are both a vital historical document and a compelling body of artistic work,” says Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. “And, of all his varied projects, Parks considered the photographs of Flávio among his most important achievements. The great impact that it had, and still has today, can only be appreciated by presenting these photographs in their full socio-political context, which is what this exhibition does for the first time.”

An accomplished filmmaker, composer, writer and poet, Parks is best remembered for his prolific career as a photographer. He became the first African-American photographer on staff at Life magazine, where he covered subjects ranging from fashion to social injustice. In 1961 the magazine sent him to Brazil with a specific assignment: to document poverty in Rio de Janeiro for a special series on Latin America. Told to photograph the hardworking father of a large, impoverished household, Parks all but disregarded these instructions and turned his attention instead to one resident in particular—an industrious, severely asthmatic twelve-year-old boy named Flávio da Silva who lived in Catacumba, one of Rio’s working class neighborhoods known as favelas.

Over the course of several weeks Parks photographed Flávio as he performed household chores and entertained his seven brothers and sisters—daily activities that were often interrupted by debilitating asthma attacks. Having himself grown up in abject poverty in Kansas, Parks felt deep sympathy for his subject and forged an emotional bond with him. Ultimately Parks advocated for a comprehensive photo essay dedicated to Flávio’s story in the pages of Life; editors responded by publishing a twelve-page piece, titled “Freedom’s Fearful Foe: Poverty,” in June 1961. The exhibition will include images from this spread, as well as outtakes from the assignment.

Within days of its publication in the magazine, Flávio’s story emerged as a blockbuster. Moved by Parks’ heartbreaking coverage, Life’s readers wrote thousands of letters and spontaneously donated money to support the da Silva family and the revitalization of the favela. Upon seeing the images, the president of the Children’s Asthma Research Institute and Hospital (CARIH) in Denver, Colorado offered to treat Flávio as a patient, free of charge. In July 1961, Life sent Parks back to Rio as part of the magazine’s follow-up efforts. After helping to move the da Silva family from Catacumba, Parks accompanied Flávio from Rio to the United States. For the next two years Flávio lived and received treatment at CARIH but spent most weekends with a Portugeuse-speaking host family who introduced him to various aspects of American culture.

Anticipating a compelling story about Flávio’s medical progress and experience in the U.S., Life assigned a local photographer, Hikaru “Carl” Iwasaki, to document the boy’s arrival in Denver, admission to the hospital, and acclimation at school. A selection of these images will be on view in the exhibition, including some that Life never published, alongside snapshots made by Flávio’s host father in Denver, José Gonçalves. In spite of his wish to remain in the United States, Flávio was sent back to Brazil in 1963. Now 70 years old, he has never returned to the United States.

When published in 1961, “Freedom’s Fearful Foe: Poverty” was also met with criticism, particularly within the Brazilian press. Outraged and determined to retaliate against Life’s negative portrayal of the Catacumba favela and its residents, the Brazilian magazine O Cruzeiro sent staff photographer Henri Ballot to report on poverty in New York, where Life was headquartered. While exploring the Lower East Side in Manhattan, Ballot documented an immigrant family from Puerto Rico—Felix and Esther Gonzalez and their children—who lived in a derelict one-bedroom apartment. Arguing that poverty was equally endemic in the United States, O Cruzeiro published Ballot’s photographs in October 1961 in the photo essay “Nôvo recorde americano: Miséria” (New American Record: Misery). Photographs from this story, as well as from an investigative exposé on Parks’ reportage also published in O Cruzeiro in 1961, will be on view in the exhibition.

Over the years Parks periodically returned to Flávio as a subject. In 1976 he published Flávio, which recounted and updated the story through words and pictures. In the book’s introduction, Parks provided insight into his own conflicted engagement with certain photographic assignments that focused on people like the da Silva family, acknowledging that he “was perhaps playing God” by digging “deeper and deeper into the privacy of these lives, hoping . . . to reshape their destinies into something much better.” Following this admission, Parks returned to Brazil only once in the 1990s; it marked the last time Parks and Flávio saw each other prior to Parks’ death in 2006.

“Parks regarded poverty as ‘the most savage of all human afflictions,’ in no small part because he was born into destitution,” says Amanda Maddox, co-curator of the exhibition and an associate curator at the Getty Museum. “As a photographer he consciously wielded his camera as a weapon—his chosen term—in an attempt to combat economic and racial inequality. Viewed in this context, his documentation of Flávio da Silva—for Life and beyond—reveals the complexity of his empathetic approach and the inherent difficulties of representing someone else’s personal story—a story that resonated with many people over many years—in any form.”

In addition to more than 100 photographs, the exhibition will also include original issues of Life that featured Flávio’s story, previously unseen ephemera related to Flávio’s time in Denver, and private memos, correspondence, and records held by Life and Parks.

Gordon Parks: The Flávio Story is on view July 9-November 10, 2019 at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Center. The exhibition is co-curated by Amanda Maddox, associate curator of photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum, and Paul Roth, director of the Ryerson Image Centre. An accompanying book is available, published by Steidl Verlag, with essays by Maddox and Roth, as well as Sergio Burgi, curator at Instituto Moreira Salles; Beatriz Jaguaribe, professor of comparative communications, School of Communications, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; and Maria Alice Rezende de Carvalho, professor of sociology, Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro.

