Campbell, The body beautiful

Campbell, Heyworth (Editor). The body beautiful. With an introductions by Dorothy Cocks, H. Campbell and Dudley Lee. Sixth edition (Volume I) and first edition (Volumes II-IV). 4 volumes. New York, Dodge Publishing Company (1935-1938). 4° (30 x 23 cm.). 75, (3) p.; 88, (1) p.; 88, (2) p.; 92, (1) p. with 344 plates in heliogravure. Colorfully illustrated cardboard covers with metal ring binding.

Rare complete series of the most important publication on nude photography in the United States during the 1930s. Featuring contributions primarily from New York photographers and agencies, including Dudley Lee, Werner W. Greeven, Fred P. Peel, Richard Bettini, Edward E. Adams, Renato Toppo, Wynn Richards, Lee & Burger, Martin Bruehl, Helene and Stephen Deutch, Shigeta-Wright, John Everard, Ben Schall, Aaron Siskind and Alexander Paal. The third volume also includes photographs by the Berlin photographer Heinz V. Perckhammer and the French photographer Pierre Boucher. – Heyworth Campbell (1886-1953) „was a pioneering art director known for redesigning The Morning Telegraph, praised by Robert Benchley. With a background at Cond Nast, he influenced magazine design and later advertising. A founding member of the Art Directors Club, he continued to innovate until his death in 1953. Heyworth Campbell once redesigned a newspaper. The result was so handsome and so original that Robert Benchley was impelled to “review” it in the New Yorker. The newspaper was The Morning Telegraph, and its new Campbell format, said Benchley, was “as beautiful as anything we have ever seen in a newspaperwe may just frame a copy and keep it to look at.” That was Heyworth Campbell, fresh from seventeen years with Cond Nast, using in the Telegraph the prodigious talent that had been creating such distinctive styles for the pages of Vogue, Vanity Fair, and House and Garden. Campbell, who was born in Philadelphia and attended art school there, came to New York in 1906. By 1910 he was art director for Nast, becoming widely recognized as a pioneer in magazine design, typography, and layout. n 1927, Campbell entered advertising, joining the then Barton, Durstine & Osborne agency. As general account executive and art consultant on all accounts, he had much to do with campaigns for Atwater Kent, General Motors, General Electric, Arrow Collars, Bond Bread, R. H. Macy, and Abraham & Straus. His unusual around-the-corner nameplate for A & S was used for decades as their advertising shingle. Then he went on his own, with the Heyworth Campbell Studio, an art directing, design, and typographic service functioning on a one-at-a-time basis for a variety of accounts, includingGood Housekeepingpromotion, Lederle Laboratories, Lucien LeLong, Butterick, and Dodge Publishing Co. … Heyworth Campbell was a founding member of the Art Directors Club, and its third president, serving in 1922 and 1923. He remained a member of the advisory board throughout his life“ (Creative Hall of Fame). – The covers show some slight signs of wear, but all volumes are in very good condition.