Catalog Sixty-Eight the CELLULOID PAPER TRAIL
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catalog Books Royal sixty-eight Ca talog Sixty-Eight talog Royal Books THE CELLULOID PAPER TRAIL Oak Knoll Press is pleased to announce the publication of Terms and Conditions Kevin R. Johnson’s The Celluloid All books are first editions unless indicated otherwise. Paper Trail. The first book All items in wrappers or without dust jackets advertised have glassine covers, and all dust jackets are protected ever published on film script by new archival covers. Single, unframed photographs identification and description, housed in new, archival mats. lavishly illustrated and detailed. In many cases, more detailed physical descriptions for archives, manuscripts, film scripts, and other ephemeral Designed for any book scholar, items can be found on our website. including collectors, archivists, Any item is returnable within 30 days for a full refund. librarians, and dealers. Books may be reserved by telephone, or email, and are subject to prior sale. Payment can be made by credit card Available now at royalbooks.com/cpt or, if preferred, by check or money order with an invoice. or by calling 410.366.7329. Libraries and institutions may be billed according to preference. Reciprocal courtesies extended to dealers. Please feel free to let us know if you would like your copy signed or inscribed by the author. We accept credit card payments by VISA, MASTERCARD, AMERICAN EXPRESS, DISCOVER, and PAYPAL. Shipments are made via USPS priority mail or Fedex Ground unless other arrangements are requested. All shipments are fully insured. Shipping is free within the United States. For international destinations, shipping is $60 for the first book and $10 for each thereafter. Overnight shipment by Federal Express or USPS, as well as international shipment by FedEx, can be also arranged. We are always interested in purchase or consignment of libraries or individual titles. We maintain an open store in midtown Baltimore, with hours from 10AM to 6PM About the book construction, and history of American and British film Monday through Friday. scripts. Scripts considered in the book range from the 1920s The film script is an example of rare book that defies to the 1980s, the period during which the art of cinema was The Royal Books Crew nearly every norm. It is issued, not published, and rather birthed, developed, and perfected. than having the properties of a traditional first edition, a Kevin Johnson, John McDonald, Ezra Broach, given script is instead one of many drafts that fit within the Tim Boniface, and Jodi Feldman. development and production of a motion picture. Adding About the author to its complexity is the fact that methods and styles of issuance and printing changed considerably over the Kevin R. Johnson is a rare book dealer and a scholar of the Catalog design and layout by Lenora Genovese course of the 20th century. nexus between film and literature. He is the author of two previous works published by Oak Knoll Press: The Dark Page The Celluloid Paper Trail is the first book published and The Dark Page II: Books that Inspired American Film Noir. specifically to aid scholars in the identification and He curated an exhibition of rare photographs of film directors description of the 20th century film script. Visually on the set at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in sumptuous, methodical, detailed, and entertaining, 2012, and has lectured and taught at the Academy of Motion this study is designed to help the rare book scholar ask Picture Arts and Sciences, Yale University and the University questions, identify, and comprehend both the content, of Virginia’s Rare Book School. 32 West 25th Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218 410.366.7329 • royalbooks.com • [email protected] CONTENTS 01 featured 19 film noir 31 literature 39 martin landau 48 musicals 59 nonfiction 66 science fiction 80 theatre 89 westerns featured featured Inscribed to screenwriter Frank Partos Raymond Chandler 1 The Lady in the Lake New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1943. First Edition. The author’s fourth book, and the fourth Philip Inscribed to Frank Partos on the half title page: Marlowe mystery. Basis for the 1947 film, directed by “For Frank Partos / with love / Raymond Chandler.” and starring Robert Montgomery. Partos and Chandler co-wrote the screenplay for Near Fine in a Very Good dust jacket with moderate And Now Tomorrow (1944), one of Chandler’s few wear at the extremities. screenwriting efforts. As a screenwriter, Partos was responsible for some of the best genre films of the $37,500 1940s. His work includes Stranger on the Third Floor (1940), The Uninvited (1944), and The Snake Pit (1948), each groundbreaking in the areas of film noir, ghost stories, and insane