MAN RAY. Pseudonym of Emmanuel Radnitsky. Alphabet for Adults. Published by Copley Galleries. Beverly Hills. [December 1948]. In-4 (29 x 22,5 cm). (40) ff. : half-bound in the publisher's cream percaline, boards in rough cardboard, the first illustrated by Man Ray. The rarest and most surrealist of alphabets. Thirty-eight original plates by Man Ray (1890-1976). The artist studied and worked in Paris, except from 1940 to 1951 when he lived in Hollywood. He told the story that a teacher at his college, forty years earlier, had asked each of his students to draw an alphabet book with crazy letters for an illustrated book. He took the idea, drew and published Alphabets for Adults. Thirty-eight extremely imaginative drawings (often several drawings per letter) featuring a word whose name is written in a large cursive script across the illustration. Published for his friend Bill Copley (a pioneering gallery owner who, between 1946 and 1949, exhibited the Surrealists on the West Coast) and on the occasion of an exhibition of his "Shakespearean Equations Series". Limited edition of 500 copies printed in Los Angeles by Lynton R. Kistler, precious copy dedicated by Man Ray on the title page. "To Claude de Manneville, woman fairy child, Man Ray, Paris 1962". In mint condition.