Happy Times, Signed by Jerome Zerbe and Brendan Gill
[Signed by Jerome Zerbe and Brendan Gill] Zerbe, Jerome. Happy Times. First Edition. 1973. Book and dust jacket are both in very good condition. Text by Brendan Gill. Book is signed by both Jerome Zerbe and Brendan Gill on the half title page.
Society lensmen Jerome Zerbe teamed up with Brendan Gill for this retrospective of Zerbe’s life and work. Included are his Depression-era party photos of El Morocco; his Hollywood adventures in which he did more than simply photograph stars—he became lifelong friends with them; and his World War II photographs, as the staff photographer for Admiral Chester Nimitz. Zerbe was an unapologetic bon vivant who preferred to focus on the good times, but he did not exactly gloss over them. He shares his opinion of the celebrities and social figures with whom he interacted and photographed, and because it was buried in a book of photographs, it was considerably more direct than otherwise might have been possible.
“[Zerbe] is a dedicated hedonist, with convictions as strong as any follower of Calvin. To him it is evident that to be joyous, even selfishly joyous, enriches life, while to be despairing, even unselfishly despairing, cheapens it.”
--Brendan Gill