Herold Christoper (3 results)

1st US edition. Panoramic history, profusely illustrated, definitive. Nice bright clean crisp copy of HB 1st in nice jacket. 9-1/2 x 12-1/4, 420 pp + index, b/w & color photos & illus, beige endpapers. Near Fine w owner signature inside else unmarked; in VG+ jacket w light wear to spine ends. Oversize Hardcover in brown/brown cloth boards; in color-portrait jacket. …

tapa dura. Condition: 2ª Mano - bueno. 2ª Mano. Plaza & Janes. 1961. Primera edición. Biografia de Madame de Stael. sello ex libris ant prop, sin sobrecubierta. Libro.

Hardcover. 8vo. pp x, 486. Some illus. With notes scribbled by John Osborne on the front and rear endpaper. The book came from the library of the playwright. It has a posthumous book label reading 'From The Library of the Hurst. The John Osborne Arvon Centre Shropshire.' The Hurst was his final residence - a large country house, now a cultural centre owned by the Arvon foundation. The writings are Osborne's notes to himself about changes possibly needed (or not) in his life.The connection with Osborne and Madame de Stael is obscure. Osborne appears never to have referred to her in a play. He has a few notes about her on the rear endpaper: 'How that girl plays at sensibility writing letters from room to room.' He notes a quotation from Voltaire about Diderot: 'No one has ever written more amusingly on famine.' He also highlights something that Madame de Stael wrote to her husband -'What I love about noise is that it camouflages life.' His biographer writes that Osborne had a life-long hatred of noise, often writing complaining letters about it. This action list /cri de coeur probably comes from a period in the 1980s when he was at a low ebb, especially as his film production company (Woodfall) which had (1970s) made a fortune from the worldwide success of Tom Jones (he wrote the script) appeared to be in a serious financial mess. The endpaper notes read: 1. Sex 2. Desire to work 3. No desire to work 4. Whether to give up work altogether. 5. Desire to do something else altogether. Pure leisure e.g. 6. Decision to give up drink 7. Decision to go on drinking and resign to an early grave. 8. Decision to change way of life and live sober/ industrious (illegible) life dedicated to self-improvement and tough grappling with all problems mostly (illegible) 9. Give up Woodfall 10. Not give up Woodfall for reasons of sentiment, cowardice and expenditure 11. Seek new place in which to lead better, less wasteful life 12. Stay put 13. Go on holiday. 14. Stay put. 15. No. More (illegible - cats?) Very good with some faint wear and some slight fading.…