W. Eugene Smith's Pittsburgh photographs are widely considered to constitute one of the greatest city portraits in the history of photography. Smith himself saw them as the central, pivotal work of his storied career, despite the fact that his ambitions for it were such that they were never fully realized. Over the course of three years -- 1955, 56 & 57 -- spent on and off in Pittsburgh, Smith made 17,000 photographs of the city in his attempt to push beyond the limitations of the photo essay and expand the boundries of the medium of photography to create a grand, unified work of art akin to a symphony or a novel. Editor Stephenson has distilled the essence of this massive effort into the 175 duotone photographs that fill this 10" x 11" softcover volume. Many of these will be instantly recognizable to any Pittsburgher as they have been reproduced so often, but they take on added meaning and new life when viewed in the context of the over-arching narrative created by the assemblage collected here, which presents an unmatched portrait of Pittsburgh, PA smack in the middle of the American Century. Stephenson and Trachtenberg provide biographical and historical contexts that add immensely to the appreciation and comprehension of the work. This is a work that will be treasured by Pittsburghers, admired by artists, photographers, critics and connoisseurs, and valued by historians for many years to come.