Habit and Other Short Stories (First Edition, inscribed in the year of publication) by Darryl Francis Zanuck - 1923

Los Angeles: Times-Mirror Press, 1923. First Edition. First Edition. A collection of lighthearted stories by Zanuck, published at a point when his writing career (if one could call it that) was on the ropes, his screenwriting career was well on its way, and his great fame as a producer was yet to begin. An unusually sharp copy, Fine in a Fine dust jacket.

ZANUCK, Darryl Francis. Habit and other short stories. Los Angeles: Times-Mirror Press, 1923
First edition. When this book was published in 1923, Darryl Zanuck (1902-1979) was still a struggling writer – his legendary career as a movie mogul and Head of 20th Century-Fox, was still ahead of him. Habit is a four-story collection, including 'The Forgotten City', which in 1924 Zanuck turned into a screen story for the silent Western film, The Millionaire Cowboy.
The publication of Habit was funded by A.F. Foster, an eccentric entrepreneur, inventor of Yuccatone, a wonder hair tonic made from the desert yucca plant. In return Zanuck promised to write a story promoting Foster's miracle Yucca plant product. The resulting story - 'The Forgotten City' – is the tale of a mentally unstable chemist whose discovery of a Yuccatone-like product brings prosperity to a New Mexico ghost town. After Habit came out receiving a favourable review from the New York Times, Foster's business went up in flames when the… Read More