[Rarebooks] FS: George Bernard Shaw PYGMALION Inscribed to Charles Ricketts

[Charles Agvent]

SHAW, George Bernard. ANDROCLES AND THE LION, OVERRULE, PYGMALION 
Inscribed to Charles Ricketts. London: Constable, 1916. First Edition. 
First Printing of one of Shaw's most popular plays, PYGMALION, a radical 
reworking of Ovid's classic tale with a feminist twist. Shaw wrote 
PYGMALION for the actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell who appeared to be the 
only actress willing to say the taboo word "bloody" spoken by her 
character Eliza Doolittle. In 1938 the play was made into an excellent 
movie, for which Shaw's screenplay won an Oscar, starring Leslie Howard 
as Professor Higgins. The play reached a much wider audience when it was 
transformed by Alan Jay Lerner into the musical MY FAIR LADY and later 
the film of the same title directed by George Cukor and starring Rex 
Harrison and Audrey Hepburn who replaced an irate Julie Andrews the star 
of the Broadway musical. The Irish playwright, who wrote more plays than 
Shakespeare, won the Nobel Prize in 1925 and lived to the age of 94, 
dying from complications resulting from a broken leg suffered after 
falling out of a tree. This is a fine association copy INSCRIBED on the 
half title page and SIGNED "To Charles Ricketts/from Bernard Shaw/14th 
July 1916." While signed books by Shaw are not rare, signed copies of 
this work are truly scarce, especially one with such a fine association. 
Charles Ricketts was a theatre designer who worked not only with Shaw 
but also with Oscar Wilde and others. He also illustrated books by 
Wilde, Shaw, and others and established the Vale Press with his partner, 
Charles Shannon. This copy belonged to William Randolph Hearst and was 
sold in his sale at Parke Bernet on 22 November 1939, lot 478. Tasteful 
bookplate of Henry Walker Bagley and Nancy Reynolds Bagley on the front 
pastedown. Housed in a cloth chemise and a green half-morocco slipcase 
with gilt lettering and decorations on the spine. Light wear to joints. 
Near Fine in a Fine chemise and slipcase. (#021146)        $7,500

https://www.charlesagvent.com/pages/books/021146/george-bernard-shaw/androcles-and-the-lion-overrule-pygmalion-inscribed-to-charles-ricketts

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