Gantillon Boyd (3 results)

Condition: Poor. This is an ex-library book and may have the usual library/used-book markings inside.This book has hardback covers. In poor condition, suitable as a reading copy. No dust jacket. Light foxing. Please note the Image in this listing is a stock photo and may not match the covers of the actual item,450grams, ISBN:

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. Very good first edition hardcover, yellow boards, black lettering. Cover slightly dirty. No writing. Deckle fore-edge. Author's note and translator's foreword. Maya was produced at the Comedy Theatre on the 21st of February, 1928, and was closed under the Wales padlock law on Saturday, March 3rd, at the instance of Assistant District Attorney James G. Wallace. Not one word was written in support of the contention of the Police Department that Maya is an immoral play. M05540.

Hard Cover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. First English Translation. First English translation. Boards faintly foxed, 1 inch closed tear to front jacket corner with tiny associated chip, jacket spine faded. 1928 Hard Cover. xvi, [4], 16-147, [1] pp. 8vo. An English translation of the French play which was suppressed by legal authorities in New York City after fewer than two weeks at the Comedy Theatre in 1928, after being deemed an 'immoral' play. Drama critic Alexander Woollcott, who called it "so beautiful a play. that it cannot fail. But. there is always the chance that New York will fail." later commented that the play was censored "in almost medieval secrecy. [by the] murderously effective and, to my notion, entirely vicious law." The play examines the world of prostitution in a controversial manner similar to Shaw's Mrs Warren's Profession, which suffered the same treatment by authorities. This censorship inspired an outpouring of equally controversial dramatic productions, leading to the Wales Padlock Law of 1927, which allowed playwrights, producers, and actors to be criminally prosecuted for their roles in these allegedly immoral works. Maya was the first play against which the law was used (Wainscott, The Emergence of the Modern American Theater, 1914-1929, p. 76). This publication in book form followed the suppression of the play, and the jacket illustration by Darcy (this is probably Art Deco illustrator Lyse Darcy, who produced a number of well-known advertisements for the French cosmetics company Guerlain) showing two pairs of hands suggestively reaching upward towards the title character seems to be an open act of defiance against the law. The play inspired a film of the same name in 1949 starring Jean-Pierre Grenier and Viviane Romance, which was directed by Raymond Bernard.