Royal Books

Paris: Various, 1946-1964. Collection of 13 original French programs for French, Italian, and Spanish films, with a single US film, here under the original French titles, 1946-1964. All feature color wrappers, some illustrated with color stills from the film, and highlights include "Madame du Barry" (1954, Christian-Jaque), "Madame Butterfly" (1954...

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N.p. N.p. 1929. Purchase, Rights, and Royalties agreement between James M. Cain and Alfred A. Knopf for Cain's first book, Our Government. SIGNED by both Cain and Knopf, with numerous hand corrections and initials by both parties, the most notable being a notation by Knopf on the first page that...

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Los Angeles: Santa Cruz Productions, 1957. Draft Script for the 1958 film. Notations in holograph pencil on the front wrapper, stating "Legal Dept. / M. Sattinger/ 1957 / Extra." Based on a screen story by Irving Block and Jack Rabin (who also did the special effects), about an extraterrestrial force...

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Paris: Les Films de la Pleiade, Circa 1959-1960. Vintage borderless photograph from the 1960 film. A candid, on-the-set photograph of the film's stars, Charles Aznavour and Marie Dubois, in the midst of an outdoor tracking shot in Paris. Director Truffaut stands on the tracking trolley, hands apart, giving instruction for...

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Milwaukee, WI: Nightstand Books, 1959. No. 1503. First Edition, first printing of Ellison's most desired title, with the code "NB 1503 a S n" as called for at the bottom left corner of the front wrapper. About Near Fine, a bright, clean copy with the slightest bit of wrinkle (but...

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Paris: Paris Audiovisuel, 1988. First Edition. INSCRIBED in the year of publication by Alice Springs to Robin Gibson of the National Portrait Gallery in London: "Robin / What a wonderful time of my life it was with you and Terence at the N.P.G. / London / 17/11/88."Robin Gibson worked at...

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Los Angeles: Twentieth Century-Fox, 1990-1991. An extensive archive of 26 scripts and related production memoranda for 19 episodes of the hit animated sitcom "The Simpsons," dating from the 1990 and 1991 second and third seasons. Collection belonging to Gracie Films Animation Production Manager Ken Tsumura, with his notations throughout, his...

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Paris: Les Films Concordia, 1963. Original French program for the 1963 film. Based on the novel "Il Disprezzo" by Alberto Moravia. With a tiny rubber stamp contemporary to issue reading, "Interdit au moins de 18 ans" ("No under 18 admitted"). Godard's lush Technicolor landmark that transformed Brigitte Bardot from a....

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Los Angeles: Twentieth Century-Fox, 1941. Original pressbook for the 1941 film. Also included is a supplement titled "Intelligence in Motion Picture Advertising," by Kenneth Collins, in essence a second pressbook, as well as a second supplement featuring further ad campaigns and exhibitor's information. Date stamps to the pressbook and Collins...

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New York: Hotel Astor, circa 1920s. Handwritten Final Draft manuscript for the 1920s "Back Porch" vaudeville skit, seen here under the early working titles "Sleeping Porch" and "Porch Scene." Executed in holograph ink by W.C. Fields on Hotel Astor letterhead stationery. Also included is a typescript draft of the same...

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New York: Columbia Broadcasting System [CBS], 1948. Film treatment for an unproduced film, as well as a produced radio broadcast script from the May 25th,1948 CBS radio adaptation. Holograph ink on front wrapper, noting title, screenwriter Daniel Tardash, and story based on the novel by Isak Dinesen (writing under the...

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Beverly Hills, CA: United Artists, 1952. Original US program for the 1952 film. Autobiographically reflective of Chaplin's fears of being left behind in the fading vaudeville and silent film era, "Limelight" depicts the final years of a washed up stage clown who briefly maintains an impossible relationship with a young...

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New York: Park Place Gallery, 1967. Poster advertising an early performance by Steve Reich at Park Place Gallery in New York on March 17, 18, and 19, 1967, also featuring Max Neuhaus performing and "distributing" a new piece called "BI-PRODUCT" (currently listed on Neuhaus' website as "By-Product," in contravenance of...

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London: n.p. 1968. Original ribbon copy typescript screenplay, with two sets of comments from script readers, for an unproduced film, "Girl," written for the screen by Donald Ford and Derek Ford. From the collection of British director Robert Hartford-Davis, with whom the Ford brothers worked on several films during the...

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Los Angeles: Selznick International Pictures / Vanguard Films, 1934-1948. An archive of 7 scripts, including rough drafts, screenplays, post-production scripts and support documentation for the 1947 film, "The Paradine Case," directed by Alfred Hitchcock, based on the 1933 novel by Robert Hichens, written for the screen by a host of...

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New York: William Morrow, 1940. First Edition. Warmly INSCRIBED by the author on the front endpaper: "To Noni / Who wrote the damn thing leaving me only with the job of dictating it / Yours / Erle Stanley Gardner. According to Dorothy Hughes' biography of Gardner, Noni Bibler was one...

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N.p. N.p. circa 1930s. Collection of 40 black-and-white photographs by Carl Van Vechten, printed on card stock, many as postcards, as was the case with many of the photographs he developed. The collection of photographs shows a variety of subjects and styles representing a little-seen side of Van Vechten, who...

