Major Barbara, Signed (3 results)

Paperback. Condition: Good. First Edition. Wraps. 4to. pp 56. Large format paperback. Original publisher's illustrated olive green covers. Signed by the author on the title page, "Carole, fraternally, Arnold." Slight rubbing and slight edgewear, otherwise very good minus with clean text. Signedes.

Condition: Good. 2 Tls. and one photostat.Jule Styne (two typed letters signed "Jule",with a contemporry copy of Llerner's reply. Jule Styne - the first saying that since he hadn't heard from Lerner, he assumed he was not interested in the project, one page, New York, 19 April 1971; Jule Styne - the second letter, written after a few days, says "Since you write such beautiful letters and I get such prompt answers, I have decided that even if we never work together?one day someone may do a musical based on our letters to one another. It will be called The Lerner-Styne Letters", one page, n.p. 22 April 1971, stapled to a copy of Lerner's reply to the first letter, in which Alan said he could not reconcile himself to doing another paly based .Jule Styne: A composer, Styne's famous works include the music for the musicals Gypsy and Funny Girl, and the songs "Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!" and "Three Coins in the Fountain". He was known for his powerful and catchy melodiesProvenance: Estate of Alan Jay Lerner, (1918-1986):.Alan Jay Lerner is celebrated for his enduring and engaging contributions to musical theater, including 'My Fair Lady', 'Camelot', and 'Paint Your Wagon', among many others. His work is remembered for its distinctive blend of emotional depth and charm, which led to the creation of some of the most significant works in musical theater for both stage and screen.Over the course of four decades, Lerner rubbed shoulders with some of the world's most iconic figures, many of whom became confidants and pen pals.

From George Bernard Shaw's library in Whitehall Court, London, comes this copy of Rossini's Mose? featuring English lyrics written by Shaw for the film version of Major Barbara. Shaw wrote the lyrics in pencil twice -- first in the score (pp. 337-343) and then in a clean copy on the rear flyleaves dated November 20, 1939. The lyrics in the score include erasures and crossouts, and the clean copy includes erasures and a pasted correction slip. The binding was designed by book arts legend Douglas Cockerell. Shaw's lyrics were used in the film almost exactly as written here, but were set to music by William Walton instead of Rossini. Shaw tells the story in the second paragraph of his short introduction to Major Barbara: A Screen Version: "The verses written to fit Rossini's once famous quartet from his Moses in Egypt were reset by Mr William Walton for Mr Pascal's film; but I retain my first suggestion partly to explain the constrained versification imposed by Rossini's music; partly because I must not infringe Mr Walton's copyright (Rossini's is extinct); and perhaps mainly because I feel sure that Undershaft was as old-fashioned in his musical taste as he was ultra-modern in his industrial management." There are minor but meaningful discrepancies between the manuscript and printed lyrics; for instance, in the manuscript, the chorus follows the solo quartet's "Dare we hope?" with "We dare hope?" while in the printed screenplay, the chorus answers with a definitive "Yes: we dare." Alice McEwan's 2016 doctoral thesis "Bernard Shaw at Shaw's Corner: Artefacts, Socialism, Connoisseurship, and Self-fashioning" addresses the Shaw-Cockerell working relationship, including the binding of Shaw's music collection: "Receipts show that both the Shaws [husband and wife] were customers over a great many years, and this relationship extended beyond business into friendship, with Douglas lunching at Shaw's Corner. [.] Douglas's firm also bound numerous volumes of Shaw's music." The footnote to the sentence on Shaw's music goes into greater detail: "Receipts from Douglas Cockerell & Sons at LSE [London School of Economics] show orders from Shaw for similar bindings: 'in brown oasis Morocco with gold and blind tooling'. The latter referred to Shaw's order for the rebinding of Ein Wagner Brevier." A screengrab from McEwan's thesis shows a National Trust photo of several music books in the Shaw's Corner library bound in the same manner as the Rossini score featured here. Cockerell's work for Shaw on a collection of manuscripts of his early novels, "discovered" by Shaw at age 89, is addressed by several Shavians, including Nicholas Grene in his entry on The National Library of Ireland in "Some Principal Shaw Resource Sources" in Vol. 20 (2000) of SHAW The Annual of Bernard Shaw Studies: "It was this substantial body of papers that had to be prepared in a state worthy of their new home, a task that Shaw assigned to the celebrated bookbinder Douglas Cockerell, whose firm collated the pages, cleaned, flattened, and repaired them, mounted each leaf on hand-made paper, and bound them in a total of twelve volumes." Provenance can only be conclusively traced to its last owner -- the late Jerry Musich, an Indianapolis bookseller -- but the score may have been first sold at one of two Sotheby & Co auctions in 1949 devoted to books and prints from Shaw's libraries at Whitehall Court and Shaw's Corner. Title: Mose? : melodramma sacro in quattro atti Composer: Rossini Publisher: R. Stabilimento Ricordi Date: n.d. (1890s?) Details: Quarter morocco over marbled boards. Gilt title to spine with single ornament and rule. 16, 353pp.; 11.25 x 8.25 in Condition: Very good. Paper loss at turned-in corners; front board slightly concave. Hairline cracks at head of backstrip, a few scuffs below title and along backstrip; gilt title and decorations still bright. Hinges strong; text tight and browned at extremities.