Search Results: THEATER from Antipodean Books, Maps & Prints

1935. Very good condition. The handwritten letter concerns a letter from Madame Mendes, wife of Catulle Mendes, creator of "La Revue Fantasiste". The couple were prominent in the 1930's french artistic scene and their daughters were painted by Renoir. Addressed to "Mon Cher Ami", he states he is returning a letter from Mme. Mendes without opening it. He states he wrote the article with love and respect, and if it contains inaccuracies, it's that he tries to paint fast and through all sorts of fog. The ensemble is correct. He also states that when he knew Mendes, he was no longer living at home, and spoke of his wife without sweetness. He says he liked and admired her, and he does not change. Signed Jean Cocteau, with the characteristic 5 pointed star below. Jean Cocteau (1889-1963), French poet, novelist, playwright, visual artist, and film director. He is considered to be one of the most creative, diversified artists of the twentieth century.

New York, 1842. Addressed from "New York House of Rep.ys. Feby 21st 1842". The writer appeals to Townsend to modify a bill supporting the "Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents". He says that theaters have long acted as safe havens for wayward youth, and wishes to continue as such, which the bill, he suggests, impairs. He gives several examples: "It is only a few days since a Boy - the son of an Albany City Marshall was sent us having been guilty of stealing some 7 or 9 dollar! And this for the purpose of enabling (sic) him to attend a theatrical exhibition - and a Girl of our City borrowed 10 Dollars in her Aunts name for the purpose of giving to the Theater ..." He concludes, "it does not seem necessary to kill that law Just Now." Townsend family members were prominent Revolutionary War patriots & iron workers (one manufactured the West Point Chain across the Hudson River), with homes in Oyster Bay Long Island (Raynham Hall) & Orange County, NY. 2pp on 4 leaves, contemporary folds,… Read More

London: Longmans & Green, 1914. Hardcover. Very good +. '"The Adoration of the Soldiers" is a short mystery play which was suggested to M. Cammaerts during a visit he paid to the Belgian trenches in Christmas Week'. Folio, 55pp, b&w frontis, with b&w illus, tipped in, throughout. Illustrated by Louis Raemaekers. In both English and French, with the English text on the left page and the French on the right. Off white boards with decorative gilt title and illustration on front cover; no title on spine. Internally, bright and very clean. Lacks only the cloth ties at the front and back covers. Very scarce.

London: GP Putnams Sons, 1925. 8vo, 147pp. Yellow buckram, gilt title, without dust jacket as issued. Vgc.

Hubbell, Horatio. Arnold, or the Treason of West Point: A Tragedy, in Five Acts. Philadelphia (no pub.), 1847, 1st edition. Sml. 8vo, 3/4 maroon morocco over marbled boards, spine gilt, t.e.g., by Bradstreet's of London. 76pp. Rubbed along edges, 2 bookplates, but a very nice copy and an interesting specimen of an obscure American imprint bound by a venerable English firm. Despite the title, this wordy dramatization of events that occurred during the American War of Independence centers less on Benedict Arnold than on the romantic, unlucky Major Andre and concludes with his soliloquies. the play is thoroughly Shakespearean in its language, use of iambic pentameter, and frequent extended soliloquies. Little seems to be recorded of its author, who also produced a pamphlet on the state of affairs at Yale University in 1855 and an annotated edition of Euclid in 1861. One of the bookplates is that of Thomas Addis Emmet (1828-1919), an eminent American gynecologist, surgeon and physician, collector of… Read More

London, 1948. Hardcover. Very good overall. Signed by Sumner Locke Elliot on ffep, Australian novelist and playwright. Publisher's boards bright, dj a little sunned and chipped.

Martin Secker, London 1915, 1st edition. 8vo, 174pp, portrait frontis. Orig. blue gilt cloth, faintly rubbed o/w vgc.

New York: Lith. of Chas. Hart, 99 Fulton Street, 1866. A rare print illustrating a New York City street scene. A bill poster sleeping in the lower right leaning against a street lamp; and young woman adjusting her shoes on the left. On a wall stating "Post No Bills" there is a panoply of handbills. The handbills are a microcosm of the issues of the day incl. Barnums Museum, lectures by Horace Greeley, Artemus Ward and Henry Ward Beecher; "The Woman in White" at Barnums and "Quick Passage!! for Australia!! The Fast Sailing Copper Bottom Clipper" and "To California via the Overland Route". This copy missing the title below the image, but recorded ONLY at the American Antiquarian Society as number #152237 as (No. 2) Bill-Poster's Dream, (No. 2) Cross Reading to be read downwards. Published by August Brentano. Bookseller & Stationer, 708, Broadway, New York. This copy with an indistinct registration date, 186? but conforms with AAS # 152237. Below the print text - Derby, Del. / Entered according to… Read More

New York: John Darcie & Wardle Corbyn, 1855. Wraps. Good condition. Pamphlet promoting Rachel Felix (1821 - 1858) popular French tragedienne and mistress of Napoleon III, to a New York audience. With frontispiece heliograph b&w portrait of the actress titled "Rachel dans Phedre". Tall 8vo, frontispiece, 22pp. In the original blue printed wrappers. Wrappers dusty, chipped at spine and marked at rear cover; foxing at late pages. OCLC: 12097906 records 7 copies.