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New York: Signet Books, 1950. No. 791. First printing of this edition. INSCRIBED by the author to publisher Kurt Enoch: "Here's a big grin and a hello from Mike and his gang (and me) / Hope you enjoy his problems enough to keep up with him in the future /...

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Burbank, CA: Warner Brothers, 1965. Original UK script for the 1965 film. One of the most ambitious films about World War II made during the 1960s, an epic story that details the events leading to the title confrontation, the bloodiest battle that the US fought in WWII and one of...

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London: William Heinemann, 1949. First Edition. The author's first book, notoriously scarce in jacket, basis for the elegant 2003 British film. Ms. Smith went on the write "The Story of the 101 Dalmations." Near Fine with a bright lavender topstain, in a Very Good plus dust jacket. Small owner name...

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N.p. N.p. Circa 1971. Draft script an unproduced film by Curt Siodmak, based on his 1971 novel of the same name, about a scientist who discovers how to induce ESP in people. Sidomak was the screenwriter for such horror classics as "The Wolf Man" (1941), "I Walked with a Zombie"...

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Beverly Hills, CA: Culver City Studio / United Artists, 1980. Revised Draft script for the 1980 film. Vincent (Calhoun) is the proprietor of a hotel, where he and his family bring kidnapped victims and bury them alive in a garden. The victims are kept alive and fattened up for the...

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Paris: Club des Producteteurs, Circa 1965-1966. Eight vintage oversize press photographs from the set of the 1965 film, shot for the French magazine Cinema 66, and with their stamp and stamped reference number on the verso of each. All the shots are striking and quite candid, several showing director William...

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New York: Signet Books, 1952. First printing of this edition. INSCRIBED by Caldwell to the publisher: "To Kurt Enoch / with the grateful thanks of Erskine Caldwell." The first paperback printing of the Broadway play, based on Caldwell's novel, with a new introduction written by Caldwell. Photo-illustrated with stills from...

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Austria: Neue Filmkunst / Walter Kirchner, Circa 1947. Original 1947 Austrian A1 poster for the 1935 French film, the first sound adaptation of the novel by Dostoyevsky, and still a key version of the often-filmed story. Design by Hans Hillmann. From the collection of noted film historian Amos Vogel. Full...

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Baton Rouge: Louisiana University Press, 1985. First Edition. SIGNED by the author on the title page. Fine in a Fine dust jacket. The reported first printing of only 500 copies were mainly shipped to libraries. An early collection of stories by the author.

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Beverly Hills, CA: Faces Music, 1976. Original poster for the 1976 film, this being the Ben Gazzara style, with Gazzara in a "puffy shirt." One of eight known one sheet styles (no priority) issued by Faces Distribution for the film. Faces was a company as radical as the director himself...

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Hartford, CT: The American Publishing Company, 1899. Later printing. A bright, sharp early edition of the American classic, nicer than most of the various later nineteenth century editions commonly found. Near Fine in blue boards with titles, rule, and embellishments in gilt and black. Book plate to the front pastedown...

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Burbank, CA: Warner Brothers, 1948. Original pressbook for the 1948 film, "Treasure of the Sierra Madre," directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart and Walter Huston. Very Good plus condition, folded once. 16 pages, 11 x 17 inches. Extremely scarce.

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New York: E .P. Dutton, 1972. First Edition. Humorously INSCRIBED by avant garde composer and former Black Mountain faculty member John Cage on the front flyleaf: "This is a book I haven't read. / John Cage." A history of Black Mountain College, the experimental college located in North Carolina that...

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New York: Theatre de Lys / Edison Theatre, 1970-1971. Archive of ten photographs, two programs, and an early mimeograph summary of performances for a little-seen production of Kurt Vonnegut's play, "Happy Birthday, Wanda June," directed by Michael J. Kane. Photographs by Bert Andrews, with his stamp on the verso of...

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Mexico: N.p. 1959. Vintage oversize borderless black-and-white press photograph of director Luis Bunuel and cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa behind the camera in Mexico during the making of the 1959 film (a French-Mexican co-production released during Bunuel's Mexican period). Mexican stamp of photographer Georges Yves Massart on the verso. Handwritten text on...

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Tokyo: Nikkatsu, 1959. Draft script for the 1959 film. Text in Japanese. Based on Sueko Yasumoto's novel, and one of the first examples of media dealing with the plight of zainchi or ethnically Korean Japanese citizens, and their identity and struggles. One man has always worked faithfully for the Toho...

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Tokyo: Nikkatsu, circa 1963. Draft post-production script for the 1963 film. Round robin copy, SIGNED by director Shohei Imamura and six members of the cast and crew on the front wrapper, including Sachiko Hidari, Kazuo Kitamura, Shoichi Ozawa, Jitsuko Yoshimura, and composer Toshiro Mayuzumi, with signatures dated in the mid-1990s...

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New York: The Ring Publishing Co, 1929. First Edition. SIGNED by Jack Dempsey on the front endpaper. Not to be confused with the much more common Author's Autograph Edition. Very Good lacking dust jacket. Light rubbing to spine ends, joints, and corners,with a tiny bit of loss at the upper...

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New York: Exhibitor's Trade Review, 1920. First Edition. Magazine-style format featuring biographical essays by Hastings, profusely illustrated with reproduced images from Griffith's films and newspaper articles about the director. One of the best and earliest overviews of the legendary director. 9.5 x 12 inches (24 x 30.25 cm), printed saddle-stitched...

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