The Unknown Noel

Second Opinion Inc., 2001. AD2 - A hardcover book SIGNED by Barry Day (first name only) and inscribed to previous owner on the front free endpaper in very good condition in very good dust jacket that is mylar protected. Dust jacket has some wrinkling, chipping and crease on the edges, some scattered stains, dust jacket and book have some bumped corners, light discoloration and shelf wear. New Writing From The Noel Coward Archive. Preface by Graham Payn. 9.5"x6.5", 155 pages. Satisfaction Guaranteed. From the moment he could pick up a pencil Noël Coward was a writer. And although he went on to be one of the twentieth century's few Renaissance men - actor, stage director, composer, film maker, painter, poet, celebrity - he remained first and foremost a writer. The Coward Archive contains several dozen notebooks and hundreds of lose leaf folders in his distinctive spidery handwriting - first in pencil, later in ink, much later typewritten - crammed with stories, verse, essays, song lyrics, scenes from plays, lists of possible play titles… all of it the ray material of things to come. Every writer has his trunk or bottom drawer where he keeps things until he finds the right context for them. Noël was no exception and, fortunately for us, he was a magpie by nature. Little was thrown away and anything he missed in his early years, his mother Violet tucked away. What remains is as complete a picture of a writer's development as one is likely to see. Noël once complained that his generation failed to take light music seriously and the same comment might well - until recent years - have been applied to his own literary achievements. The wit was unquestioned but it tended to deflect serious critical consideration. Those coming to Coward for the first time are discovering what his admirers have always known - as did Wilde - that to treat serious things with studied triviality is a most effective way to get people to study them at all. The Coward Archive is a treasure trove for tomorrow's students but, until it becomes available, we have prepared this short anthology of previously unpublished material. Some of it will fill in a gap or strike a chord of memory here or there; some of it, we hope, will provide new insights into the mind of this remarkable man.. Signed. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.