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A TRUE LIKENESS: THE BLACK SOUTH OF RICHARD SAMUEL ROBERTS 1920-1936 - THE COLLECTOR'S EDITION LIMITED TO ONE HUNDRED NUMBERED COPIES WITH A PHOTOGRAPH PRINTED FROM THE ORIGINAL STUDIO NEGATIVE
(ROBERTS, RICHARD SAMUEL). Johnson, Thomas L. & Phillip C. Dunn. Columbia, SC & Chapel Hill, NC: Bruccoli Clark & Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1986. First Edition #91/100. 4to. Cloth in Jacket, Slipcased. Photography Monograph. Fine/Fine. 202pp, 200 duotone illustrations. Cover designed by Quentin Fiore. Published in 1986, this is the first issue of this important survey of the work of Richard Samuel Roberts. Roberts was a black photographer who operated a studio in Columbia, South Carolina from 1920 until his death in 1936, primarily documenting his mostly middle-class community. Following Roberts' passing, the studio's archive of over three thousand glass plate negatives remained safely stored away by his family for another forty years. This exquisite book showing a rare view the black South of the era of the Great Depression is the result of the archive's rediscovery in 1977. A most handsome example of the "Collector's Issue" limited to one hundred hardbound, slipcased copies each containing a NUMBERED 10 x 8" silver gelatin print of the book's cover image on whose verso is hand written "Copyright © 1986 / by the / Estate of Richard Samuel Roberts / 91/100" in a calligraphic script and signed by editor Phillip Dunn. The book is housed in the publisher's tan paper over boards slipcase that shows some light wear and soiling with a facsimile of a Roberts studio brochure laid in, as issued. 0-912697-47-4 Inventory Number: 027067