Beverly Hills, CA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer [MGM], 1962. Early Draft script for the 1964 film. A treatment unrecorded in IMDB, as the final rewrite and screen credit went to novelist-screenwriter Sally Benson. A superb, unheralded 1960s thriller in which an innocent man is convicted of murder, spends 10 years in an insane asylum, and at the start of the movie escapes and... (read more)

Rome: Cino del Duca, 1960. Vintage oversize double weight borderless glossy press photograph by Enrico Appetito from the 1960 film. Bold notation on the verso noting that the photograph is from the archives of the French cinephile magazine, “Cinema 60.”The first film in Antonioni's famed trilogy, followed by La Notte and L'eclisse. A classic scene from the film, from the... (read more)

N.p. N.p., Circa 1940s. Archive of seven vintage photographs showing both the interior and exterior of the Center Theatre in Rockefeller Center in New York City. The theatre was demolished 1954, the only one of the original buildings at Rockefeller Center to have been removed since its construction. The exterior shots show include the marquee, advertising the 1939 Broadway play... (read more)

Vienna: Deutsch-Osterreichischer Verlag, 1924. First German Edition, preceding all others, this being the hardcover variant published simultaneously with a more common wrappered edition. INSCRIBED by Balazs in German on the half-title page to German expressionist writer Leonhard Frank: "Leonhard Frank / in herlzlicher Freundschaft / Bela Balazs / Berlin / 8.Feb.1927." A rare signature, and a strong association between two... (read more)

Stockholm: Svensk Filmindustri, 1953. Original Swedish poster for the 1953 film. A rich, powerful Bergman film that charts the frustrations and humiliations of several performers in a traveling circus troupe. The story takes a domino approach to personal disintegration, with the humiliation of one character leading to another character making a retaliatory decision that leaves them just as destitute. A.... (read more)

London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1956. First UK Edition (and first edition in hardcover). The first hardcover edition of Bester's best-known novel, preceding the US edition, which was published as "The Stars My Destination." Near Fine in a bright, Near Fine dust jacket. Just a hint of the usual age toning to the page edges. Jacket has a couple of tiny... (read more)

N.p. N.p., 1956. Draft script for a 1956 student film. Front wrapper title in decorative holograph black ink, presumably by the screenwriter. Based on the 1890 story by Ambrose Bierce. 22 pages of storyboards, corresponding with the script that follows, all bound together. Decorative cast and crew invite to premiere and wrap party laid in. The second filmed version of... (read more)

New York: Arbor House, 1975. First Edition. Fine and unread in a Fine dust jacket. SIGNED by Block as Jill Emerson on the title page. The author's second book under this female pseudonym, as nice a copy as we have seen. (read more)

Chicago: The Goodlion, 1972. First Edition. INSCRIBED by Brakhage on the front endpaper to his friend and colleague Annette Michelson: "June 17, 1972 / To Annette / Some small echoing answer to your life's work...and in friendship - * / Stan / [at bottom of page] * and..." Michelson is today a Professor of Cinema Studies at New York University... (read more)

San Francisco: Pasteurize Press / Zephyrus Image, 1975. First Edition. An offprint of Brakhage's remarks following a screening of his film, "The Text of Light," at the San Francisco Art Institute, Nov 18, 1974. This copy inscribed to Brakhage's friend, poet Robert Creeley and Creeley's wife on the verso of the title page: "For Bob and Bobby / Best memories... (read more)

Beverly Hills, CA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer [MGM], 1931. Draft script for the classic 1931 pre-Code film. Copy belonging to Joan Crawford, bearing the holograph inscription "Miss Crawford" on the front wrapper. Classic pre-Code romantic melodrama, following Mariane's (Joan Crawford) rise from country girl to sophisticated high class mistress, who falls for an aspiring politician (Clarke Gable), though her existence may harm her... (read more)

Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1915. First UK Edition, and correct first. One of the cornerstone espionage novels of the twentieth century, immortalized on film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1935, and basis for a recent (and very successful) Broadway play. Bound in recent polished blue calf, with gilt titles and rule, marbled endpapers, and original front board and... (read more)

