Anneke Hilhorst, Ed van der Elsken — dagboek van een beginneling

Amsterdam: uitgeverij bert bakker. First edition, first printing. 143 pp.. Condition: Near Fine (NF). Some toning to wrappers , minor tonig to paper, else fine. Photographs, expressive drawings and diary entries follow a young woman from nine months before the birth of her son to nine months after: the pregnancy, the delivery and the baby's first year. Some of the photographs are by Ed van der Elsken, her husband. The diary voice is frank, serious and often humorous, that of a warm-hearted young woman who follows the physical and psychological changes she goes through with curiosity. She treats the birth as the third great historical event of her life, after her own birth and her death, and sets out to make something of it. She wanted a child while continuing work that mattered to her, and presents this personal experience as a universal one: the upheaval a birth brings and what it is like to watch a baby grow up close by. The book is a photographer's illustrated diary, with an extensive bibliography at the end. The cover was designed by Anthon Beeke and the typography is by Tessa Fagel.