The Princess Bride by William Goldman

First Ballantine Books Hardcover Edition, Second Printing. From the library of author and screenwriter William Goldman with his estate stamp which reads, “from the library of William Goldman (1931 - 2018)”. Includes the first chapter of the long-lost sequel, Buttercup’s Baby. Fine fresh copy in a near fine bright dust jacket with a 1/3” tear to the top of the front spine fold. The basis of the acclaimed motion picture written by William Goldman, directed by Rob Reiner, with a terrific ensemble cast, including Robin Wright, Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Christopher Guest, Chris Sarandon, Wallace Shawn, Andre the Giant, Peter Falk, Fred Savage, and Billy Crystal. The film was released in the U.S. on September 25, 1987 and, while while well received by the critics, it was slow to take off at the box office. Over time, however, the film has become a cult classic - especially after it hit the home video market, making it to the tops of many ‘best of’ film lists over the years, including internationally. The director Rob Reiner had been enamored of the book ever since he was given it as a gift by his father Carl Reiner and was determined to adapt it into a film. William Goldman was a masterful storyteller with a great capacity for insight and relevance, making his entire body of work shine as much now as it ever did. Three of his scripts have been voted into the Writers Guild of America Hall-of-Fame's 101 Greatest Screenplays list; Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President’s Men - both of which won him an Oscar, and The Princess Bride which he adapted from his own novel. “You can only write what you can make play,” Goldman says in the Writers Speak DVD. “It’s all about the story. You’ve gotta think, I can make this play.” His enormously successful film writing and script doctoring career includes so many other greats; Harper (1966), No Way to Treat a Lady (1968), The Stepford Wives (1975), A Bridge Too Far (1977), The Hot Rock (1972), Papillon (1973 - as an uncredited contributing writer), The Great Waldo Pepper (1975), The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) and Marathon Man (1976) and Magic (1978) which were both adapted from his own novels. Some of his other published works include the novels Boys and Girls Together (1964), Tinsel (1979), Control (1982), The Silent Gondoliers (1983), The Color of Light (1984), Heat (1985), and the memoirs Adventures in the Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood and Screenwriting (1983), Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures in the Screen Trade (2000), Wait Till Next Year (1988), and Hype and Glory (1990). William Goldman had this simple advice for would-be screenwriters: “Go and see a movie all day long.” His reasoning was that, by evening, utterly bored with the movie, one would start observing the audience and realize what makes people tick - the true source of and inspiration for all great storytelling.…