Men and Monuments" - Inscribed to Henry McBride

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1957. First. Used; Like New/Used; Like New. Hardcover in dustjacket. 8vo. 297 pp. Inscribed on the second ffe in blue fountain pen ink "To Mr. Henry McBride, herein cited but everywhere known as a lover of modern art, its friend and helper, its valliant [sic] aid and critic in New York - Faithfully, Janet Flanner." The aforementioned name citation in the present volume's index (p. 295) has been identified in red pencil, presumably by McBride himself. "From the Collection of Henry McBride Art Critic" sticker to inside front cover, purple/black cloth slightly toned, in a worn dustjacket, else fine. An extraordinary association copy.
The American art critic Henry McBride was known for his support of modern artists, both European and American, in the first half of the twentieth century, and as a writer during the 1920s for the newspaper The New York Sun and the avant-garde magazine The Dial, became one of the most influential supporters of modern art in his time. He also wrote for Creative Art (1928-1932) and Art News (1950-1959). Living to be ninety-five, McBride was born in the era of Winslow Homer and the Hudson River School and lived to see the rise of Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and the New York School.  One of the first champions of Milton Avery and Florine Stetttheimer (who became a close friend and painted him as "Henry McBride , Art Critic" in 1922), he was also a friend of "Gertrude and Alice" who he referenced in his columns and relished the company of Matisse, Duchamp, Stieglitz, O'Keeffe, and Peggy Bacon, among others.
From 1925 to 1978, Janet Flanner was the Paris correspondent for "The New Yorker," signing her letters "Genet." In "Men and Monuments," Flanner traces the course of four brilliant lives - those of the painters Picasso, Braque and Matisse, and the writer, politician and art critic Andre Malraux. Through anecdote, analysis, reportage, and opinion, Flanner presents a portrait of a time in Paris history - the late 1940s and 1950s - during which a nation recovered from a catastrophe, a new art was being forged and new ideas and values flourished. In addition, Flanner tells the inside story of one of the greatest art-pillaging campaign in history: Hitler's and Goering's ransack of the collections of the occupied countries during World War II.