About Gordon Parks
Gordon Parks was born into poverty and segregation in Fort Scott, Kansas, in 1912. After working as a pianist and railcar porter, among other odd jobs, Parks bought a camera at a pawnshop and embarked on a career as a photographer. Employed briefly by the Farm Security Administration, Parks was eventually hired as the first African-American staff photographer at Life. Throughout his storied tenure at the magazine, which began in 1948, Parks contributed numerous photo essays on such topics as racial discrimination or social and political injustice that managed to affect large and diverse audiences yet remained tied to his personal history. Evolving into a modern-day Renaissance man, Parks found success as a film director, author, and composer of music. The first African-American director to helm a major motion picture in Hollywood, he helped launch the blaxploitation genre with the hit movie Shaft (1971). Parks wrote numerous memoirs, novels, and books of poetry, and received many awards, including the U.S. National Medal of Arts, and more than 50 honorary degrees. He died in 2006.

Boston — An amazingly rare combination of Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky signatures sold for $64,055 according to by Boston-based RR Auction.

The signatures were obtained shortly after the historic October Revolution, a seizure of state power instrumental in the larger Russian Revolution of 1917. It took place with an armed insurrection in Petrograd, following and capitalizing on the February Revolution of the same year, which overthrew the Tsarist autocracy. The October Revolution resulted in the power being shifted to the local Soviets in Petrograd, whom heavily supported the Bolshevik Party.

After the Congress of Soviets, now the governing body, had its second session, it elected members of the Bolsheviks to key positions which immediately initiated the establishment of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the world's first self-proclaimed socialist state. On November 8, 1917, the Congress elected a Council of People's Commissars, with Lenin as Chairman and Trotsky as Commissar of Foreign Affairs, the positions they have added to the present signatures.

The fountain pen signatures, circa 1918, were removed from a notebook previously owned by Robert de Flers, French playwright and journalist who traveled to the Eastern front as the head of a French military mission, taking him to Romania, Moscow, and Petrograd, at which time he obtained the signatures of Lenin and Trotsky.

Highlights from the sale include, but are not limited by:

Bob Dylan's handwritten lyrics for "The Times They Are-a-Changin' sold for $83,418.

Steve McQueen's annotated script for The Thomas Crown Affair sold for $34,370.
 
Astronaut archive including photos, negatives, and transparencies from the Golden Age NASA sold for $16,667.

John F. Kennedy: Father James Thompson's Rosary from Parkland Hospital on November 22, 1963 sold for $13,401.

John F. Kennedy negative and photograph collection at the ‘Winter White House, sold for $9,492.

The Fine Autographs and Artifact auction from RR Auction began on April 19 and concluded on May 8.  More details can be found online at www.rrauction.com. 

New York – With seven records and a standout selection of Latin American art, Swann Galleries’ sale of Old Master Through Modern Prints on Thursday, May 2 offered works by the greatest innovators in the field.

The house’s largest-ever offering of Latin American prints and originals proved to be popular. Of the selection Todd Weyman, Vice President and Director of Prints & Drawings, remarked “While bidding on our multiple platforms was spirited as usual in this auction, with many international buyers, it was especially heightened during our first-ever focused, standalone catalogue of Latin American Art, where we set a record for any lithograph by Diego Rivera, and records for color Mixografia prints by Rufino Tamayo.”

Highlights included two 1932 lithographs by Diego Rivera: Zapata, which brought $45,000, a record for any print by the artist, and El Sueño (La Noche de los Pobres), which earned $27,500. Mixografia prints by Rufino Tamayo found success with Dos Personajes atacados por Perros, 1983, selling for $23,400, and a record was set for Sandias con Manzana, 1985, at $22,100.

A run of works by Pablo Picasso included the 1934 aquatint Garçon et Dormeuse à la Chandelle ($35,000), the 1934 portfolio, Lysistrata, with a complete set of six etchings ($31,200), Tête de Femme, lithograph, 1954 ($21,250, a record for the print), and Sueño y Mentira de Franco, 1937, a pair of etchings representing the artist’s earliest political work ($18,750).

Records for Joan Miró color aquatints included Danseuse Créole, 1978, at $35,000 and L’Etranglé, 1974, at $27,500. The 1947 color pochoir print L’Enterrement de Pierrot by Henri Matisse set a record at $27,500, and Escher’s classic woodcut, Sky and Water I, 1938 earned $31,200.

The top lot in the sale was George Stubbs’ Two Tygers (or A Tiger and a Sleeping Leopard), etching, 1788, which garnered a record for the subject at $45,000. Also of note was James A. M. Whistler’s etching Long Venice, 1879-80, which brought $20,000.

The next auction from Swann Galleries’ Prints & Drawings department will be held in September 2019. The house is currently accepting quality consignments. Visit swanngalleries.com for information on selling at Swann.