Alphabet World by Barry Miller (1971)

 

In 1993 artist Stephen T. Johnson published an acclaimed book called "Alphabet City" where each letter of the alphabet was represented by some object in the real world. Turns out back in 1971 an artist/graphic designer named Barry S. Miller published an even cooler book pioneering the same idea. Miller even photographed a police/security barrier for his A, which is also what Johnson used. Both images appear on the cover each book! I don't have a copy of Alphabet City, but I wonder if there is any other duplication. I really like the fonts and design of the Miller book. 

 

The best part about this book are the overlays made from translucent vellum paper that help the reader see the letter in the photographic image.  The vellum was ripped on the first page of our copy, but that kind of shows the effect:

 Here is the overlay and the underlying page side by side:

 The only colors are yellow, orange, and red.

 

Previous Book: Miss Suzy

Miguel's Mountain by Bill Binzen (1968)

There was a time that this one might have ended up remixed and on the Terrifying Nixon-Era Children's books shelf, but I like Miguel's Mountain a bit too much to be so mean. It's a story of a group of free range kids' imaginations running wild with a makeshift play structure in a well-used city park. Author/photographer Bill Binzen was inspired by the kids he saw playing on the dirt mountain left by construction in in Tompkins Square Park in New York City. It's a nice little story about kids teaching the adults in their community an important lesson, and the adults taking the time to actually listen.

 

 

Previous Book:The Green Machine

What is it for? by Henry Humphrey (1969)

I love books written for city kids. What is it For? is photographer Henry Humphrey's effort to highlight and explain the functions of those various elements of a city's infrastructure that a kid might have questions about; he picks the sort of things most adults walk past every day without thinking about, and his explanations might even illuminate their uses to more than a few of us. He wrote several such children's books, and this one was selected by the New York Times as a top illustrated book in 1969. Mr. Humphrey died last fall, and I found this great picture of him in an online obituary:

 

I love the examples like this that you still see in cities but might not be used so much anymore; vestiges of an earlier time.

Look at this &%$#ing hipster.

 

Previous Book: Mary and Marie