John Gielgud

HAYMAN, Ronald; [BERGNER, Elisabeth]

Published by Heinemann, London, 1971

FIRST EDITION, INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR. Large 8vo, incl. b/w frontis and plates. Original black cloth, spine blocked in burgundy and stamped in gilt. Top edge black. Bumped and worn at edges and extremities. Inscribed by Hayman in brown ink to half-title: 'For Elisabeth Bergner, with all good wishes, Ronald Hayman, 30 October 71.' Clean. In the original monochrome dust jacket, lettered in red and white: spine sunned, creased, spine ends frayed. Very good/ good+ A pleasing copy inscribed by the prolific biographer to the eminent Austrian stage and screen actor, unusual signed. Despite being close friends, Bergner does not feature in this account of Gielgud's life and career; the actors met when the Austrian first moved to London (in flight from the Nazis) in 1933, when she worked with Gielgud's brother Val. Ronald Hayman (1932-2019) was a British critic and dramatist, best known as a biographer. On his mother's side John Gielgud (1904-2000) "came from what he called the 'Terry purple' of Victorian theatre": one of his great-aunts was Dame Ellen Terry (ODNB). The Austrian actor, Elisabeth Bergner (born Elisabeth Ettel; 1887-1986) was as lauded as Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich in her heyday, renowned, as the comparisons suggest, for her androgyny and ability to flip from a boyish aesthetic in Hosenrolle to the role of femme-enfant. Born in Drohobycz in Galicia (now Ukraine), 'die Bergner' worked with the innovative Austrian producer-director Max Reinhardt, giving celebrated performances in Ibsen, Shakespeare and Shaw productions, as well as on the German screen. With the rise of the Nazis, she fled to Britain and the stages of London and Edinburgh, taking leading roles as Gemma Jones in Margaret Kennedy's Escape Me Never (1934) and David in J. M. Barrie's final play, written for her, The Boy David (1936). She gave an Oscar-nominated performance in the British film adaptation of Escape Me Never, directed by her (lavender) husband Paul Czinner, and starred alongside a young Laurence Olivier as Rosalind in the first Shakespeare talkie, As You Like It (1936). Seller Inventory # 2078

Bibliographic Details

Title: John Gielgud
Publisher: Heinemann, London
Publication Date: 1971
Binding: Cloth
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
Signed: Signed by Author(s)
Edition: 1st Edition