N.p. N.p., 1972. Original eight-panel artwork by Ernie Bushmiller for the September 24, 1972 deluxe Sunday installment of his seminal comic strip Nancy. This particular strip features Nancy and Sluggo. As with American cinema, it was the French who first championed the studied simplicity of Bushmiller's un-deconstructible combination of rigid artistic style and even more rigidly governed humor. In 2012... (read more)

New York: Signet Books, 1949. No. 759. First printing of this edition. INSCRIBED by the author to Signet Books founder Kurt Enoch: "To Kurt Enoch / With my best congratulations on a job well-done / James M. Cain / Hyattsville, MD / December 26, 1949." From the Kurt Enoch collection, with a letter of provenance included. Kurt Enoch was the... (read more)

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, and made small runs of posters in a wide variety... (read more)

Beverly Hills, CA: Faces Distribution, 1976. Original US one sheet poster, "dancing woman with hat" style, for the 1976 film. 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, and made small runs of posters in a wide variety of non-standard sizes and... (read more)

Universal City: Universal / Chaplin Film Productions, 1967. Vintage oversize, borderless, double weight photograph, taken during a break in filming, showing director Charlie Chaplin about to enthusiastically cut into a giant birthday cake while star Sophia Loren looks on. With holograph notations on the verso. Chaplin's final film as a director, and his only color film, viewed by many, including... (read more)

Paris: Cinedis, 1960. Original black-and-white photographic lobby card from the 1960 film, "Testament of Orpheus," Jean Cocteau's final work in the cinema. The last film in Cocteau's "Orphic" trilogy, following "The Blood of a Poet" (1930) and "Orphee" (1950). The only film in the trilogy featuring Cocteau himself, as an aging poet who knows he is dying (as indeed he... (read more)

New York: Paramount Pictures, 1971. Second Draft script for the 1972 film. Laid in are a staff and crew list, and a photocopied six page inter-office memo on Paramount letterhead regarding contract terms for Marlon Brando, dated February 9, 1971, with occasional copied handwritten notations. Based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo, who co-wrote the screenplay with director Francis... (read more)

Beverly Hills, CA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer [MGM], 1940. Revised Draft script for the 1941 film noir. Studio file copy, with rubber-stamps on the front wrapper. Brief notations in holograph pencil on both sides of the front wrapper. Text ends with scene 392, as called for. Based on Francis de Croisset's 1932 play, "Il Etait Une Fois." Key film noir about a blackmailing... (read more)

Los Angeles: Twentieth Century-Fox, 1940. Revised Final Script for the 1941 film musical, "That Night in Rio" (here under the working title, "The Road to Rio"), directed by Irving Cummings, based on the 1934 play, "The Red Cat" by Rudolph Lothar and Hans Adler, written for the screen by Jessie Ernst, George Seaton, Bess Meredyth, Hal Long, and Samuel Hoffenstein... (read more)

Tokyo: Graphic-sha Publishing, 1994. First Edition. SIGNED by author Manek Daver on the half-title page. One of the best conceived and executed references ever published on the design work behind classic American jazz albums, focusing on some of the best designers (Andy Warhol, Herman Leonard, David Stone Martin) and labels (Blue Note, Debut, Southland). Illustrated in color and black-and-white throughout... (read more)

Rome: Albert and Charles Boni, 1951. Original Italian program for the 1951 film, based on the novel "Toto il buono" by Cesare Zavattini. SIGNED by De Sica at the bottom of the title page. One of the director's classics, pure visual storytelling, made just after "Bicycle Thieves" (1948) and just before "Umberto D." (1952). A gorgeous, oversize program with a.... (read more)

London: Macmillan, 1975. First UK Edition of the author's first book. INSCRIBED by Dexter on the front endpaper in the year of publication to Joan Spencer: "Bless you for supporting me, Joan! / Best wishes / Colin Dexter / Xmas 1975." Ms. Spencer was a colleague of Dexter's at the Oxford and Cambridge Joint Examination Board, where she ran the... (read more)

Los Angeles: Privately printed at the Pueblo Press, 1939. First Edition, one of a limited edition of 250 copies (this being no. 156). This copy additionally INSCRIBED by cinematographer and film historian Charles G. Clarke, who wrote the introduction, to director Richard Fleischer on the second blank: "For Richard: / This is how it was before Cinemascope and 'Violent Saturday.'... (read more)

