Best Copy In The World from Royal Books, Inc.

N.p.: N.p., 1956. Vintage handmade poster (or possibly maquette, or master) advertising a screening of three short films relating to a motorcycle road racing, including a race held in 1956 on the Isle of Man and another held in 1960, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The poster advertises the screenings as a one-time event to be held at… 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… 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… Read more

Los Angeles: 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… Read more

Los Angeles: 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… Read more

Manchester: Factory Records, No. FAC235, 1988. First Edition. First Edition. Issued privately by The Hacienda club in Manchester to friends of the establishment, a 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 front wrapper, in brightly… 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. … 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… Read more

New York: Greenwich Film Productions, 1985. Draft script for the 1985 film. Text in Japanese. Based on Shakespeare's play, "King Lear." An elderly warlord in Medieval Japan divides his vast empire among his three sons. The power corrupts them and turns them on each other, as well as their father. Nominated for four Academy Awards including Best… 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… 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… 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. … 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

Hollywood: 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… 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… Read more

Budapest: Hunnia Filmstudio, 1929. Presentation copy of an Early Draft script for the Hungarian film, released in Hungry in 1932 as "Tavaszi zapor," in Frace in 1933 as "Marie, Legende Hongroise," and in the United States in 1935 as "Spring Shower." Housed in a (likely hand-sewn) floral cloth-covered portfolio, the script is INSCRIBED by the Hungarian-American feminist and radical… Read more

N.p.: N.p., 1969. Original ribbon copy typescript for Tay Garnett's screenplay adaptation of Mickey Spillane's 1967 novel. Profusely annotated by Garnett in blue and red ink on every page, and with a annotations by him at the top right corner of the first leaf: "First Draft (Work Copy)," "Screenplay by Tay Garnett," and "From Mickey Spillane's novel." Raoul… Read more

Eureka, CA: Hearse Press, 1960. First Edition. First Edition. One of no more than five "author's edition" copies with an original illustration by the author bound in. During the 1970s, Bukowski still had a number of copies of this book and decided to make between three and five unique copies by binding in original artwork or poetry-beginning a practice… Read more

N.p.: N.p., 1959. Original illustrated humorous essay by Terry Southern and William Pene Dubois, satirizing (or perhaps elucidating) the dress habits of their distinguished friend, American screenwriter William Rose. Southern and Dubois met in the late 1950s, both under the tutelage of William Styron, while both of them were associated with The Paris Review. During this time… Read more