From A to B & Back Again. The Philosophy of Andy Warhol. by WARHOL, Andy - 1975

London: Cassell. A Michael Dempsey Book, 1975. First UK edition. 215x132mm. pp. [14], 241 [1bl]. Inscribed "Robert F. with love Andy Warhol" and accompanied by a drawing in black felt tip pen of a Campbell Pea Soup tin. Original cream coloured cloth, spine stamped in black. Original dust jacket with black and white photograph of Warhol. Dust jacket with light damp-staining to head of spine and along top edge of lower cover, some slight creasing at edges and small nicks to corners but overall in very good condition and internally excellent. "Robert F" is Robert Fraser, Warhol's London art dealer. Fraser was known as "Groovy Bob" for his connections to the rock aristocracy, especially Paul McCartney who described him as "one of the most influential people of the London Sixties scene". It was at his Mayfair flat ("one of the coolest sixties pads in London"), that McCartney started to take a serious interest in modern art, meeting and talking with Peter Blake, Claes Oldenburg and Warhol. Guided and inspired by Fraser, McCartney was largely responsible for the more overtly artistic elements of The Beatles's later career. And it was from Fraser that McCartney bought Magritte's painting of a green apple, Le Jeu de Mourre, which inspired the Beatles' Apple logo. Fraser was also close to the Rolling Stones, although their relationship was more narcotic than artistic, Fraser famously getting arrested with Jagger and Richards for drug possession and being sentenced to six months' hard labour. But "Groovy Bob" is, really, less than half the story and, anyway, he hated the nickname. He was a serious art dealer and did much to change and expand taste and to bring modern, experimental art to a wider audience. As well as his work with Blake and the Beatles, he represented Bridget Riley, Clive Barker, Richard Hamilton (in whose Swingeing London 67, based on photographs from the Stones drug bust, Fraser was shown handcuffed to Mick Jagger), Jim Dine (for an exhibition of whose "indecent but not obscene" work Fraser was charged and fined) and Ed Ruscha. Later, in the 1980s, shortly before his death, Fraser brought the work of Haring and Basquiat to Britain. It is unsurprising that Fraser should have been one of the myriad recipients of Warhol's "From A to B" but there is a nice story attached to this copy. Loosely inserted are two letters from a friend of Fraser's, Jaine Wilson, to whom he gave the book. In one of the letters, she recalls seeing the Warhol sketch and inscription and remarking that this must be a valuable book. With his trademark insouciance, Fraser replied: "You don't understand, it would be an unsigned copy that would be valuable". Maybe, but this is, nevertheless, a nice record of a link between two of the central figures of the 1960s art world.