Los Angeles: Selznick International Pictures / Vanguard Films, 1946-1949. An archive of 10 scripts and supporting materials for the 1948 film, "Portrait of Jennie," directed by William Dieterle, based on the 1940 novel by Robert Nathan, written for the screen by Peter Berneis, Leonardo Bercovici, and Paul Osborn, and starring Joseph Cotten, Jennifer Jones, Ethel Barrymore, and Lillian Gish. Painstakingly... (read more)

N.p., 1959. Draft script for the 1959 play. First presented at the Martinique Theatre, New York City, on October 28, 1959 running for 256 performances. Based on Dos Passos' U.S.A. trilogy of novels written between 1930 and 1937, turned dramatic revue by Paul Shyre and John Dos Passos. Shyre's adaptation consists of three actors and three actresses portraying a total... (read more)

N.p. N.p., 1941. Original play script for the premiere production of Joseph Kesselring's "Arsenic and Old Lace" in 1941, copy belonging to the show's producers (and erstwhile playwrights) Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, with their property stamp at the bottom right corner of the front wrapper. Housed n a custom clamshell box. Clearly a working copy, with numerous substantitve corrections... (read more)

Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1973. First Edition. INSCRIBED to philanthropist and Time magazine publisher Henry Luce III by both authors on the front endpaper: "To Hank Luce / Charles and Ray / Jan 1, 1973." Profusely photo illustrated history of early computing with many two-color diagrams and photographs, detailing the technological advances of the collaboration between design and engineering... (read more)

Boston: Little, Brown, 1952. First Edition. INSCRIBED by Fante in 1956 to Richard Quine: "For Dick Quine, / Whom I love, respect, admire, applaud, and whistle at--with unspeakable enthusiasm. / John Fante / Aug 8, 1956 / Mobbu." Quine was an American film director and producer, responsible for "Bell, Book, and Candle" (1958), "Strangers When We Meet" (1960), "The World... (read more)

Los Angeles: Cinema Center Films / Duo Films / Solar Productions, 1968. Revised Draft script for the 1969 film. Accompanying the script is a shooting schedule, dated 8/22/68. Based on Faulkner's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1962 novel, his last book. Boon (McQueen) and his buddy are reivers, or thieves, who steal the McCaslin family's new car, a Winton Flyer. They are out... (read more)

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. (read more)

1980. Draft script for the 1980 stage version of "Harold and Maude," adapted by Colin Higgins from his 1971 novel and screenplay. Actress Ruth Ford's copy, effusively inscribed to her on the title page by Higgins, actress Janet Gaynor (who played Maude, 23 years after her last film appearance), Keith McDermott (who played Harold), and director Robert Lewis. The film... (read more)

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1975. First Edition. Warmly INSCRIBED by Gaddis in 1984 to Harper's Magazine and Saturday Review literary critic John Aldridge: "To John Aldridge / with great thanks and serious regard / William Gaddis / Ann Arbor / 1984." Though later considered one of the most important literary works of the twentieth century, Gaddis' debut novel "The... (read more)

N.p. N.p., 1959. Three vintage photographs from performances of The Living Theatre's 1959 play, "The Connection" by Jack Gelber. One photograph from the original 1959 production, with a printed caption in English on the verso. The other two photographs from a 1961 production in Paris, with the stamp of photographer Roger Pic on the versos. All three photographs with holograph... (read more)

France: Athos Films / Chaumiane / Filmstudio, 1965. Collection of five vintage borderless reference photographs from the 1965 film. Four with holograph pencil notations on the verso crediting photographer Georges Pierre, one with the stamp of Cinemagence on the verso. Godard transplants fictional detective Lemmy Caution (played by Eddie Constantine, as he was in several French films based on the... (read more)

Paris: Concordia Compagnia Cinematografica, 1967. Four vintage borderless reference photographs from the set of the 1967 film. Studio rubber stamp on the verso. One of the photos features Marina Vlady sharing a cigarette with Roger Montsoret. Based on a 1966 article on casual prostitution in France by Catherine Viminet. One of three feature films Godard released in 1967, and like... (read more)

