(4to) original blue cloth, dust jacket. First Edition. Accompanied by seventy-six gelatin silver photographic prints, each measuring 2x3 inches, with the original cardboard tri-fold portfolio to which they were previously affixed, the portfolio (15x20" when folded) with an illustrated cover label.
Rare first edition of this collection of intimate photographs of the Kennedy family in Georgetown, Washington, Hyannis Port, and elsewhere, published just months after JFK’s assassination, inscribed on the title page by the photographer: “To FDR Jr, Mark Shaw, April 15 1964,” and additionally inscribed and signed by FDR Jr., accompanied by the extraordinary original miniature silver gelatin prints featuring Shaw’s photographs that were used by Shaw to produce this work, each hand-numbered by Shaw, who himself died suddenly in 1969. Mark Shaw first caught the eye of Jackie Kennedy when she was still a senator's wife. A fashion photographer who had begun his career at Harper's Bazaar before moving on to Mademoiselle and LIFE Magazine, Shaw became known for sophisticated photography and daring choices such as photographing couture in color. In 1959, the Kennedys agreed to let Shaw have unrestricted access to their lives in order to do a photo-essay called A Frontrunner's Wife. They formed a close friendship in the process and Shaw accompanied them on many of their travels, taking pictures of the family's private moments and capturing some of the most famous pictures of JFK, including the one of him walking along the dunes in Cape Cod that Kennedy once said was his favorite. "Just as Abraham Lincoln thought Mathew Brady's photography won him the presidency, so Jackie Kennedy thought Mark Shaw's pictures helped her husband win the 1960 election. 'They really should be in the National Gallery!' she enthused. 'I have them propped up in our Sitting Room now, and everyone who comes in says the one of me and John [Jr.] looks like a Caravaggio… Shaw was very much a part of Camelot and his most famous still photography is associated with that period" (Sullivan, 492). This book was rushed to publication after Kennedy was assassinated, as the public clamored for just one more glimpse of their beloved first family. Forever associated with the Kennedys from that point forward, Shaw spent his final years as a favored celebrity photographer. This copy of The John F. Kennedys was inscribed to FDR Jr., the son of Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt, who represented the 20th District of New York in Congress between 1949 and 1955. FDR Jr. campaigned avidly for Kennedy in the 1960 West Virginia Primary, using the Roosevelt name and the residual goodwill from the New Deal to diffuse anti-Catholic prejudice. Kennedy went on to name FDR Jr. Under-Secretary of Commerce and chairman of the President's Appalachian Regional Commission. Copies of The John F. Kennedys inscribed by Shaw are quite rare as he died suddenly in 1969 at age 47; one with an association such as this is even more valuable. A rare inscribed photobook in near-fine condition with a most desirable association.
Condition:
Dust jacket with faint soiling and light wear to extremities; photographic prints near-fine with slight creasing and minor discoloration to a few images, residue from prior mounting to the inluded maquette, light wear and a bit of toning to portfolio itself.