Million and One Nights by RAMSAYE, Terry - 1926

Signed by Thomas A. Edison [EDISON, Thomas A.]. Ramsaye, Terry. A Million and One Nights. A History of the Motion Picture. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1926. First edition. Limited to 327 copies, signed by the Ramsaye and Thomas A. Edison. This being number 233. Quarto (9 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches; 241 x 168 mm), large paper copy. lxx, 400; 401-868 pp. Frontispiece portrait. Illustrated throughout text with black and white photographic reproductions. Publisher's blue buckram, bordered with a single blind rule on the front cover, and with a center device stamped in gilt. Spines lettered in gilt. Light staining to endpapers due to glue used on pastedown endpapers as usual. A very handsome, fine, unread set. This first official history of cinema, written by film journalist Terry Ramsey, presets a clear and detailed picture of the early development of film as seen from the Edison camp. Dwelling specifically on Edison's early Kinetograph and his 'Black Maria (the first studio to be built specifically for making commercial films), Ramsey charts the development of the motion picture industry through 1925. While later critics downplayed Edison's importance, recent scholars have reinstated his preeminent position in the history of film. A lavish production, chronicling the history of the silver screen, with wonderful vintage photographsóas Edison states, ìthe first endeavor to set down the whole and true story of the motion picture...through his years of preparation...I am aware of [the authorís] effort at exact fact. A high degree of detailed accuracy has been attained.î HBS 67965. $3,750