Confessions of an Actor

London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1982. First Edition. Hard Cover. Dust Jacket. First UK Edition. Publisher's maroon cloth-covered boards with gilt lettering to the spine. 306 pages. Five sections of black and white photographs. A MOST UNUSUAL MULTI-SIGNED COPY WITH OUTSTANDING EPHEMERA. A VG copy (fading to the spine) in a near fine dustwrapper. Signed on a sticker to the half-title by Alec Guinness and by Joan Plowright to a photograph. On the verso of the half-title additionally signed on stickers by: John Gielgud/ Best wishes 1984"; Laurence Olivier ("For Tony Chancer/ L Olivier") on one of his personal cards; and Ralph Richardson: "BEST WISHES/ Ralph Richardson/ 80". Laid in is a signed photograph of Laurence Olivier playing Henry V in 1945 and an un-used picture postcard of Olivier from the National Portrait Gallery together with the Service of Thanksgiving for the Life and Work of Laurence Olivier held at Westminster Abbey on Friday 20 October 1989 at Noon originally sent to the recipient (Tony Chance by the Assistant Receiver General (Protocol) and Registrar at Westminster Abbey. In the back of the book are several press cuttings including a long letter from Lord Rayne (Chairman National Theatre Board) published in the Sunday Telegraph on October 3, 1982: "I have seldom been more shocked than on reading the excerpt from Laurence Olivier's memoirs which appeared in last week's Sunday Telegraph"....which "nevertheless cannot fail to be painful to colleagues and contemporaries who are misrepresented [and this is Lord Rayne's "attempt to correct some of the major errors of fact and chronology which appear to have distorted [Olivier's] recollection of events", On the verso of the rear free end-paper are three further clippings of letters to the Sunday Telegraph regarding this book. Extremely scarce with these attributes. This book would grace any Laurence Olivier collection. Photographs/scans available upon request.