David Leopold

A beautiful gift-ready collection of 25 removable, ready-to-frame prints by Al Hirschfeld featuring some of the most recognizable icons of the 20th century “To be a star on Broadway is to have one’s name in lights, yes, but it is also, and more significantly, to be drawn by Hirschfeld.” —Brendan Gill When it comes to icons, Al Hirschfeld captured just about all from his era: Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin, Elvis Presley, Liza Minnelli, Julie Andrews, Sammy Davis Jr., Chita Rivera, Richard Pryor, Laurel and Hardy, and the Marx Brothers. Hirschfeld’s drawings over an unprecedented 80-year career have often become the definitive representations of these performers. Hirschfeld’s Icons contains the master's portraits of these icons, some of the greatest actors, actresses, musicians, movie, and TV stars of the past century. No other artist has had a front-row seat to pop culture the way Hirschfeld did. Accompanied by expert commentary and biographies by David Leopold, the foremost expert on Hirschfeld and the Creative Director of the Al Hirschfeld Foundation, we showcase the best of the best—including rare images from the archives and an all-new introduction by Dick Cavett. According to Merriam-Webster, an icon is “a person or thing widely admired especially for having great influence or significance in a particular sphere.” Hirschfeld’s Icons captures not just the most memorable roles of these icons from theater, film, music, dance, and television—a tour de force of some of the greatest entertainers of the last 100 years—but it reaffirms Hirschfeld’s legacy as one of our most iconic artists as well. Plus don't miss Hirschfeld's Sondheim, the perfect collection of 25 favorite Al Hirschfeld portraits drawn from Stephen Sondheim’s musicals.

This handsome volume presents 25 favorite Al Hirschfeld portraits drawn from Stephen Sondheim’s musicals. The art prints in this oversize poster book can be easily removed and framed, making it an ideal gift for Sondheim fans. This first volume in a series of deluxe Hirschfeld poster books contains art drawn from life before the opening night of each of Sondheim’s productions. On the reverse side are rare, ancillary images from the archives, as well as an introduction by Bernadette Peters, an essay by Ben Brantley, and text by David Leopold, Hirschfeld’s archivist and creative director of the Al Hirschfeld Foundation. Hirschfeld’s images capture the essence of the performances even better than the photographs of the shows. All of Sondheim’s best-known plays are included—West Side Story, Follies, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, and Sunday in the Park with George. Al Hirschfeld drew his first Sondheim show in 1957—West Side Story. In his iconic, illustrative style, Hirschfeld captured almost all of Sondheim’s Broadway shows and several films featuring the composer’s songs and scripts. Sondheim was a Hirschfeld collector, acquiring drawings directly from the artist and through his friends and collaborators like Hal Prince. In his last interview just five days before his death on November 26, 2021, the New York Times ran a photo of Sondheim in his home with an image of Hirschfeld’s Putting it Together in the background. All images for this book have been scanned from the archives of the Al Hirschfeld Foundation, ensuring the highest possible quality.

The Young Karl Marx is an innovative and important study of Marx's early writings. These writings provide the fascinating spectacle of a powerful and imaginative intellect wrestling with complex and significant issues, but they also present formidable interpretative obstacles to modern readers. David Leopold shows how an understanding of their intellectual and cultural context can illuminate the political dimension of these works. An erudite yet accessible discussion of Marx's influences and targets frames the author's critical engagement with Marx's account of the emergence, character, and (future) replacement of the modern state. This combination of historical and analytical approaches results in a sympathetic, but not uncritical, exploration of such fundamental themes as alienation, citizenship, community, anti-semitism, and utopianism. The Young Karl Marx is a scholarly and original work which provides a radical and persuasive reinterpretation of Marx's complex and often misunderstood views of German philosophy, modern politics, and human flourishing.