Bertram Gabriel (2 results)

Revised First Draft script for an unproduced film. With a single manuscript ink annotation to the inside rear wrapper, noting a name and phone number. Loosely based on the 1982 "Life" magazine article "To Die in Lima: a Cocaine Tragedy, the Tale of an American Who Got Mixed Up in the Drug Trade" by Bertram Gabriel. An American farmer visiting Lima after a life-threatening heart attack is conned into working as a drug mule, leading to his arrest and torturous detainment by the Peruvian government. Set in the Sierra Mountains, California and Lima, Peru. White titled wrappers. Title page present, dated January 26, 1984, noted as REVISED FIRST DRAFT, with credits for screenwriter Bill Kerby. 132 leaves, with last page of text numbered 129. Xerographic duplication, rectos only, with five blue revision pages at the end of the script, two dated 2/21/84. Pages Near Fine, wrapper Very Good plus overall, bound with two gold brads.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. First Edition Thus. As stated on the colophon, the first complete edition, this one of 500 copies on French paper, with lettering and decorations by Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, in a custom, inlay leather binding by Virginia Chester, signed and dated 1911. Full dark green crushed morocco, elaborately decorated front and rear covers and their versos, aeg. Executed in Art Nouveau style perfectly appropriate to Goodhue's decorations. Signed by Chester with gilt pressed conjoined initials VC flanked by 19 and 11 (for 1911) at the bottom of the rear inside cover. Spine moderately worn, corners worn, joints, too, more noticeably to front, and shallow loss at spine ends, more noticeably at top. Chester dropped out of university in Illinois in 1902 due to illness, and took up bookbinding as a hobby. She never returned to college but continued professionally with bookbinding, studying in Chicago with Gertrude Stiles, in New York with Helen Haskell and in Paris with Henri Mulhae and Jules Domont. Around 1912 or so she returned to the Chicago and opened her own bookbinding studio in the Fine Arts Building. Penciled at the bottom of the fly leaf is perhaps her notes (or a collector's): "Virgina Chester / Chicago/ 1024 Fine Arts Bldg/ (code)/ 11/28/13/ (code)". This binding appears to have been influenced by French design and technique.