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#571 of a limited first edition of 1030 copies of which only one thousand were for sale - SIGNED BY AUTHOR AND PHOTOGRAPHER ALONG WITH GREENVILLE, MISSISSIPPI AND WILLIAM ALEXANDER PERCY FAMILY ASSOCIATIONS. [4], [b/w frontis], [6], 32 pages plus concluding section of 62 b/w plates, each individually featured on a recto with a brief summary caption on the opposing verso. Hardcover: H 32cm x L 24.75cm. Lacks the slipcase with which it was issued. No dust jacket present (supposedly issued with an undecorated acetate dj). Salmon-colored cloth soiled and toned; strong mottling to spine with milder occurrence to rear board and light mottling o front board; fraying at spine ends with some edge-chipping to spine's dark maroon title label which retains bright gilt lettering. Deckle fore-edge and bottom edge. Endpapers toned; a few spots of soiling to interior leaves which, overall, remain clean. Binding is firm. Handwritten copy# along with ink signatures "Clarence John Laughlin" and "David L. Cohn" are on an unpaged limitation leaf (between half-title and frontis); same leaf has six-line ink inscription noting the book's receipt as a 1941 Christmas gift and, in turn, being gifted to dear friend Mrs. C.P. Williams [Mrs. Charles P. Williams aka Ada Howell Williams, 1883-1970] of Greenville, Miss. by "Nana Bourges Pearce, | Aug 16th, 1943." Still a very good- copy. Features an essay regarding New Orleans by David Cohn along with Clarence John Laughlin's 63 black/white plates (62 plus frontispiece) of Vieux Carre, New Orleans, and Louisiana subjects. ***** Indiana "Nana" Bourges Pearce (1860-1947) was one of four daughters of Ernest Bourges (1837-1906) and Marie "Mere" Camille Bourges (1841-1903) who owned Woodstock Plantation near Leland, Mississippi. Nana Pearce's sister Camille Bourges Percy (1862-1929) was married to U.S. Senator LeRoy Percy (1860-1929) of Greenville, Mississippi thus making Nana Pearce an aunt to Camille and LeRoy's son William Alexander Percy (1885-1942) who mentions both grandmother "Mere" and "Aunt Nana" in his 1941 autobiography LANTERNS ON THE LEVEE. In turn Nana Pearce was also a great-aunt to novelist and essayist Walker Percy (1916-1990). ***** Greenville, Mississippi author David Cohn is best remembered for his autobiographical WHERE I WAS BORN AND RAISED published by Houghton Mifflin in 1948 and for his still oft-quoted quip geographically defining his native state's Delta region as beginning "in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel [Memphis] and end[ing] on Catfish Row in Vicksburg." ***** Lauded as among the earliest American surrealist photographers, Clarence John Laughlin favored b/w studies of light, shadow, and exposure among architectural forms imbuing foreboding, eeriness, and eldritch to his subjects of age-worn and often dilapidated plantation houses abutting Louisiana's portion of the Mississippi River. NEW ORLEANS AND ITS LIVING PAST, Laughlin's first book, has never been reprinted and remains a quite uncommon and sought-after monograph which predates Laughlin's more ubiquitous regional photo-essay GHOSTS ALONG THE MISSISSIPPI which was first published by Scribner's in 1948 and reprinted by others many times since. ***** Please note that this large book has an approximate shipping weight of 4.25 pounds (1.92 kg) and will require additional postage/insurance for any postal class other than domestic Media Mail.
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