Austen, Alice. Alice’s World: The Life and Photography of an American Original: Alice Austen, 1866-1952 by Ann Novotny.

Chatham, 1976. First edition, 226 pages. Preface by Oliver Jensen includes his account of meeting Alice Austen before she died in 1952. Fine in hard cover in black cloth with fair protected dust jacket with edge chips and tears.  Dust jacket is unclipped on front flap with original price until December 30, 1976. Austen has become well known for her exceptionally fine documentary photography in the late 1800s and early 1900s using glass plate negatives.  She came from a prosperous family in Staten Island but lost her large home (now a museum) and fortune as a result of the 1929 stock market crash and spent her last years in the poorhouse. She photographed both her upscale social class friends and the working class, including recent immigrants, in both Staten Island and Manhattan.  This book is profusely illustrated with her black and white photographs.  Summary:

Alice’s World: The Life and Photography of an American Original: Alice Austen, 1866–1952 by Ann Novotny is a biography of the pioneering American photographer Alice Austen. The book tells the story of Austen’s life while also presenting many of her photographs, showing how her work captured everyday life in New York during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Austen was born in 1866 and grew up in a large home called “Clear Comfort” on Staten Island. She developed an interest in photography as a young girl and eventually produced thousands of images using glass-plate negatives. Her photographs recorded many aspects of society, including her wealthy friends, immigrant workers, street vendors, and the changing city around New York Harbor. Through these pictures, she documented both private family life and the busy streets of the city.

The book also describes Austen’s adventurous and independent personality. At a time when women were expected to follow strict social rules, she traveled, rode bicycles with heavy camera equipment, and photographed subjects outside traditional studios. Her images show people at work, friends enjoying leisure activities, and important places such as the quarantine station near New York Harbor.

Novotny’s biography explains how Austen’s life changed over time. Although she grew up wealthy, she lost much of her fortune after the 1929 stock market crash and spent her later years in poverty. Near the end of her life, however, her photographs were rediscovered and recognized as important historical records of American life.

In summary:
Alice’s World tells the life story of Alice Austen and highlights her photography as an important record of New York society and culture. The book shows how her images preserved everyday moments and helped establish her as one of the early pioneers of documentary photography in the United States.

Alice Austen (1866–1952) was a pioneering American photographer whose prolific work provided a uniquely candid visual chronicle of late 19th- and early 20th-century New York. Raised on Staten Island at her family home, Clear Comfort, she received her first camera as a teenager in the late 1870s and subsequently produced over 7,000 glass-plate negatives. Operating outside the commercial portrait studio tradition, Austen carried heavy photographic equipment around the region to capture intimate, unscripted glimpses of elite social life, Victorian women challenging gender norms, and the working-class street life of Manhattan. After the 1929 stock market crash wiped out her wealth, she lost her home and spent years in obscurity and poverty until historian Oliver Jensen rediscovered her glass plates in 1950, securing her legacy as one of America's earliest and most vital female documentary photographers.