The Beginnings of the Coffee Table Book

Where did the coffee table book come from?  Who invented the concept? Most frequently, David R. Brower is  given credit for being the inventor of  the modern day “coffee table book”.  During Mr. Brower’s tenure as the executive director of the Sierra Club, he developed an idea for a series of books that would combine photographs of nature with writing about nature, and with, in his own words, “a page size big enough to carry a given image’s dynamic. The eye must be required to move about within the boundaries of the image, not encompass it all in one glance.”  This still describes the coffee table books of today which frequently are anchored by gorgeous imagery that encourages a visitor to pick up the book for perusal while sitting on the sofa.