W.W. Jacobs and Louis N. Parker collection
Date Published: 1900 to 1920
Binding: No binding & hard cover
William Wymark Jacobs was an English author of short stories and novels, best known for his farcical comedies and his horror story, “The Monkey's Paw”.
Louis N. Parker was an English dramatist, composer and translator. His 1911 Broadway play, Disraeli, was made into silent films in 1916 and 1921 and a talking film in 1929; the actor George Arliss won the Academy Award for best actor in a leading role in the 1929 film adaptation.
Jacobs and Parker collaborated together on a number dramatic projects, including the 1907 stage adaptation by Parker of “The Monkey's Paw”.
The collection contains 32 items dating from 1900 to 1942, specifically, 5 letters, 1 signed quotation, 2 books (ALS and laid in signature), 6 theatre programs, and 14 photo cards.
4 Autographed Letters Signed (ALS):
• ALS from Jacobs to Miss Stevens, 24 November 1920, re a story about a fisherman.
• ALS to Jacobs Mr. McFee (?), 22 January 1923, pleased that his correspondent likes his books and that he is willing to autograph them.
• ALS from Jacobs to N.F. Edwards, 29 January 1924, re declining to undertake "fresh work" due to other commitments.
• ALS from Parker addressed My dear Macon-Wright, 18 December 1942, thanking his correspondent for his charming letter, his recollection that Macon-Wright is an architect and a Wagnerian.
Signed quotation:
• Signed quotation from chapter 3 of Jacobs’s The Skipper’s Wooing: “Whereupon melancholia became contagious, and Sam’s concertina having been impounded by the energetic mate, disaffection reared its ugly head in the foc’sle and called him improper names when he was out of earshot.”
2 books (1 with ALS and 1 with laid in signature):
• Jacobs. A Master of Craft. London: Methuen & Co., 1900. Light green pictorial cloth with orange lettering and an illustration of a sailor on the upper board, and gilt and black lettering and an illustration of a lighthouse on the spine. Some cracking at the hinge of the upper board, some foxing on preliminary leaves. Affixed to the front free endpaper is an envelope and ALS to Leslie Mead, 28 December 1931, with her bookplate on the front pastedown. In his letter Jacobs thanks Mead for her card, offers his good wishes to her, expresses his anxiety about the financial outlook, and says that after spending the summer in the USA, “things are not much better there.”
• Parker. Disraeli: A Play in Four Acts. New York: John Lane Company, 1911. Green cloth in dust jacket, tear on jacket’s front panel but otherwise very good, with Parker’s signature on a piece of paper affixed to the front free endpaper.
6 Theatre Programs:
• 2 theatre programs re production of The Ghosts of Jerry Bundler, written by Jacobs and Charles Rock, The Holloway Empire Palace (slight tears at the folds), week of 20 July 1908; St. Paul Dramatic Society program, 1931.
• 3 theatre programs: The Theatre Royal Haymarket program, 1904; The Theatre Royal Haymarket programme,1905; Ingoldsby Club private performance, 24 February1919.
• Program of Disraeli production, the Plymouth Theatre, Boston, 1912.
19 Ephemera:
• Collection of 13 photo postcards relating to Beauty and the Barge, written by Jacobs and Parker of actresses and characters from the play;
• Miss Jessie Bateman, Miss Jolivet, one of the Miss Jessie Bateman is signed by Bateman (1905); a cigarette card (John Player & Sons) of Cyril Maude as Captain Barley from Beauty and the Barge; 4 Ogden's Guinea Gold Cigarettes - Bateman (2 cards), Jolivet and Kenneth Douglas.
• Photo postcard of Parker, Warwick Pageant, playing the megaphone.
Collection on consignment with LDRB.
Good. Item #8241
$1,050.00 USD
$1,410.55 CAD