Fred Astaire [Icons Of America Series] [Signed First Editon, First Printing] Epstein, Joseph Signed Books/Autographs

Fine condition black boards with silver spine lettering contained in a fine condition non price-clipped photographic dust jacket. Includes Author Dedication; Preface; Bibliographical Note; and Index of Names. Illustrated with black-and-white photograph and black-and-white portrait photographic frontispiece. A small Florida condominuim stamp on the blank first free front endpaper and the last blank rear endpaper. Signed by the author with blue pen at the upper section of the blank first free front endpaper. "A portrait of America's most graceful and elegant male dancer and how he came to represent the essence of style, suavity, and charm. Joseph Epstein's Fred Astaire investigates the great dancer's magical talent, taking up the story of his life, his personality, his work habits, his modest pretensions, and above all his accomplishments. Written with the wit and grace the subject deserves, Fred Astaire provides a remarkable portrait of this extraordinary artist and how he came to embody for Americans a fantasy of easy elegance and, paradoxically, of democratic aristocracy. Tracing Astair's life from his birth in Omaha to his death in his late eighties in Hollywood, the book discusses his early days with his talented and outspoken sister Adele, his gifts as a singer (Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, and Jerome Kern all delighted in composing for Astaire), and his many movie dance partners, among them Cyd Charisse, Rita Hayworth, Eleanor Powell, and Betty Hutton. A key chapter of the book is devoted to Astaire's somewhat unwilling partnership with Ginger Rogers, the woman with whom he danced most dazzlingly. What emerges from these pages is a fascinating view of an American era, seen through the accomplishments of Fred Astaire, and unassuming but uncompromising performer who transformed entertainment into art and gave America a new yet enduring standard for style." - from the inner front and rear jacket flaps.