{"product_id":"how-on-earth-does-one-respond-to-a-letter-comparing-the-price-of-hamburgers-to-that-of-great-art","title":"How on earth does one respond to a letter comparing the price of hamburgers to that of great art?","description":"\u003ch2\u003eAnsel Adams, Yosemite, and the Price of Great Art\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eAn Inscribed Adams Presentation Copy with Bill Turnage Letter and Yosemite Association Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eADAMS, Ansel. \u003cem\u003eAnsel Adams.\u003c\/em\u003e Hastings-on-Hudson, New York: Morgan \u0026amp; Morgan, 1972. First edition, second printing, October 1972.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA compelling Yosemite association group centered on an inscribed Ansel Adams presentation copy and accompanied by a remarkable typed signed letter from Bill Turnage preserving a pointed but cordial disagreement about Yosemite, value, concessions, and the meaning of art itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe group connects three important figures within the modern history of Yosemite: Ansel Adams, the photographer most identified with the visual mythology and conservation identity of the Sierra Nevada; Don Hummel, president of Yosemite Park \u0026amp; Curry Co., the concession company responsible for much of the park’s visitor infrastructure; and Bill Turnage, Adams’s manager, intermediary, and later managing trustee of the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat survives here is not simply a signed Adams book, but a preserved Yosemite-world exchange involving photography, commerce, conservation, artistic value, and mutual respect despite disagreement.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eThe Yosemite Association\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe association itself is unusually strong.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnsel Adams needs little introduction: photographer, environmental advocate, Sierra Club figure, and perhaps the single most influential visual interpreter of Yosemite in American cultural history. His photographs helped define how generations imagined wilderness, the American West, and the moral seriousness of conservation itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDon Hummel occupied a very different but equally important Yosemite role. As president of Yosemite Park \u0026amp; Curry Co., he oversaw the practical and commercial infrastructure of the park: lodging, food service, concessions, visitor experience, circulation, and the realities of managing enormous public tourism within a protected landscape.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBill Turnage functioned between these worlds. As Adams’s manager and representative, and later president of the Wilderness Society, he occupied both the artistic and conservation sides of the Yosemite conversation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe present group therefore preserves an unusually layered intersection of Yosemite culture: art, business, environmental stewardship, tourism, and personal diplomacy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eThe “Hamburgers” Letter\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe extraordinary centerpiece of the group is Bill Turnage’s typed signed letter to Don Hummel dated 3 August 1973.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe letter responds to an earlier exchange apparently involving the value of Adams’s original photographs in comparison with concession pricing inside Yosemite. Turnage writes with humor, restraint, and unmistakable sharpness:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“How on earth does one respond to a letter comparing the price of hamburgers to that of great art?”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe sentence transforms the group from ordinary signed material into something far more revealing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTurnage frames Adams not merely as a photographer, but as “the finest and most renowned creative photographer in the entire world,” while simultaneously preserving a relationship warm enough to continue exchanging gifts and personal regard.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe closing line is especially remarkable:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I hope you will accept this gift as a token of our continuing affection...if not full agreement!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat phrase captures the historical interest of the entire archive. The disagreement is real, but so is the mutual respect.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eThe Presentation Copy\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe included volume is Adams’s major Morgan \u0026amp; Morgan monograph published in 1972 and inscribed by Adams to Don and Jeanne Hummel:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“For Don and Jeanne Hummel\u003cbr\u003eWith many fond regards\u003cbr\u003eYosemite 5-4-73\u003cbr\u003eAnsel Adams”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe personal nature of the inscription matters. The book was not merely sent institutionally to Yosemite Park \u0026amp; Curry Co., but specifically to the Hummels themselves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTurnage’s letter further explains that he personally asked Adams to inscribe the volume for them, making the presentation a consciously mediated gesture within the context of ongoing disagreement.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eThe Signed Adams Reproduction\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlso included is a signed Adams photolithographic card\/reproduction of \u003cem\u003eFern Spring, Dusk, Yosemite Valley, California\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe reverse identifies the image as a photolithographic reproduction after Adams’s photograph, produced using Polaroid Type 55 P\/N 4x5 Land film and printed by George Waters in San Francisco. While not an original gelatin silver print, the signed reproduction remains an attractive Yosemite-associated Adams item in its own right and strengthens the coherence of the group materially and visually.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eIncluded in the Group\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIncluded are:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnsel Adams, \u003cem\u003eAnsel Adams.\u003c\/em\u003e Morgan \u0026amp; Morgan, 1972. First edition, second printing, hardcover in dust jacket.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAdams inscription to Don and Jeanne Hummel dated 5-4-73.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSigned Adams photolithographic reproduction card of \u003cem\u003eFern Spring, Dusk, Yosemite Valley, California.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTyped signed Bill Turnage letter to Don Hummel dated 3 August 1973.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOriginal related mailing envelope addressed to Don Hummel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eCondition\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBook very good or better overall.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDust jacket present in protective cover with toning, creasing, edgewear, and several tears or closed tears, especially to the rear panel. Interior generally clean. Adams inscription strong and legible.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe signed reproduction card and Turnage letter show expected folds, handling wear, and light age toning consistent with correspondence material. Envelope preserved.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn unusually vivid Yosemite association archive connecting Ansel Adams, Yosemite concession culture, wilderness politics, artistic value, and one of the most revealing surviving letters of Adams-related social exchange.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Atelier Zweig Rare Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46864860577980,"sku":null,"price":390.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/1285\/3436\/files\/adams-2.png?v=1779667111","url":"https:\/\/atelierzweig.com\/products\/how-on-earth-does-one-respond-to-a-letter-comparing-the-price-of-hamburgers-to-that-of-great-art","provider":"Atelier Zweig Rare Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}