LADY LISA LYON by Robert Mapplethorpe  1983 1st edition

Black and white photographic collection of Lisa Lyon. Includes nudity. An absolute classic by one of the world's great photographers. Rare First Edition, soft back, very good condition, bookseller's stamp inside front cover.

Text by Bruce Chatwin. One copy only.

Lisa Lyon is a famous female bodybuilder from the USA. Her stats as taken in October 1980: She stands at 5'3" and weighs only 105 pounds, she can dead-lift 225 pounds, bench-press 120 pounds, and squat 265 pounds; two and a half times her own weight.

Born in Los Angeles, California in 1953, Lisa Lyon is regarded as one of female bodybuilding's pioneers. She studied art at the University of California at Los Angeles, and became accomplished in kendo, the Japanese art of fencing. She began weight training to build more upper body strength for kendo.

Lyon entered and won the first IFBB Women’s World Pro Bodybuilding Championship in Los Angeles on June 16, 1979. This was the only bodybuilding competition of her career.

Nevertheless, she became a media sensation, appearing in many magazines and on television talk shows. She also wrote a book on weight training for women titled Lisa Lyon’s Body Magic which was published in 1981.

Lyon became the first female bodybuilder to appear in Playboy in October, 1980.

She was inducted into the IFBB Hall of Fame in 2000.

Photo left by Mapplethorpe.