Between the Covers

Hardcover. Three volumes. Oblong quartos. Full calf gilt with blank ruled leaves. Modest rubbing at the extremities, a few loose leaves, else near fine. Guestbooks from the Banfer Gallery located at 23 E. 67th St. in Manhattan, a prominent gallery for many rising young artists of the time. The three volumes cover three seasons: 1962-63, 1963-64, and 1964-65. The openings were well attended as evidenced by these guestbooks. Each section is designated to the artist who was being exhibited. The early Sixties were a particularly fecund time in New York for all of the arts, and that cross-pollination is very evident here.

Among the thousand or more signatures (most not noted here) are hundreds of easily identified artists, curators, journalists, diplomats, and socialites. Among the more notable signatures that appear (often with addresses, some of them on multiple occasions) are:

Edward Albee - American playwright who is best known for *Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?*, *The Zoo Story*, *A Delicate Balance*, and *Three Tall Women*.
W.H. Auden – Anglo/American poet.
Ted Berrigan - American poet associated with the New York School, most famous for “The Sonnets.”
Harold Brodkey - Novelist and short story writer.
Kirby Congdon - New York School poet.
Avery Corman - Author of *Kramer vs. Kramer* and *Oh, God*.
Tibor de Nagy - Important gallerist of abstract impressionists, and the first publisher of the poems of Frank O’Hara, James Schuyler, and John Ashbery.
Jack Davis - *Mad Magazine* cartoonist and caricaturist.
R. Pene Du Bois - Costume and set designer.
Marcel Duchamp - Renowned influential artist, whose work is most famously situated within the Dadaist and Surrealist movements.
Leonard Everett Fisher - Artist and children’s book illustrator.
Louise Fitzhugh - Artist and author of *Harriet the Spy* (who also had a solo exhibition at the Gallery).
Harry Grier - Director of the Frick Museum and art writer.
Halston - Fashion designer (signed as R. Halston Frowick).
Daryl Hine - Canadian poet and translator. He was an editor of *Poetry* magazine from 1968-78.
Donald Judd - Renowned and influential minimalist sculptor (although, Judd defied the minimalist designation) and art writer.
Jacqueline Kennedy - Wife of 35th president, John F. Kennedy, signed in February, 1963.
Hilary Knight - American writer-artist who is the illustrator of more than 50 books. Best known as the illustrator of Kay Thompson’s *Eloise* series.
John Knowles - Author of *A Separate Peace*.
Lincoln Kirstein – Prominent cultural figure and founder of the New York City Ballet who served as General Director from 1946-1989.
David Levine - American artist and illustrator best known for his caricatures in *The New York Review of Books*. Jules Feiffer has called him “the greatest caricaturist of the last half of the 20th Century.”
Fred McDarrah - Photographer for *The Village Voice*.
Duane Michals - Noted photographer.
Mary Petty - Artist and *New Yorker* illustrator, as well as signed by her husband, the cartoonist Alan Dunn.
Annie Proulx – Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist of Canadian extraction (here signed as “Anne Proulx”) and giving a Canadian address.
Charles Rain - Artist best known for with magical realism.
Yvonne Rainer - American dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker, whose work in these disciplines is frequently challenging and experimental.
Vittorio Rieti - Jewish-Italian composer, composed music for George Balanchine’s ballet for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, *Barabau*.
Ned Rorem - Pulitzer prize-winning American composer and diarist.
William Steig - Artist, author, and creator of *Shrek*.
Aaron Marc Stein - Noted mystery writer.
Carl Van Vechten - Author and photographer.
Charles White - African-American artist and muralist.
Donald Windham - American novelist and memoirist; close friend of Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams. Also signed by his longtime companion Sandy Campbell.

A large number of signatures from across the art and entertainment world alongside many other Sixties notables. A unique collection of autographs. A complete list of signatures and gallery shows is available upon request.

Item #396607