GETTING UP: Subway Graffiti in New York.

First edition, first printing of a foundational book about New York subway graffiti. Publisher's black cloth with metallic purple titles to the spine, in dustwrapper.Illustrated with four pages of colour photographs and black and white photographs throughout by Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant. An excellent near fine copy, the binding square and firm, the cloth and titles bright and fresh. The contents are clean throughout and without inscriptions or stamps. Complete with the very good rubbed, nicked and spine faded dustwrapper that has a couple of short closed tears with associated creasing and tiny chips to the corners. Not price-clipped ($15.00 to the upper front flap).

The first edition of one of the first scholarly publications on the subject of New York Subway Graffiti. Expanded from Castleman's dissertation at Columbia University, through candid interviews, in nine comprehensive chapters, he provides detailed insights into the history, motivations, experiences and approaches of New York graffiti writers and crews. The publication is also notable for the early appearance of photographs by the now legendary documentarians Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant, subsequently popularised in the writer's bible Subway Art (1984). Issued simultaneously in hardcover and paperback, the hardcover is relatively scarce in decent condition.