An Artist In America Benton, Thomas Hart Americana,Art, Architecture & Design

Hardcover. 8vo, blue cloth. In dust jacket. CONDITION: Very good; clean and tight, with uniform faint toning of pages, on the rear free endpaper there is some tape residue where the rough sketch was attached. The unclipped dustjacket is clean and bright, spine a bit sunned, relatively minor chipping at head of spine and along the rear flap fold. First edition of the Special Missouri Edition, signed, with original drawings by Benton, evoking a visit with friends and evidently executed after having a few drinks. Benton has filled out the space surrounding the colophon/signature with an inscription reading "To the Snyders from Tom," which is followed by a series of humorous characteristic sketches. Tom and Roy Snyder are shown drinking tête-à-tête. Benton holds up a drink in his right hand, and a caption below his head reads "Tom Collins in the flesh not the glass." Roy Snyder has added his signature below his head. Above them is a table with a bottle of spirits and two glasses. To the right of the pair is a sketch of one of Benton's iconic locomotive engines steaming toward the two, although it appears that the bend in the track will steer it away from any collision with the two drinking buddies. Below this scene is that of a steamboat on a river with the sun shining over it. It is signed simply "Benton" along the lower edge. Laid in is a simple pencil sketch of a railroad crossroads, the end of each track labeled either N, E, S or W. Houses appear in the top two quadrants, a tree in the lower left, and two silos in the lower right. The scene depicted, a sort of quintessential midwestern pattern, is possibly that of the Snyder farm. In the upper left corner one of the Snyders has written "drawn by Tom Benton at our house, 1949." A delightful volume reflecting Benton's artistic skills, humor, and social life.