The Inhabitants by Wright Morris, First Edition

The Inhabitants by Wright Morris

First Edition, First Printing, 1946

Exceptional Condition

This is a rare first edition, first printing of Morris’s groundbreaking photobook “The Inhabitants” published by Charles Scribner’s & Sons, New York in 1946.  The “Inhabitants” is generally regarded as the first photo-novel where photographs were paired with fictional text. David Levi Strauss in “The Book of 101 Books: Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century” writes,” In 1942, having won the "second Guggenheim Fellowship ever awarded in photography (the first had gone to Edward Weston in 1937)," he photographed a history he felt was disappearing. This groundbreaking "first work in photofiction" wedded Morris' prose and a photographic focus that searched out not merely a nation's people, "but their artifacts-objects (mostly of wood) bearing their imprint." On seeing Morris' images, Thomas Mann wrote him, praising these photographs so vivid with "the harsh beauty of ugliness, the romanticism of the commonplace, the poetry of the unpoetical" Commenting on the book Wright Morris wrote, “"I saw the American landscape crowded with ruins and believed myself chosen to record this history before it was gone."

Featuring 52 black-and-white photogravure plates and measuring approximately 11.5” x 9.5”, the book is bound in tan cloth covered boards in a photographically illustrated dust jacket. The book is in FINE condition with a Near Fine+ dust jacket with some minor edge and surface wear. Overall, this is an exceptional copy of this ground breaking photobook that is rarely found in such wonderful condition.

Cited in “The Book of 101 Books: Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century” by Andrew Roth

Photographs of the book cover as well as photographs contained in the book appear below. Please note that although the photographs appear digitized as thumbnails, they are viewable in the photo viewer by running your mouse over the thumbnail. You can also click on the thumbnail to open a separate window where the picture is viewable.