George Gershwin’s Song-Book.

GERSHWIN, George.

Item Number: 129359

New York: Random House, 1932.

First edition of this classic work. Quarto, original cloth, frontispiece portrait of Gershwin and numerous full-page illustrations by Alajalov. Boldly signed by the author below the frontispiece opposite the title page, “good wishes George Gershwin.” Near fine in a very good dust jacket. Uncommon signed and in the original dust jacket.

American composer and pianist George Gershwin’s orchestral compositions spanned the genres of popular, jazz, and classical music and are now considered to be some of the most important musical works of the twentieth century. Gershwin began his career composing Broadway theatre works with his brother Ira Gershwin and soon became a major figure in musical theatre in New York City and later Hollywood. Gershwin's classic Song-Book is illustrated with full-page color lithographic plates after Constantin Alajalov, and includes such Gershwin standards as “Swanee,” “Fascinating Rhythm,” “That Certain Feeling,” “The Man I Love,” “Strike Up the Band,” and “I Got Rhythm,” among others. “In one of his few prose writings, George provided an introduction for the song book. What is most important… is that it contained the original published version of each song, followed side by side by George’s ‘improvised’ versions of the songs” (Carnovale, 14).