The Death and Life of Great American Cities 

Jane Jacobs 

1961 First Printing.  Random House, New York
Octavo.  Gold and red letters on black cloth spine over red and black buckram cloth.  The author's masterpiece.  Sans dust jacket.  Gold endpapers. 458pp.  One of the most influential books on urban planning ever published.  The book ids a critique of 1950's urban planning policy, which it holds responsible for the decline of many city neighborhoods in the United States.  Going against the modernist planning dogma of the era, it proposes a newfound appreciation for organic urban vibrancy in the United States.  The New York Times described it "as perhaps the most influential single work in the history of town planning." Index.