Best Copy In The World from Royal Books, Inc.

New York: Lenox Hill Press, 1971. First Edition. First Edition. INSCRIBED playfully by the author on the verso of the half-title page: "To Mark Reinsberg / the hombre from the capital of incontinence-that is, existentially / My best regards for authoritarianism. / Chas. Willeford / 19 Nov '71." After an early career in paperback originals, Willeford's second hardcover publication… Read more

N.p.: N.p., 1965. Final Draft script for the legendary 1966 film, under the original Swedish title "Kinematografi." In Swedish. "Persona" was in 2020 called "the greatest film ever made" by filmmaker and essayist Paul Schrader, a distinction he has considered probably as thoroughly as any cinema thinker of his generation. Schrader went on to note the ." . . [the… Read more

Culver City, CA: RKO Radio Pictures, 1946. Estimating script for the 1947 film, dated April 3, 1946. James M. Cain's ultimately uncredited rewrite of Geoffrey Homes' early draft, based on Homes' 1946 novel, "Build My Gallows High," which was at that time still unpublished. A rare script, which confirms a claim still listed as unsubstantiated by the AFI Catalog,… Read more

N.p.: [G.P. Putnam's Sons / Viking Press], 2007. Archive containing the author's original corrected printed typescript and corrected galleys for the 2007 novel, both dated February 2006. Annotations in both documents by author William Gibson and a proofreader in various colors of holograph ink (typically Gibson's are in red and proofreaders' are in green). The second novel in the… Read more

(Los Angeles): N.p., 1981. First draft manuscript for the 1984 novel, dated 1981, and here under the working title "L.A. Death Trip." INSCRIBED by Ellroy on one of two title pages (with another unused title, "Because the Night," crossed out), in which the author identifies this typed manuscript as a "precursor" draft to "Blood on the Moon" and specifies… Read more

N.p.: N.p., 1932. An archive of 6 extraordinary autograph letters signed, 5 in French and 1 in English, by the pioneering film director Georges Melies, generally considered to be one of the inventors of narrative cinema, revealing a great deal about his little-discussed but profoundly important origins in the Robert-Houdin Theatre in Paris, as well as his work as… Read more

New York: Covici-Friede, 1935. First edition, second issue of Odet's first book, containing his first three plays, "Awake and Sing!," "Waiting for Lefty," and "Till the Day I Die," all of which were written for and premiered by the Group Theatre in the first half of 1935. Copy belonging to Emanuel "Manny" Fried, an understudy to Group Theatre co-founder… Read more

New York: Edward J. Clode, 1927. First Edition. First Edition. In the first state dust jacket, priced $2.00 and with a blurb for this title on the front flap and an advertisement for Richard H. Watkin's "Half a Clue" on the rear flap. From the collection of Otto Penzler. In the early days of the seminal pulp magazine "Black Mask,"… Read more

Culver City, CA: RKO Radio Pictures, 1936. Estimating script for the 1937 film, here under the working title "Stepping Toes." A ballet star (Astaire) start falls in love with a young tap dancer (Rogers) on a trans-Atlantic voyage, but rumors of their relationship precede them to their destination. The seventh of ten films Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers would make… Read more

Culver City, CA: RKO Radio Pictures, 1936. Treatment script for the 1937 film. Almost certainly the earliest draft associated with the film, a typescript prose synopsis. A ballet star (Astaire) falls in love with a young tap dancer (Rogers) on a trans-Atlantic voyage, but rumors of their relationship precede them to their destination. The seventh of ten films Fred… Read more

Manchester: Factory Records, 1988. First Edition. FAC 235. First Edition. Issued privately by The Hacienda club in Manchester to friends of the establishment, as their 1988 Christmas gift. Flip-book (or "manual video") illustrated by avant-garde filmmaker and conceptualist Robert Breer and photographer Wiliam Wegman, bound such that the book slants to the left to enable easy flipping. On the… Read more

Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1968. First Edition. First Edition. Copy belonging to director Joseph Losey, with his name and home address written in holograph ink on the first leaf: "Joseph Losey / Hanover, NH / '70." Additional underlining and bracketing throughout, in the same fountain pen ink as the inscription, mostly to the opening chapters of the text. The… Read more

Boston: Little, Brown, 1930. First American Edition. First book in Hamilton's "20,000 Streets Under the Sky" trilogy. INSCRIBED by the author to his wife, and dated in the year and month of their marriage (as well as the year of publication): "To Lois / from / her own private novelist / Patrick Hamilton / 8th August 1930." Very Good lacking… Read more

N.p.: N.p., 1983. Original handwritten manuscript draft for the 1984 novel. With Ellroy's profuse and expectedly surgical corrections to his own text throughout, and with substantial content that did not make the published edition. With a letter of provenance from Ellroy's then-editor and publisher Otto Penzler, tying the manuscript directly to its source. According to Penzler, Ellroy's manuscripts would… Read more

Tokyo: Toho Company, 1966. Draft script for the 1966 film. Text in Japanese. A pornographer is keeping a low profile to keep out of the way of the mob, while also is trying to keep the various people in his life happy, including his stepdaughter, stepson, mistress, and wife (who believes her first husband was reincarnated as a carp).… Read more

Tokyo: Imamura Productions, 1979. Draft script for the 1979 film. Text in Japanese. With a single notation in holograph ink. Based on Ryuzo Saki's novel, about real life con man, thief, and multiple murderer Akira Nishiguchi (changed to Iwao Enokizu in the film), told in multiple flashbacks as he awaits execution for his crimes. Black titled perfect bound wrappers.… Read more

Burbank, CA: Fox Broadcasting Company / Warner Brothers Television / Sweet Freedom Productions / Main Sequence Productions, 1994. Archive of original scripts for all 27 episodes of "The George Carlin Show," which ran on Fox for two seasons in 1994 and 1995, with multiple drafts of each episode, totaling 196 scripts. Also included are several key pieces of ephemera… Read more

Beverly Hills, CA: United Artists, 1955. Vintage contact sheet containing 12 test images of a sultry Kim Novak in a somewhat otherworldly parlor room setting, shot by noted photographer Peter Basch for the 1955 film. With Basch's name and studio address along two margins of the recto, and two different stamps, crediting both Basch and his studio, on the… Read more

Culver City, CA: RKO Radio Pictures, 1941. Draft script for the classic 1942 film noir. An American ballistics expert in Turkey finds himself targeted by Nazi agents. Safe passage home by ship is arranged for him, but he soon discovers that his pursuers are also on board. Set in Turkey. Yellow titled wrappers, rubber-stamped and production No. 1223, dated… Read more

Beverly Hills, CA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer [MGM], 1925. Draft script for the 1926 silent film "The Blackbird," seen here under the working title "The Mocking Bird." Lon Chaney again serves as a versatile "man of a thousand faces," here playing the role of high-profile thief The Blackbird who lives a double-life as a beloved local bishop. He falls in love with… Read more