Chicago: Ziff-Davis / Alliance Books, 1943. First Edition. Association copy, lengthily INSCRIBED in the year of publication on the front endpaper to fellow screenwriter Walter C. Roberts, citing New York City as his currently location and noting in part: "I have not forgotten... how instrumental you were in launching me. Ever since 1931 you expressed faith in my talent, while... (read more)

Worcester, MA: Metacom Press, 1985. First Edition. One of 500 copies (this being No. 196) SIGNED and numbered by Gorey. Prospectus for the edition laid in. A cut-apart style book in illustrated tan wrappers with two side-stitched spines. The book is "read" by independently flipping the captions and illustrations on each side . A tiny crease to one corner of... (read more)

London: Phaidon Press, 2002. First Edition. An attractive, comprehensive account of the urban history of Florence, including its art and architecture. Just about Fine and unread in a Near Fine dust jacket. A tight, clean copy with just a hint of bumping at the spine. Jacket has a half inch snag to the crown, else about Fine. (read more)

New York: Harper and Brothers, 1953. Early printing. INSCRIBED by the author on the front endpaper: "For Jim / My most famous tale, though not necessarily my best one. In fact I think my best one is yet to be written. / Davis Grubb." Basis for the now-classic 1955 film directed by Charles Laughton and starring Robert Mitchum and Shelley... (read more)

London: Pinewood Studios, 1973. Cutting and Continuity script for the 1973 film, "The Wicker Man," directed and written for the screen by Robin Hardy and starring Edward Woodward and Christopher Lee. An important and rare document that details a now-classic film that from the beginning experienced serious complications. The original film negatives were mistakenly destroyed, followed by years of spurious... (read more)

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 1960s. This script was intended to be something of a.... (read more)

New York: Random House, 1953. Joseph Hayes' original typed manuscript for his most famous novel, "The Desperate Hours," with numerous authorial typeovers and editorial corrections. Stamps from the James Brown Agency (author's agent), date stamp of Sept 15 1953 and hand notation "Random House New York" to the title page. The book was published by Random House in 1954, and... (read more)

N.p. N.p., 1928. Two vintage oversize photographs from the first stage production of "The Front Page" in 1928, showing two different trio shots of the reporters who grace the majority of the play. The first photo, a double weight 8 x 10 by Florence Vandamm with her blindstamped name on the recto, shows Lee Tracy (later played by Rosalind Russell... (read more)

Universal City, CA: Universal Pictures, 1964. Vintage black-and-white still photograph from the 1964 film. In the photo, Hitchcock leans over Tippi Hedren, who sits at a typewriter, portraying her character in the office where she works as a secretary. With a mimeograph snipe on the verso. 8 x 10 inches (20 x 25 cm). Near Fine. (read more)

New York: Boni and Gaer, 1948. First edition. INSCRIBED by actor Paul Robeson in the year of publication on the front endpaper: "All best wishes / and thanks / Paul Robeson / April 28, 1948."Many African-American witnesses subpoenaed to testify at the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) hearings in the 1950s were asked to denounce Paul Robeson (1888–1976) in... (read more)

Tokyo: CameraArt, 1961. First Edition, with the requisite pamphlet featuring English translations of the text laid in. The first of Hosoe's many collaborations with choreographer Tatsumi Hijikata, using Butoh dancers to create stylized, abstract portraits of relationships between men and women, and the book which brought the photographer to international acclaim. Fine and unread in a Near Fine dust jacket... (read more)

New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1939. First Edition. A comprehensive history of American cinema up to the beginning of World War II, beginning with George Melies, the birth of the Hollywood studios, and D.W. Griffith, and ending with the dawn of the "auteur" era (Vidor, Lang, von Sternberg, Capra, Ford, etc.) A focused, factual look at cinema's first four decades. Profusely... (read more)

New York: Darien House, 1977. First Edition. Author, actor and huckster historian Ricky Jay's first book, a hilarious, photo illustrated treatise on the use of playing cards as weapons, with chapters on technique, practice, stunts and self-defense. The scarce cloth edition (a simultaneous softcover edition was also published). Fine in a Fine dust jacket. Jacket has a tiny nick at... (read more)