Early books about Leicas

[willeica]

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There is some wonderful stuff here which makes me sorry that I did not collect many books as well as cameras over the years. Early on in my collecting I picked up a very comprehensive (covering from the beginning up to just before the digital era) job lot of Leica manuals, brochures and catalogues from a fellow collector and I also added to this from the Hove Series. I have a few early 'independent' publications, but some of them, as is the case with some of the above items, seem to contain official Leitz photos of the cameras and other items, which raises questions about how independent they were many years ago. 

At LSI we have an online database of Leica material going right back to the 1920s and this is a screen shot of just part of the main 'index'

 

 

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Last October at the LSI AGM we organised a visit to the Leica Archive and they allowed us to scan some material which we had earlier donated to the archive as hard copies. At that time, Jim Lager gave me the following material from Pollock, the Dublin dealer. He knew that I already had two Leicas, a II Model D and a Compur B, with Pollock of Dublin engravings. I also had a Leitz London catalogue used by Pollock which had prewar prices and postwar prices written in with pencil. 

 

Somebody mentioned Morgan and Lester's Leica Manual. I picked up a copy of that (1937/8 edition) in our local camera club. They were throwing it out, but members could take any such items away. The most fascinating thing in that was not related to Leica, but was rather an article by Roy Stryker of FSA about magazine layouts. In the article Stryker used the very recently taken photo of the 'Migrant Mother' by Dorothea Lange to illustrate how to do a picture layout leading to a striking image. 

I know about the various rows between Stryker and Lange. This manual not only covers Leicas, but also something significant in the history of photography. Lange did not use a Leica, of course.

William 

Edited February 18, 2024 by willeica

[Pyrogallol]

I have a 1935 first edition of the Morgan and Lester book. It came from the John Newton collection, founder member of the Leica Society.

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[sandro]

I also bought the first and a few later editions of the Morgan & Lester Leica Manual, which was changed and expanded with new ideas and items every few years. From the outset it was about photography in general, with particular interest for Leica vamera's and equipment.

Lex

[willeica]

6 hours ago, Pyrogallol said:

I have a 1935 first edition of the Morgan and Lester book. It came from the John Newton collection, founder member of the Leica Society.

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I like the fact that they had some external independent authors and some articles which did not specifically relate to Leicas. This makes the book seem less claustrophobic and more of an educational asset. 

William 

[nf3996]

On 2/15/2024 at 10:13 AM, PG Black nickel said:

The future tense is used, which may mean that the 250 reporters had not yet been delivered to Tiranty at the time of printing. Is it mentioned in the 2nd or 3rd edition?

I've just acquired a 2nd edition of Natkin's book. (Very fast delivery from a secondhand book dealer in Germany.) The preface is dated June 1934 and the text about the Leica 250 is written in the future tense: '... sera particulièrement apprécié ...' and '... il évitera la perte de temps ...'.

Alan

[PG Black nickel]

The 4th edition of 1936 also used the future tense to refer to the 250 reporter, we might conclude that the 250 reporter was not delivered to France until 1936/37.

[nf3996]

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Another arrival from Germany to add to my collection: Curt Emmermann’s Photographieren mit der Leica. This is a small (17 x 12 cm) 184-page book that covers using the Leica I – Models A, B and C. My copy contains a preface dated Spring 1931, a translation of the first paragraph of which reads:

Preface to the fifth to seventh editions

The previous editions of this book were sold out within a few months. This unusual success once again proves two things: that the Leica has become very popular, and that there was a lack of a book to facilitate the work of Leica owners. It gives me great satisfaction to constantly receive letters of appreciation for my book.

I wonder when the first edition was published, and also how many editions this book ran to. Writing/publishing his Leica Technik magazine at the same time must have kept Emmermann busy.

Alan

 

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[sandro]

Alan, as far as I can find out the first edition of Photographieren mit der Leica is from 1930.

Lex