[Rarebooks] FS: Association Copy of Reade's Peg Woffington: Signed by Reade, Dobson, critic Jeanette Gilder, and Vaudevillian Joan Sawyer

[A.E. Tishman]

Sometimes the physical book itself tells a greater story than the plot:

Reade, Charles. PEG WOFFINGTON (ASSOCIATION COPY: SIGNED BY CHARLES READE, ARTHUR DOBSON, CRITIC JEANNETTE GILDER, AND ACTRESS JOAN [RENTSCHLER] SAWYER). New York: Doubleday and McClure Company, 1899. 12mo, 7.3 in. x 56.1 in., pp. li, [1], 297, [1]. Association Copy. Signed on separate pages by the author, the author of the introduction, journalist/critic Jeannette Gilder, and Vaudevillian Actress Joan Sawyer. Illustrated with seventy-five drawings by Hugh Thomson that have been exquisitely and personally hand-colored by Jeannette Gilder. Rebound in 1915 in three quarter dark green calf ruled in gilt over forest green cloth boards. Gilt title and five raised bands to spine; decorative gilt frames to spine compartments. Original front and back cover and spine laid in at rear endpapers. All edges gilt. Light rubbing to extremities with corners just showing. A few faded moisture spots to boards. Marbled endpapers. Previous owner's signature (Joan Rentschler Sawyer) to front pastedown. Chipping to fore-edge of pp. xlix-li and pp. 1-2. Very Good. Hardcover. (#86833) $350

The book's subject, Margaret Woffington (1720 – 1760), known professionally as Peg Woffington, was a popular Irish actress and socialite of the Georgian era. This edition of this book offers quite a story and cast of characters:

Bound-in following copyright page: Undated, short letter on embossed stationery (of the "Palatine Hotel, Manchester") signed by author Charles Reade (1814-1884). The letter is addressed to "Dear Sir", and regards his future attendance to an event. This book, to note, is published 15 years after Reade's death.

Bound-in between pages xlvi and xlix: a handwritten letter regarding personal meetings signed on embossed stationary (of the "Board of Trades, S. W.") by Author Arthur Dobson, dated Sep 4, 1883 (16 years before the book's publication) to "------ [illegible] Gilder", referencing perhaps the editor and journalist Jeannette Gilder (or another member of the Gilder family).

Jeannette Leonard Gilder (1849-1916) was an American author, journalist, and editor, who served as the regular correspondent and literary critic for Chicago Tribune, the Boston Saturday Evening Gazette, Boston Transcript, Philadelphia Record and Press, and various other papers. With her brother, she founded the literary magazine The Critic and served as editor for 25 years. Bound-in before the front flyleaf is an inscription from Jeannette Gilder to vaudeville actress Joan Sawyer. In the printed inscription, dated December 1915 (one year before Gilder died), Gilder writes that she personally hand-colorized Hugh Thomson's illustrations in the book. There is, in addition, a full-page photo of Joan Sawyer dancing bound in opposite the page of Gilder's inscription.

Actress Joan Sawyer (October 11, 1887 – November 1966), signed this book in large, grainy pencil on front pastedown: "Property of Joan Rentschler". Born Bessie Josephine Morrison, Joan Sawyer was an American society dancer, composer, suffragist, and businesswoman, who performed on the vaudeville circuit in the 1910s. Among her dance partners was a young Rudolph Valentino. In 1917 Sawyer was named as a co-respondent in the highly publicized divorce of heiress Blanca Errázuriz and businessman Jack de Saulles; later that year, Errázuriz killed de Saulles in a custody dispute. She married businessman George A. Rentschler in 1922. In 1929, Joan Sawyer Rentschler was sued by an Ohio man, who claimed she persuaded his wife to divorce him. She divorced Rentschler in 1936. Sawyer died in 1966.

The book's tribute from Gilder to Sawyer and the rebinding in 1915, with the added personal signatures of Reade and Dobson bound in, was likely a personal gift from the esteemed critic Jeannette Gilder to a young rising star, the 28-year old Joan Sawyer, whom Gilder saw as the dynamic and artistic equivalent of the book's heroine, Peg Woffington. 

View the book here:  Peg Woffington Association Copy <https://www.ezrabook.com/pages/books/86833/charles-reade/peg-woffington-association-copy-signed-by-charles-reade-arthur-dobson-critic-jeannette-gilder>

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