Rowbotham Bill (5 results)

Original Wraps. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket, as Issued. Don McCullin (Photographs) (illustrator). First Edition. First printing of the true first edition. Illustrated with six pages of Don McCullin's black and white photographs. ***Very good in colour illustrated card covers. The covers are quite clean - just showing some marks commensurate with age and handling. No obvious faults - just light rubbing at the edges, and with a slightly faded spine. No reading lean. Light vertical reading crease to the spine. Spine tight. Page block edges clean. Covers bright. Internally near fine with no inscriptions. Pages clean. No creases or tears. ***250 pages plus four unnumbered pages of adverts at the back. 210mm x 144mm. ***Contents: T. Coraghessan Boyle: Greasy Lake; David Harsent: Pekfos; James Wolcott: New York; Ronald Sukenick: Poland; Patrick Marnham: The Border; Manlio Argueta: A Day In The Life In El Salvador; Joan Jara: September 11, 1973; José Donoso: The Country House; Sheila Rowbotham: Lance; Russell Hoban: Pan Lives and The Boat Train; Graham Swift: A Short History of Coronation Ale; Guilermo Cabrera Infante: The Bird of Paradise Lost; Frederic Prokosch: Niagara; John Berger: Boris; Gabriel García Márquez: The Solitude Of Latin America; Mario Vargas Llosa : The Story of a Massacre. ***Published in Autumn 1983 - "Boris: a story of love and pain and self-destruction. Also a chronicle of an obsession with political and historical implications that extend far beyond its seemingly straightforward, spartan narrative." (Current publisher's synopsis) ***An early issue of Granta - No. 9 was the first to go out of print after Issues 1-4, being out of print by 1984. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.

Original Wraps. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket, as Issued. Don McCullin (Photographs) (illustrator). First Edition. First printing of the true first edition. Illustrated with six pages of Don McCullin's black and white photographs. ***Very good in colour illustrated card covers. The covers are quite clean - just showing some marks commensurate with age and handling. No obvious faults apart from some light creasing to the top corner of the front cover and some creasing at the top of the spine. Light rubbing at the edges, but with none of the usual fading to the spine. No reading lean. Light vertical reading crease to the spine. Spine tight. Page block edges clean. Covers bright. Internally near fine with no inscriptions. Pages clean. No creases or tears. ***250 pages plus four unnumbered pages of adverts at the back. 210mm x 144mm. ***Contents: T. Coraghessan Boyle: Greasy Lake; David Harsent: Pekfos; James Wolcott: New York; Ronald Sukenick: Poland; Patrick Marnham: The Border; Manlio Argueta: A Day In The Life In El Salvador; Joan Jara: September 11, 1973; José Donoso: The Country House; Sheila Rowbotham: Lance; Russell Hoban: Pan Lives and The Boat Train; Graham Swift: A Short History of Coronation Ale; Guilermo Cabrera Infante: The Bird of Paradise Lost; Frederic Prokosch: Niagara; John Berger: Boris; Gabriel García Márquez: The Solitude Of Latin America; Mario Vargas Llosa : The Story of a Massacre. ***Published in Autumn 1983 - "Boris: a story of love and pain and self-destruction. Also a chronicle of an obsession with political and historical implications that extend far beyond its seemingly straightforward, spartan narrative." (Current publisher's synopsis) ***An early issue of Granta - No. 9 was the first to go out of print after Issues 1-4, being out of print by 1984. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.

From the Macqueen-Pope papers. (See his entry in the Oxford DNB.) 1p, 16mo. Signed 'Bill Owen'. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased. Hailing him as 'the greatest living authority on British Theatre', he asks for advice. 'My job is acting, and it has always been an ambition of mine to portray the life of Dan Leno, either on film or TV. The "powers that be" have shown a certain interest in the idea, and in order to get things moving I want to present them with a full working script or even a synopsis as soon as possible.' He asks him 'what reading matter I might find useful for historical detail of this wonderful artiste'.

Adapted for the stage by Bill Rowbotham. Pp. [iv]+60, processed; post 4to; pink paper wrappers with no backstrip, as issued, stapled, slightly foxed and soiled, edges lightly faded and rubbed; corners of a few leaves faintly creased, scattered light foxing and soiling; Unity Theatre, London, n.d.[c. 1949?]. *William John Owen Rowbotham (1914-1999), was an English actor known professionally as Bill Owen . A n active supporter of the Labour Party , he was closely associated with the Unity Theatre Company, for whom he wrote and produced several plays and revues. His adaptation of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists was first performed by the company in 1949. The foreword, appropriately for a 'working-class classic', is by the President and General Secretary of the National Federation of Building Trade Operatives.

A collection of 9 books from the estate of Bill and Tom Owen. Including: Bill Owen's copies of his own plays, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists and Party for Jeremy, both with quite extensive pencil alterations and corrections in his hand, a copy of Owen's 'The Ragged School' inscribed by Bill in ink to the title page: "To you both Love Dad.", the recipient presumably his son, Tom. There is also an unjacketed first edition of William Inge's Come Back Little Sheba with Bill Owen's name and address neatly written in ink to the front endpaper, and heavily marked up working copies of plays he performed in: Edward Albee's 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf', Bernard Shaw's 'Pygmalion' and a collection of Seven Plays by Eugene O'Neill, several marked up and with some loosely inserted notes. There is also Tom Owen's marked up copy of Terence Rattigan's 'The Browning Version' and a copy of O'Neill's 'The Iceman Cometh' with a loosely inserted postcard to Bill dated July 1979 from someone at the National Theatre. Condition varies, but on the whole the books are well worn with plenty of signs of hard practical use, toning, creasing, rubbing and staining etc, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists has lost its rear cover and the front cover is detached. A fascinating insight into Bill Owen's working life as a playwright and actor prior to achieving wider fame in his long-running role of Compo in Last of the Summer Wine, much of it indicative of his firmly left-wing political views and working class background.