Dramatic Table Talk by Ryan Richard, First Edition (2 results)

Condition: Very good. First Edition. First edition of this compendium of informal stories from British theater history - including the tale of teen Elizabeth Inchbald (then Simpson) running off to London in search of work as an actress. Elizabeth Inchbald was an unschooled farmer's daughter who went on to become one of the most important writers of the 1780s, '90s, and early 1800s. When she was eighteen, she ran away from home to London, looking for work as an actress. She found it with a traveling troupe after her marriage, then returning to London to act at Covent Garden after being widowed. From there she began submitting original plays to the theater managers she knew professionally: her first performed play, THE MOGUL TALE (1784) was a success that opened up an even more exceptional career path. She became "the Celebrated Mrs. Inchbald," one of the biggest playwrights of the era, and an acknowledged authority on the subject. Today Inchbald is best known as the author/adaptor of the play that features in Jane Austen's novel MANSFIELD PARK, but in their time it was Inchbald who was far better known and esteemed as a writer. This collection of vignettes from theater history speaks to that context, with its inclusion of Inchbald's compelling origin story, her teenage flight to London to become an actress. A number of the details differ from the more authoritative account published in James Boaden's 1833 MEMOIRS OF MRS. INCHBALD, making it a particularly intriguing anecdote possibly sourced via newspapers or contemporary theater gossip. Three 8vo volumes, 6.75'' x 4.25'' each. Early 20th century full tan calf by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, raised bands, light and dark brown goatskin spine labels, gilt-stamped spines. Marbled endpapers, gilt dentelles, yellow silk ribbon markers, top edges gilt, other edges uncut. Housed in early 20th century marbled paper slipcase. Illustrated with engraved title pages, 14 full-page engraved plates, and 7 folding plates (matching list of engravings at rear of vol. III). lii, 288; x, 288; x, 317, 3 pages. Spines with a number of rubbed areas, wear to front joint of vol. 1; wear to slipcase. Interiors largely clean.

First Edition. First edition, foolscap 8vo, 3 volumes, pp. [xi]-xiii, [vii]-li, [1], [iii]-x, 288; [iii]-x, 288; [iii]-ix, 317, [1], [2] ads; engraved title pages and 21 engraved plates, 8 folding; original drab paper-covered boards and green paper shelfbacks, printed paper labels on spines; spines sunned and creased, text clean and sound; generally very good. The binding of these volumes is in a preliminary state. A list of the engravings is given in II, [318], with their (intended) page locations. Here, they are bunched together at the beginning of each volume, prior to being placed in their correct positions. Furthermore, the ordering of the preliminary pages has yet to be regularized.