A coffee table book is really a book intended for display on coffee tables. The modern day “coffee table book” is said to be created by David R. Brower. He served as the Sierra Club’s Executive Director and developed an idea for a book series that would combine nature photorgraphs with writings on nature, and with “a page size big enough to carry a given image’s dynamic.” in his words. He continued that “The eye must be required to move about within the boundaries of the image, not encompass it all in one glance.” “This is the American Earth” was the first of this type of coffee table book. It contained Ansel Adams photographs (with the work of other photographers) and text by Nancy Newhall. In 1960 this book was published and the series was known as the “Exhibit Format” series. Eventually, nineteen other titles were published.
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