Peter's ABC Book

The natural world is a magical maze in the eyes of a child—everything appears bigger and more colorful, and nothing is ordinary. With this in mind, Chicago artist and photographer Robert Amft designed an alphabet book for his son Peter. The result, beautifully published here, is a wholly unique children’s book chronicling Peter’s encounters with the everyday environment. 

Originally conceived in the 1940s as a piece of art that could be published and sold by Amft’s wife if he was killed fighting in World War II, Amft invested the book as much with artistic skill and imagination as with love for his son. Amft’s arresting collages uniquely convey the complex and unpredictable ways that Peter, like so many young children, interacts with his surroundings. Alternately charming, unexpected, and mysterious, the images juxtapose and meld the natural and unnatural. 

A richly illustrated book holding as many treasures for the attentive adult as for the inquisitive child, Peter’s ABC Book is a rare gift from a pivotal figure in American art.