The Art of the Dance [INSCRIBED BY ISADORA'S FIRST STUDENT]

New York: Theatre Arts, Inc, 1928. First edition. Hardcover. Very good condition. Quarto. (12) 147 (1)pp. Plus 33 plates. Original tan linen over blue paper-covered boards with paper labels on front cover and spine. Vignette on title page. Facsimile signatures of Isadora Duncan on front & rear pastedowns. Illustrated with photographs by Arnold Genthe and Edward Steichen and reproductions of original drawings by Leon Bakst, Antoine Bourdelle, José Clara, Maurice Denis,Grandjouan,August von Kaulbach,van Deering Perrine, Auguste Rodin, Dunoyer de Segonzac and Abraham Walkowitz. Inscribed and signed on the front free endpaper by Maria-Theresa Duncan, dated October 8th 1940. Spine a bit browned with head & spine a bit chipped. Spine label browned & chipped but no loss of lettering.

Maria-Theresa Duncan (nee Kruger) (1895-1987) was one of six young dancers legally adopted by Isadora Duncan and known as ''les Isadorables.'' She first came to Isadora Duncan's attention as a child dancing in a Christmas pageant.

"Not a dancer was Isadora, but a prophet speaking the unique world language, voicing a beauty not only immense and sublime, but within the reach of and understood by the mass..." (Raymond Duncan). "Isadora was to me something at once magical and elemental, like dawn at the edge of the sea, pine trees in a quiet moonlight grove, or bells ringing from far, undefineable distances." (Mary Fanton Roberts). (Inventory #: 52695)