Literature and Filmscripts From
The William Reese Company
Literature from the William Reese Company
By Michael Stillman
The William Reese Company has issued its catalogue number 233, and this one is different from the typical Reese catalogue we see. Most of their catalogues are focused on items of American history, with the vast majority of items predating the 20th century. Catalogue 233 is titled simply "Literature," and includes much poetry and prose from the 20th century, a few significantly older items, and a wonderful collection of filmscripts (obviously 20th century for those).
This may not be the proper order, but I'm going to start with the filmscripts. This is an embarrassing admission to have to make, but I need to get it out on the table. I am more familiar with 20th century movies than I am with 20th century poetry. I will struggle to tell you which is my favorite movie and which is my favorite poem, but for very different reasons.
Bonnie and Clyde is undoubtedly one of the more memorable films for those who grew up in the 1960s. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway's portrayal of the fun-loving but nefarious duo ran from amusing to riveting in the final scene, when our "heroes" meet their fate in a firestorm of bullets. Bonnie and Clyde would probably be characterized as "light romance" today. Item 411 is an early draft of the script for this 1967 film (Reese estimates 1964). Writers David Newman and Robert Benton had finished this script in 1964, but were having a hard time finding someone interested in filming it. It would not be until 1966 that Beatty would read the script and be sold on its worth. This early script is priced at $1,750.
For something a little more amusing, what could be more fun than Mae West? She was one of the biggest stars of the 1930s, known for pushing the edge of what censors would allow. Not only was Ms. West an actress, she also wrote the scripts for several of her movies. Item 603 is a script she wrote for the Broadway play Diamond Lil. This copy, which came from Paramount studies, would have been produced sometime between 1927, when it became a successful play, and 1932, when it was turned into a movie with the title She Done Him Wrong. It launched her famous expression "why don't you come up and see me sometime?" (what she actually said was "why don't you come up sometime and see me"). The film would also launch the career of Cary Grant. Reese notes that while West's work was turned into a film and a book, the play itself, as written in this script, has apparently never been published. $1,750.
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Literature and Filmscripts From
The William Reese Company
Wanted poster for Robert Leroy Parker, aka Butch Cassidy
There are many "Alice" collectors out there, so here's one for you. These are photocopied typescripts for the television adaptations of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass from the mid-1980s. This adaptation featured Red Buttons, Ernest Borgnine, Sid Caesar, Lloyd Bridges, Ringo Starr, and Carol Channing among others. Steve Allen wrote the music. Both are signed by Buttons, who played the White Rabbit, and one has his lines underscored. Item 124. $350.
Here's one more very famous film: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The 1969 film starred Paul Newman and Robert Redford as the bank and train robbers. They turned the once famous but long dead Cassidy and Sundance into household names again. The two made a living the old-fashioned way across the American West in the 1890s, before heading for safer territory in South America around the turn of the century. They almost certainly died in Bolivia in 1908, taking their own lives when injured and hopelessly trapped by Bolivian soldiers, but sightings continued for decades later, much as Elvis is still being seen at various malls and fast-food joints today. As late as 1937, a Spokane man with a striking resemblance and possession of certain Cassidy artifacts was proclaiming he was the same, though his wife said after he died he was merely an acquaintance. By the time of the movie, however, Cassidy would have been 103, 138 today, so we will probably hear of no more sightings. However, this 1968 typescript from the movie lives on and is available as item 294. $1,000.
We'll switch now from scripts to books, but this one will still be of interest to movie fans. The book is A Million and One Nights. A History of the Motion Picture. This is a somewhat abbreviated history since it was published in 1926. The invention was only about three decades old at the time, and "talkies" had not yet arrived. Still, author Terry Ramsaye managed to find enough material to fill two volumes. This copy is from the limited first edition, and is signed by the author and one Thomas Edison, who had a hand in just about every electronic invention of the time. Item 449. $2,000.
Here's a quick test. 'Black Mammy' A Song of the Sunny South ... is the first literary work published in which state? Alabama? Mississippi? Wrong. Try Wyoming. Why this collection of dialect poems was printed in Wyoming is not clear. Reese's copy is a first edition, published in 1885, but it proved to be popular enough for a second and a third. That's another mystery. What this book is, however, is an important item for collectors of Wyoming imprints (I'd call it "Wyomingiana" but that's not easy to say). Item 592, by William Visscher. $250.
Item 11 is Pressed Wafer Broadsides for John Wieners. Wafers for Wieners? Is this a book about hot dog buns? No. It is a collection of broadsides put together by a group of poets as a fundraiser for John Wieners in 2002. Most are signed, and include such names as Amiri Baraka, Robert Creeley and James Tate. Wieners may not be a household name among the masses, but he was well-known by his fellow poets. $1,000.
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Literature and Filmscripts From
The William Reese Company
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Item 47 is the Memoirs of Col. Arial Bragg. Written by Himself. It's a good thing he wrote them. No one else was going to. This 1846 book is probably the only thing standing between its author and total obscurity. Bragg evidently did all right for himself in the Massachusetts shoe industry, and he even added some poems to his biography. However, Bragg had disappeared from history, just as the New England shoe manufacturing industry has disappeared, a victim to "outsourcing" long before that term was invented. However, Joyce Appleby resurrected the forgotten Bragg in her 2000 work "Inheriting the Revolution." It is a book about those who succeeded the American "founding fathers," taken from the biographies of ordinary citizens. One of the ironies she points out is that Bragg was able to be successful living in the freedoms those founders had given him because much of his business came from selling shoes for slaves in the south. You can find a copy of Appleby's book on the major bookselling websites, but Bragg's book is quite rare. $100.
For those with an interest in very conservative politics, item 258 is Alpaca Revisited by H.L. Hunt. Hunt was a wealthy Dallas oilman who used his money to dabble in many other things, particularly right-wing politics. He produced the radio program "Life Line" back when conservative politics and AM radio had little in common. And if his political values were conservative, his lifestyle was not always so. He fathered fourteen children with three women, two of which were his wives (at the same time). A couple of those children would use his wealth in an attempt to control the world's silver in 1980, which would send the price of that metal to astronomical heights before crashing back down, taking much of the Hunt brothers' fortune with it. This book is Hunt's view of Utopia, a view not likely to be shared by everyone. $45.
Another Utopian book is King Gillette's The Human Drift, from 1894. Gillette did more than write about these societies, but attempted to create such a community. He also found time to start the American Safety Razor Company. While his Utopian ideals have generally been forgotten by time, the business, which now carries his name, "Gillette," lives on. The Super Bowl champions play in Gillette Stadium. That's at least a small slice of Utopia for New Englanders. Item 587. $300.
Item 410 is Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, published in 1955. This was a scandalous book then controversial movie about this too young, young lady. Today, it would probably be a movie for the Disney Channel with Lolita as the role model. $3,500.
Item 9 is The Book of Archery, Being the Complete History and Practice of the Art...and an Account of the Existing Toxophilite Societies, by George Agar. This book will be of interest to anyone who knows the meaning of "toxophilite." I'm not one of them. In fact, this word is so obscure that not even the spell check of the enormously powerful Microsoft Corporation recognizes it. They think it's a misspelling. Webster knows better. You might think it has something to do with poisons, but this is a "toxo" not a "toxi" word. Actually, you can easily infer its meaning from the context of this title, that it pertains to archery. Save it in your vocabular quiver ("vocabular" is another word Microsoft doesn't recognize). $400.
The William Reese Company website is located at www.reeseco.com, and their phone number is 203-789-8081.
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