Letters from an Actor

London: Cassell. Very Good+ in Very Good+ dj. 1967. First Edition. Hardcover. [slight wear to cloth at base of spine, light soiling/spotting to top of text block; the jacket is lightly tanned along the spine, with a few touches of light soiling here and there]. The author played Guildenstern in the famous 1964 New York production of "Hamlet" starring Richard Burton and John Gielgud, and "during the three months of the play's preparation, from the rehearsals through the out-of-town tryouts to the gala opening night on Broadway, [he] wrote a series of letters describing the daily happenings and his impressions of them." These letters are the basis for this "brilliantly unusual book [that is] surely one of the most stimulating and delightful ever to come from the theatre." An "Author's Note" slip is affixed to the title page, the result of a protest lodged by Basil Dean and Ralph Richardson, who "have strongly denied that there is any truth in the anecdote concerning them which appears on pages 51 and 52 of this book"; the note concludes with Redfield backtracking, claiming that he "told it in good faith but [is] now certain that it has no foundation in fact." (The anecdote in question concerns Richardson's having allegedly walked out on a play during rehearsals in response to what he felt was ill treatment by Dean, the director. Neither man comes off terribly well in the telling.) .