The Man Who Came to Dinner (Inscribed first edition)

Inscribed by Moss Hart to Jack Warner, CEO of Warner Bros. Studios: "For Jack Warner - What can I say that will not jeopardize my future? Moss Hart. January 1940." Hart likely inscribed this copy for Jack Warner during the early stages of production of the film adaptation, which premiered in 1941. A Very Good+ copy in Very Good dust jacket (supplied). Publisher's beige cloth, a bit sunned around edges. Red topstain. Some toning to endpapers at gutter, otherwise clean throughout. Bookseller's ticket to lower pastedown. Dust jacket with spine and flaps a bit toned and some chipping to edges. George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's The Man Who Came to Dinner is a Christmastime comedy inspired by the authors' friend Alexander Woolcott and the Algonquin Round Table. The play saw a Broadway run between October of 1939 and July of 1941. Bette Davis was in the audience for an early performance, and was immediately drawn to the role of Maggie Cutler as a welcome change of pace from the more serious dramatic roles she had been playing at the time. Davis urged Jack Warner to acquire the rights to the film adaptation, and Warner listened. The film, which premiered on Christmas Eve of 1941, was directed by William Keighley and starred Bette Davis as Maggie, in one of her many roles in Warner films; Ann Sheridan as Lorraine Sheldon; and Monty Woolley as Sheridan Whiteside, the titular dinner guest. Jack Warner (1892 - 1978) was the co-founder and CEO of Warner Bros. Studios. Jack and his brothers Sam, Albert, and Harry, who had already been in the film production business for nearly two decades, founded the studio in Culver City, California in the early 1920s. The early successes of the studio included The Jazz Singer (1927), the first feature-length "talkie," which represented a major technological advancement; and the films of stars including James Cagney, Bette Davis (including the adaptation of The Man Who Came to Dinner), and Errol Flynn. Over the course of his five-decade career, Jack saw the production of classic Warner Bros. films including The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1943), iconic Westerns like The Searchers (1956), and the Audrey Hepburn hit My Fair Lady (1964). Very Good + in Very Good dust jacket.…