Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson with preface by Thomas Carlyle (INSCRIBED Association copy)
Hammersmith: The Doves Press, 1906. Limited Edition. Flexible vellum. 8vo. 311, (1) pp. This edition was limited to 300 copies (of a total printing of 325). Text printed in red and in black. Publisher's full limp slightly mottled vellum by T. J. Cobden-Sanderson and 'The Doves Bindery' is stamped on the rear pastedown, spine darkened and lettered in gilt; Near Fine. Warmly inscribed from Henry Arthur Jones to Professor George Pierce Baker. Jones was a major figure in late Victorian and Edwardian theater, helping transform English drama from melodramatic entertainment into a more serious literary and social art form. Professor Baker was one of the founders of academic drama studies in America; he established the first university course for playwrights at Harvard, known as 'Workshop 47' and he later was a founder of the Yale School of Drama. Jones and Baker were together for the world premiere of his play 'The Hypocrites' on Broadway and Jones inscribed this lovely Doves Press' printing of Emerson essays "My dear Professor Baker, / I have just had a / quarter of an hour with Emerson. / He is very soothing and "fortifying" / in the bustle and heat of producing / a play. / Always faithfully yrs / Henry Arthur Jones / August 30th 1906 / New York" (just weeks later Jones dedicated the published play to Baker "... in remembrance of your kind companionship on the evening of its original performance in New York..."). A unique and significant piece of theater and literary history connecting two major figures in the development of modern drama; Jones, one of the most important English dramatists, internationally known in 1906 and Baker, arguably the single most influential academic teacher of drama in America. Item #23170
Price: $2,500.00