COWARD, Noël.

£2,750 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

A collection of eight plays. First Samuel French acting editions, and one later printing of Private Lives, each play with the author's elegant art deco bookplate, combining the masks of comedy and tragedy into a single persona. The bookplate was designed by Gladys Calthrop (1894-1980), who worked as a set and costume designer on many of the original productions of Coward's plays, including Private Lives (1931), Design for Living (1933), and Present Laughter (1943). The plays later passed into the collection of Geoffrey A. Johnson, Coward's close friend and US representative, with his ownership stamps. Johnson (1930-2021) cast over 100 Broadway shows including Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, and Les Misérables. He first met Coward in 1961, when Johnson worked as the stage manager for the Broadway production of Coward's Sail Away. The two went on to work together until Coward's death in 1973. Johnson acted as a trustee of the Noël Coward Foundation, and was the Life President of the Noël Coward Archive Trust.Hands Across the Sea, Family Album, The Astonished Heart, and Fumed Oak were part of the Tonight at 8.30 series. This was a cycle of ten one-act plays which stared Coward and Gertrude Lawrence. Each of these plays has a "Tonight at 8.30" sticker on the front cover.

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