"Very happy to hear you are now at home with THE INHABITANTS"
The Inhabitants.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1946.
Price: $2,500.00
About the item
First edition. 52 full-page b/w photographs. Unpaginated. 1 vols. 4to (11 1/4 x 9 1/4 inches). "Very happy to hear you are now at home with THE INHABITANTS" Beige blind-stamped cloth. Near fine in near fine, slightly edgeworn dust jacket. Roth 101, pp. 122-3.
Item #220825
Part one of Morris' groundbreaking photo-fiction trilogy depicts his native Nebraska as a depopulated world of dilapidated ruin and desolation. Thomas Mann wrote to Morris: "What these courageous pictures show is the harsh beauty of ugliness, the romanticism of the commonplace, the poetry of the unpoetical." (Roth, 122)
With 2 original real photograph cards [c. 1946] laid in, entitled "Kokomo, Col-1942" and "Inhabitant-Utah" in Morris's hand beneath the image (5H. x 4G inches) with Christmas and New Year's notes to "Tony & Jamie" signed by Morris ("Wright") and wife Mary Ellen. Verso of "Inhabitant-Utah" contains an autograph note signed ("Wright") to Tony. Morris compliments Tony on a recent painting and apologizes for not seeing his friend more often. Morris is glad to hear Tony enjoys THE INHABITANTS and outlines his plans for new work and maybe some travel: "I start work on a new volume this spring. Right now on a novel. This April we will ... give a buzz at your bell. See to it that you are at home!" An unusually fine copy with rare Morris images - he seldom made prints.
