
SUTHERLAND, Joan
ALS To Leo McKern
Montreux: N.p., 1993
2pp. ALS on headed notepaper ('Joan Sutherland' over a floral design, light red on cream). Original envelope present, address handwritten, postmarked 23.11.93. Colour photograph of Sutherland and McKern on location for On Our Selection in Braidwood, Australia, taken the following year.
2pp. ALS FROM JOAN SUTHERLAND TO LEO MCKERN, FONDLY REMEMBERING THEIR RECENT MEETING AND LOOKING FORWARD TO WORKING TOGETHER ON DAD AND DAVE: ON OUR SELECTION.
In 1994, four years after her retirement from the operatic stage, Dame Joan Sutherland returned to her native Australia to make what would turn out to be her only dramatic film: Dad and Dave:On Our Selection, written and directed by George Whaley. Based on the writings of Steele Rudd, the film, set in Queensland at the end of the nineteenth century, starred Geoffrey Rush, Ray Barrett, Noah Taylor -- and Leo McKern as Dad Rudd. Joan Sutherland played Mother Rudd, with not entirely satisfactory results, and the film, made to mark the centenary of the Australian film industry, was a failure with both critics and paying audiences.
This letter dates from the early days of Sutherland and McKern's association, is written on Sutherland's personalised notepaper and sent from her home in the Swiss village of Les Avants, and looks forward, albeit nervously, to the forthcoming shoot:
'[I]f nothing else convinced me to become involved in the film your honest, down-to-earthness did. I hope, if it all gets sorted out that I shan't be too much out of my depth!'
Accompanying the letter is a photograph, taken on location the following year, of a laughing Sutherland and McKern in costume.
MANTEL, Hilary
An Experiment In Love
London: Viking, 1995
8vo, pp. 250. Original black boards, lettered in silver on spine.
First edition SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR.
SOMERVILLE, E. OE, and ROSS, Martin [pseud. MARTIN, Violet]
An Incorruptible Irishman 1767-1843
London: Ivor Nicholson & Watson, 1932
Large 8vo, pp. 265. Original blue boards, lettered in black on red spine label to spine, Bushe coat of arms in gilt on red label to... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
NEWMAN, Arnold
Artists
Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1980
4to, pp. 157. Original grey boards, lettered in light grey and black on front panel and spine.
First edition, INSCRIBED... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
ATKINSON, Kate
Behind The Scenes At The Museum
London: Doubleday: 1995
8vo, pp. 333. Original blue boards, lettered in silver on spine.
First edition, SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR.
Winner of the Whitbread... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
WAUGH, Evelyn
Black Mischief
London: Chapman & Hall, 1932
8vo, pp. 323. Original purple cloth, lettered in gilt to spine. Device in gilt to front panel. Top edge gilt, leading and lower edges... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
[WODEHOUSE, P.G.] MOYLE, Seth
Cheque From the Frank A. Munsey Company
New York: N.p., 1912
Company cheque, hand-dated Sept. 4th 1912, made out to Seth Moyle, and signed by him on reverse.
HANDWRITTEN CHEQUE TO WODEHOUSE'S NEW YORK... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
SMITH, Tom Rob
Child 44
London: Simon & Schuster, 2008
8vo, pp. 473. Original red boards, lettered in silver to spine. Illustrated dustwrapper.
First edition of the author's first book,... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
JOHNSON, B.S.
Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry
London: Collins, 1973
8vo, pp. 180. Original green boards, lettered in gilt to spine. Illustrated dustwrapper.
First edition, SIGNED AND ADDITIONALLY INSCRIBED BY... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
O'BRIAN, Patrick
Clarissa Oakes
London: Harper Collins, 1992
8vo, pp. 256. Original blue boards, lettered in gilt to spine. Illustrated dustwrapper.
First edition, SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR TO TITLE... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
[ed. HUGHES, Ted] PLATH, Sylvia
Collected Poems
London: Faber, 1981
8vo, pp. 351. Original blue stiff paper wrappers, photographic portrait of Plath to front panel.
First UK edition, softbound issue, INSCRIBED... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
SOMERVILLE, Boyle Townshend
Commodore Anson's World Voyage
London: Heinemann, 1934
8vo, pp. 317. Original boards. Portions of illustrated dustwrapper pasted in to preliminaries. Maps at endpapers. Plain brown homemade dustwrapper,... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
SOMERVILLE, Boyle Townshend
Commodore Anson's World Voyage
London: Heinemann, 1934
8vo, pp. 317. Original black boards, lettered in gilt to spine, sea horse device in gilt to front panel. Maps at endpapers.
First edition.... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
FOWLES, John
Daniel Martin
London: Cape, 1977
8vo, pp. 704. Original dark brown boards, lettered in gilt to spine. Top edge green. Printed dustwrapper. Author's photographic portrait to rear... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
HEANEY, Seamus
Door Into The Dark
London: Faber, 1972
8vo, pp. 56. Original stiff paper wrappers.
First paperback edition of Heaney's second commercially published collection, first published in... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
[HEMINGWAY, Ernest] STIPES WATTS, Emily
Ernest Hemingway And The Arts
Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1971
8vo. pp. 243. Original russet boards, lettered in gilt on spine.
First edition. MALCOLM BRADBURY'S REVIEW COPY, WITH HIS ... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
WILLIAMS, Heathcote
Falling For A Dolphin
London: Cape, 1990
Large 8vo, pp. 112. Original black boards, lettered in silver to spine. Photographic dustwrapper. Small bookplate to front pastedown.
First... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
HARRIS, Robert
Fatherland
London: Hutchinson, 1992
8vo, pp. 372. Original black boards, lettered in silver to spine. Black endpapers. Illustrated dustwrapper, author's photographic portrait to rear... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
MORTIMER, John
Felix In The Underworld
London: Viking, 1997
8vo, pp. 247. Original pale blue boards, lettered in silver to spine. Illustrated dustwrapper.
First edition, WITH INSCRIBED CARD FROM THE... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
SPAETH, Sigmund
Fifty Years With Music
New York: Fleet Publishing Corporation, 1959
8vo, pp. 288. Original maroon boards, lettered in gilt on spine.
First edition, INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR IN THE YEAR OF ... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
