Big-Time Golf

New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc, 1992. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. LeRoy Neiman. Format is approximately 10 inches by 12 inches. 175, [1] pages. Color dust jacket has slight wear and soiling. 193 illustrations, including 170 in full color (per DJ). Signed by the author/artist on the half-title page. The Contents include an Introduction, The Players, The Courses, Jack and Arnie, and Golf's "Fore-Letter" Words. LeRoy Neiman (born LeRoy Leslie Runquist, June 8, 1921 - June 20, 2012) was an American artist known for his brilliantly colored, expressionist paintings and screenprints of athletes, musicians, and sporting events. Neiman served in the U.S. Army during World War II. Following his return in 1946, Neiman studied at the School of The Art Institute of Chicago on the G.I. Bill. After graduating, Neiman served on the Art Institute faculty for ten years. During the time Neiman was teaching, he was exhibiting art in competitions and winning prizes. In 1954, Neiman began his association with Playboy magazine. Neiman met Hugh Hefner while doing freelance fashion illustration. Hefner and Playboy art director Art Paul commissioned an illustration for the magazine's fifth edition. Over the next 50 years, he regularly contributed to the magazine and he created the Femlin character for the Party Jokes page, and did a feature titled "Man at His Leisure", where he would paint illustrations of exotic locations. Beginning in 1960, he traveled the world observing and painting social activities and athletic competitions including the Olympics, Super Bowl, World Series, Kentucky Derby, boxing, PGA and The Masters, Ryder Cup, World Equestrian Games, Wimbledon and other Grand Slam competitions. America's most popular sports artist turns his attention to one of America's favorite and fastest-growing sports. In lively, colorful paintings and sketches, Neiman introduces us to golf legends, pioneers, and starts of the 1980s and 1990s--both on and off the green. This is Neiman's tribute to "the splendors of world-class golf, its premier players and courses" through vivid on-the-spot sketches, majestic panoramas, and commentary. Neiman focuses not only on the post-War masters of the game but also the caddies who helped shave strokes off their rounds, the crowds who sought inspiration from the long, arcing drives, chip shots, and round-winning and heartbreaking putts that defined two generations of competitors and the lush, verdant landscapes they dominated.