The Book of Fair Women
In 1920 the modalities of feminine beauty were in upheaval and fashion was the banner of the new woman’s liberal style. Already famous in the London magazines for his portraits of fashion beauties, Hoppé chose to make a pseudo-typological study of the world’s most beautiful women, defining an ideal “type” for each country. Britain’s Anglo-Saxon women are compared to their Nordic, Latin, Asian, Polynesian, and African counterparts under the ironical synonym that “Fair” equals "Beautiful." This controversial approach was sure to win Hoppé great publicity, which it did. One New York reviewer expressed his indignation at the scope of Hoppé’s approach when he wrote, “How can Mr. Hoppé possibly think that women of dusky skin can be considered beautiful.” Notice that the white-skinned women have individual names and representative countries but that women of darker skin, designated by country, generally go unnamed.

New York’s Alfred A. Knopf edition is a large-format limited-edition book with hand-made Batik-style paper binding and masterfully made tipped-in gravure plates. It is an exquisite object by itself. London’s Jonathan Cape edition is a smaller format of a more modest binding but has the same high-quality tipped–in gravure plates.