About this Item
A collection of catalogs, order forms, and promotional material from New Directions Books spanning six decades, with the earliest dated piece from 1947 and the latest from 1990. Comprised of material made in various formats and sizes with a vast array of aesthetic directions from colored text to low-res black-and-white photos. The collection has been well preserved with only a few minor issues such as a small tear to the rear wrapper of just one catalog and light bumping to corners and rubbing to wrappers throughout, overall a very good to near fine collection with all of the order forms intact and unused. New Directions was founded in 1936 by a struggling young poet named James Laughlin on the advice of Ezra Pound who read Laughlin?s poetry and, so the famous story goes, told him to go back to Harvard and ?do something useful.? Laughlin indeed did do something useful, creating a press resilient to the influences of commercialism, corporate interests, and fads, instead bringing the avant-garde and experimental to readers around the world for nearly ninety years. As Maria Bustillos puts it in her 2016 feature on New Directions for *The New Yorker*, ?New Directions evolved as it did because its founder was as far-seeing in business as he was in matters of taste. Laughlin wasn?t looking to corner a market or to disrupt anything; his ambition was to create an institution that would last.? New Directions remains in business today, and while this collection does not span the entirety of the publisher?s long history, it gives an impressive look into their approach to marketing over the span of six decades. Not only does it provide a history of New Directions? ever growing, ever evolving catalog, it also displays the changing aesthetic of the brand, from the rather modest offerings of the 1950s, to the bright and colorful multi-format catalogs and order-forms of the 1960s, to the subdued yet bold black-and-white designs of the early 1970s, to the classic outline of Heinz Henghes? sculpture, New Directions? signature colophon, making its first appearance within this collection on the front cover of a 1988 catalog. This collection truly speaks to New Directions? ethos, the belief that art always comes first. In total, the collection consists of 33 items (which includes two duplicate catalogs), the bulk of the material is from the 1950s and 1960s (eight items and 14 items respectively), 1940s: one item, 1970s: four items, 1980s: three items, 1990s: three items. A detailed list describing each item is available upon request. A fascinating collection covering six decades of one of America?s most daring and enduring publishers.
Seller Inventory # 611842
Contact seller
Report this item
