J. BRYAN - Siege. 1940. photos from Warsaw in IX 1939.

BRYAN Julien - Siege. Introduction and captions by Maurice Hindu. Illustrated with photographs by the Author. New York 1940; Doubleday, Doran & Co. 4, pp. 64, plates 48. o.b. f., wraps.
Abrasions, minor loss and a taped over-tear of the wraps, minor yellowing of the last page of text, good condition overall. Handwritten dedication by the author on the front pastedown. Book dedicated in print to the President of Warsaw Stefan Starzyński, "a very brave man". An introduction introducing the author's silhouette is followed by Julien Bryan's account of his stay in Warsaw during the first days of the war. The American documentary filmmaker and photographer arrived in the capital on the 7th, leaving it on September 21, 1939. He published the photo and memoir material he collected at the time in the pages of Life and Look magazines, and in 1940 published the book presented here. But it is not the author's memories, though valuable, that make this publication valuable and unique. The most valuable part of it is the 48 photographs taken by the author, placed at the end. The poignant photographs show groups of men preparing defensive tranches, bombed buildings and their occupants organizing life in the courtyard, the destroyed headquarters of the American consulate, a demolished church, slaughtered animals, groups of refugees, a maternity hospital in a basement, the remains of an enemy plane, victims of air raids, prisoners of war during interrogation, and a queue for bread. The album also includes one of Bryan's most famous photos: a distraught little girl leans over her slain sister. In another photograph, the cinematographer tries to comfort the same girl; he titled the picture "What could I say?". Equally dramatic is an image that captures a boy sitting next to the corpse of his mother, who was shot while digging potatoes. One photograph shows a young boy sitting on the rubble. The same boy (identified as 9-year-old Ryszard Pajewski) appears, in a slightly different shot, on the back photomontage cover of Teresa Żarnowerówna's 1942 book "Defending Warsaw."
The book was also published in 1960 and 2010.