David Levinthal: Small Wonder: Worlds in a Box [SIGNED]

LEVINTHAL, David, FORESTA, Merry A., DIETZ, Steve, COREY, David

ISBN 10: 1881616398 / ISBN 13: 9781881616399

Published by National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, in association with D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, New York, Washington, D.C., 1996

About this Item

First edition, first printing. Signed in black ink on the title page by Levinthal. Soft cover. Photographically illustrated laminated stiff wrappers (published only in wraps). Photographs by David Levinthal. Introduction by Merry A. Foresta and Steve Dietz. Essay by David Corey. 160 pp. with numerous four-color and black and white reproductions. 9-1/8 x 10-1/4 inches. Fine. The fourth title in the series 'American Scene,' published by the National Museum of American Art. From the publisher: "In Small Wonder: Worlds in a Box, David Levinthal takes as his subject a remarkable series of 1950s playsets manufactured by master toymakers Louis Marx and T. Cohn. As a reflection of the obsessive play of the 1950s and the current nostalgia for such items, Levinthal's tabletop photography allows the reader a bird's-eye view of imaginary tableaux." Signed by Author.

Seller Inventory # 111814

Bibliographic Details

• Title: David Levinthal: Small Wonder: Worlds in a Box [SIGNED]
• Publisher: National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, in association with D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, New York, Washington, D.C.
• Publication Date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1881616398
• ISBN 13: 9781881616399
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition.
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: No dust jacket as issued
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • About Photography
  • Polaroid
  • Signed Books
  • Fabricated/Staged
  • Cinema

About this title

Synopsis

In Small Wonder: Worlds in a Box, David Levinthal takes as his subject a remarkable series of 1950s playsets manufactured by master toymakers Louis Marx and T. Cohn. As a reflection of the obsessive play of the 1950s and the current nostalgia for such items, Levinthal's tabletop photography allows the reader a bird's-eye view of imaginary tableaux - Legionnaire Captain Gallant in the desert, Fort Apache and the Wild West, boy scouts camping in the woods, and travelers making a stop at a roadside Howard Johnson's. Playset vignettes are like stills from a movie of American popular culture's collective unconscious.
In the book's introduction, David Corey explores the history of playsets and their effect on American children in the 1950s.

About the Author

David Corey is a professor of English and Comparative Literature at Brooklyn College.