asylums, respectively. featured featured FEATURED Georges Méliès Archive of six letters regarding the director’s career 2 in the theater, cinema, and as a merchant, circa 1928-1932 An archive of six extraordinary autograph letters Méliès began his career in theater at the Theatre signed, five in French and one in English, by the Robert-Houdin, doing extremely creative work in pioneering film director Georges Méliès, generally an area that could be described as an intersection considered to be one of the inventors of narrative of live theater, pantomime, magic, and vaudeville. cinema, revealing a great deal about his little- After seeing an 1895 demonstration by the Lumière discussed but profoundly important origins in the Brothers, he became very interested in cinema, Robert-Houdin Theatre in Paris, as well as his work and between 1896 and 1914 made over 500 short as a magician, and ultimately as a film director. films. His film work utilized many of the elements Equally interesting in these letters are various from his live performance as a basis for content, and revelations regarding his character, a combination of the portion of his work that has survived reveals a innocence, boundless enthusiasm, a quizzical nature, storytelling style that revels in Jules Verne-esque a photographic memory, and a great love for artists, fantastical adventure fiction. The films ranged magicians, and all performers whose work came from one to 40 minutes in length, and many were under the umbrella of “illusion.” completely abstract, with his intense interest in the effect of “illusion” on an audience that ultimately led Included with the archive is a full transcription of the to him becoming one the earliest creators of special letters in English. effects. Importantly, the effects he invented on celluloid were not just a component of his cinema, they were the essence of it. FEATURED Just as importantly, Méliès made some of the first into the eye of the man in the moon. It is also cinematic forays into science fiction and horror, and thought to be the first pataphysical film, illustrating was a pioneer in the making of fantastical adventure the “illogicality of logical thinking,” a notion that is at films. The House of the Devil (1896) and The Cave of the heart of Méliès’ filmmaking style. the Unholy One (1898) are arguably the first horror films ever made. A print of the former was acquired Méliès did not grasp the value of his films, which upon its release by Thomas Edison, who duplicated in large part led to his film company being forced and distributed it with great financial success in the into bankruptcy in 1913 by large French and United States. Though Edison paid no royalties to American studios. The company was bought out Méliès, the director’s name became well-known to of receivership by Pathé Frères, and because the filmgoers all over the Western world as a result. concept of film preservation was still nearly 20 years away, most of his films were ultimately melted down Six years later, Méliès produced what is today his for boot heels during World War I or recycled to most famous short feature, A Trip to the Moon (1902), make new film. generally considered to be the first science fiction film, and the first to depict space travel. The film was Méliès spent the last 24 years of his life working as based very loosely on two popular novels of the time, a toy merchant in Montparnasse Station, and it was From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne and The during this period that these letters were written. The First Men in the Moon by H.G. Wells. The film includes content of the letters is quite broad and uniformly a celebrated scene in which a spaceship pokes itself fascinating, and divides into four groupings: FEATURED (a) a brief but extraordinary 1932 letter in English The next three letters represent the heart of the about his days as a filmmaker. content of this archive, and have to do with Méliès’ earliest days working as a magician in the Robert- (b) a grouping of three letters from 1928 regarding Houdin Theatre. These letters deal in some detail his earliest days at Robert-Houdin Theatre, details with an ongoing memoir being written by Méliès, regarding a series of short pieces he is writing about ending with a letter responding to a proposal for the his life (for a magazine or newspaper), and a proposal memoirs to be expanded and published as a book. to gather the pieces for publication in book form. In the first letter, Méliès writes: “I think by now (c) a letter from 1929 regarding the proofs of you must have received the first two articles. caricatures that Méliès has drawn for the purpose of ...I believe that information on the subject of the publication as postcards to be sold to fans of his work. Robert-Houdin Theatre will interest your readers, so I won’t hesitate to send more details.