Sydney: Caxton Steam Machine Printing Office, 1871. Wraps. Very good - condition. Scarce biographical booklet, the only one on Ristori published in Sydney, describing the life of the Italian actress Adelaide Ristori, renowned as a tragedienne. Ristori visited Australia with a large Italian entourage for 4 months in 1875, performing in Ballarat, Melbourne and Sydney, and this booklet was likely published as a promotional piece for the tour. This Australian booklet is not dated, although Ferguson's Bibliography of Australia assigns a date ca. 1871. It was translated from Italian into English to be used as an advertising piece for Ristori's 1875 Australia tour. It was published at the Caxton printing office, which was functioning under that name until 1876. Adelaide Ristori (1822 - 1906) toured widely, including Paris (1855, 1856), London, Madrid (1857), and the United States (1866). The booklet describes Ristori's American visits: the first tour was mainly in the North, the events of the Civil War… Read More

New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1924. First edition. Hardcover. Good + overall. The first known appearance in a book by Thomas Clayton Wolfe in the form of his play "The Return of Buck Gavin, the Tragedy of a Mountain Outlaw." Wolfe also played the lead in the 1919 first stage production and this book includes a photo at the play's start here depicts a bearded Wolfe as the title character. Published with four other plays. 8vo, xxxiv, 174 pp (last blank) (7pp) ads. Printed DJ with the original price blanked out but visible. Jacket dirty and chipped o/w a good + copy. Durham inscription dated 1924.

Paris, 1950. Wraps. Good + overall. Post WWII magazine with wonderful photographic illustrations of French actresses and dancers. 4to, 36pp, b&w illustrations, color plate. Color printed pictorial wrappers, front wrapper, "Xenia Monty"; rear wrapper with color advertisement for "La Parisienne de Touchagues". Wrappers slightly dusty, detached, but present.

New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1925. Illustrated with scenes from the photoplay. A Ritz-Paramount Picture starring Rudolph Valentino. Novelized from Martin Brown's stage play. 8vo, 282, 2 pp ads. Bright publishers green cloth titled in orange. Pictorial dj, spine ends chipped, 2" out of bottom, but bright. Scarce.

London: Nonesuch Press, 1927. Limited edition. Hardcover. Very good overall. Edition ltd. to 1300 sets, this one of 1190 on machine-made paper, 4 volumes, 4to, 10 plates, including a portrait of Vanbrugh and a floor plan of his Blenheim estate which he designed. Original blue buckram & blue papered boards, with paper spine label. Spine slightly sunned with minor mark. Overall, very good and sound. The plays were edited by Bonamy Dobree, and the letters by Geoffrey Webb.

Paris: Mifliez, Passage Vendome, 1846. A four volume set of French costumes with 640 impressive color plates, 'with notes on the origin of French fashion, design and uses at various periods of the monarchy." Dates of the volumes: v1 1846; v2 1845; v3 1838; v4 1846. 4 vols., 8vo, red leather spines with marbled boards, marbled endpapers. V1 168pp, v2 312pp, v3 320pp, v4 320pp. Boards marked, spines rubbed, vol 2 and 4 with chip at spine foot, vol 4 has a large removed paper label mark. Internally slt foxing throughout, plates are crisp and beautiful.

New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1958. Hardcover. This standard work on dance & drama of Bali, with excellent photo-plates by Walter Spies. Sml. 4to, 343pp, 112 plts, 1 folding map. Orig. green cloth good+, spine sunned.

Grove Press, NY 1964, 1st printing. 8vo, 352pp. Orig. publishers cloth & printed dj, predominantly black & white, red title. Fine/vg+. "The Most Controversial Play of Our Time", referring to Pope Pius XII refusal to condemn the Holocaust.

Paris: Librairie Theatrale, 1921. Hardcover. Very good condition. A charming presentation copy with an amusing self portrait by Leopold Marchand, showing the author in profile, wearing wire rim spectacles and smoking a cigarette: " A Monsieur Wilton (Rene Baer) au meme n'oublierait pas de boire ... (pour la premiere et veridique fois) le ... DERNIER ..." A play by Marchand and Savoir, presented by Marchand to a fellow writer. Marchand (1891 - 1952) is known for his work with Colette, notably 'Cheri'. A printed invitation card to the 14 January 1953 memorial mass at the Eglise Saint Louis Des Invalides, loosely inserted. Large 12mo, 48 pp, the original wrappers bound in. Half cream cloth and marbled boards, gilt title on black spine label. Rene Baer bookplate at corner of title page. OCLC: 25424672 records 6 copies, at the New York Public Library, Vassar, Yale, Library of Congress, Rutgers and Brown.

Guilford: Billing and Sons, 1881. Hardcover. Very good overall. A scarce volume with a handsome Robert Anning Bell designed bookplate for Emily Stevens Ladenburg [1865 - 1937]. Emily was the wife of banker Adolph Ladenburg, co-founder in 1876 of the American merchant bank Ladenburg Thalmann. Bound by Macmillan and Bowes, Cambridge. Slim 8vo, 46pp, (1) viii (&) Part II, title "Oedipus at Athens", 45pp. Black 3/4 leather with marbled boards, gilt title at spine. Upper back corner rubbed away. OCLC:17454306, at 9 libraries.

London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1929. Very good in fair dj. 8vo, 1599. Blue buckram cover with title, and gilt on spine. Dusty dj with some markings; spine of dj darkened, o/w very good. Limited edition of 375, of which this volume is number 216, numbered and signed by the author. Uncut.