POSTERS by E. McKNIGHT KAUFFER - Special issue of DESIGN AND PAPER. One of a series of promotional booklets produced by paper company Marquardt & Company highlighting the work of notable artists, this one on the graphic artist E. McKnight Kauffer, renowned for his iconic posters, book dustjackets, and other graphic items for the London Underground, American Airlines, Alfred A. Knopf, and many others.

SIGNED, INSCRIBED and DATED on the inside front cover by E. McKNIGHT KAUFFER to the Noted American PHOTOGRAPHER ARNOLD NEWMAN:

"for Arnold Newman / with great appreciation, for his work - in the beginning - and now, and with always best wishes / Ted / E. McKnight Kauffer (signed) / July 1949".

NEW YORK: Marquardt & Company, 155 Spring Street, New York City, 1949. First and only edition. Published as Design and Paper No. 29. Booklet, illustrated paper wrappers, side-stapled, 5x8 inches (12x19.5 cm), 16 pages (8 leaves), illustrated with b&w photographs of posters by Kauffer. Design and Paper, No. 29.

VERY GOOD condition, the covers have some scraping to the spine, a bit of rubbing to the edges and corner tips, and a 1/8 inch scrape to the top edge of the front panel, overall just lightly handled, tight, bright, clean and clear.

RARE with the SIGNATURE and INSCRIPTION of E. McKNIGHT KAUFFER and the ASSOCIATION to ARNOLD NEWMAN.

About E. McKnight Kauffer (from Wikipedia):

******Edward McKnight Kauffer, b.1890 d.1954, was an American artist and graphic designer who lived for much of his life in the United Kingdom. He worked mainly in poster art, but was also active as a painter, book illustrator and theatre designer. Born in Great Falls, Montana, by 1910 he had moved to San Francisco working as a bookseller and studying art at the California School of Design. Professor Joseph McKnight of the University of Utah became aware of Kauffer's work, sponsored him and paid to send him to Paris for further study. In gratitude Kauffer took his sponsor's name as a middle name. Kauffer moved to London upon the start of the First World War, and remained there for most of his career.

Kauffer may be best known for the 140 posters he produced for London Underground, but he also created notable posters for Shell Oil, the Great Western Railway and other commercial clients, and also illustrated books and book covers.

He returned to New York City in 1940 at the beginning of the Second World War. He was approached to do a series of posters for American Airlines in 1947, which became his primary client until his death.

But it was in 1952 that he designed what is perhaps his most famous work, the dust jacket art of Ralph Ellison's novel Invisible Man. He died two years later, in 1954.******

About ARNOLD NEWMAN (from Wikipedia and a site featuring the Merrill C. Berman Collection):

******Arnold Abner Newman, b.1918 d.2006, was an American photographer, noted for his portraits of artists and politicians. He was also known for his carefully composed abstract still life images. Newman found his vision in the empathy he felt for artists and their work. Although he photographed many personalities-Marlene Dietrich, John F. Kennedy, Harry S. Truman, Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso, Arthur Miller, Marilyn Monroe, Ronald Reagan, Mickey Mantle, and Audrey Hepburn-he maintained that even if the subject is not known, or is already forgotten, the photograph itself must still excite and interest the viewer.

Four years before Kauffer's death, he was featured in the first issue of the short-lived graphic design magazine Portfolio (1950-1951; complete in three issues, nos. 1-3). The journal's art director, Alexey Brodovitch, also art director of Harper's Bazaar, chose to highlight Kauffer's work with a PORTRAIT OF KAUFFER BY PHOTOGRAPHER ARNOLD NEWMAN, and generous reproductions showing different stages of Kauffer's design process.******