FIRSTS ONLINE Winter 2020

14. [McKern, Leo] OLIVIER, Laurence
TLS Laurence Olivier to Leo McKern
London: N.p., 1982
1p. TLS on headed notepaper. Faint central horizontal fold, two small stains
to lower half. Very well preserved, lacking the original envelope.
1pp. TLS FROM LAURENCE OLIVIER TO LEO McKERN,
WELCOMING HIM TO THE CAST OF KING LEAR.
In 1959, Laurence Olivier hired Leo McKern to direct the Australian
play The Shifting Heart at the Nottingham Playhouse, in a co-production
between London’s Duke of Yorks theatre and Olivier’s own company.
Twenty-three years later the pair were cast together in Michael Elliott’s
made-for-TV production of King Lear, leading a cast which also included
John Hurt, Colin Blakely, Diana Rigg and Brian Cox.
some thirty-three years later, a collection of pieces about theatre and
theatre-going.
Oppenheimer’s lifelong friend Dorothy Parker [1893-1967] was the
basis for the character of Mary Hilliard in his play Here Today, staged
in 1932, and here contributes two pieces: the short poem The Actress,
first published in her collection Death and Taxes (1931), and her theatre
review of The Jest, first published in Vanity Fair in 1919. (‘When the latest
attractions at the local playhouses were so consistently poisonous that
one had just about decided to give up the whole thing and stay at home
in the evenings to see if there was anything in family life -- then along
came Mr. Arthur Hopkins and produced The Jest. And, once again, all’s
well with the world.’)
£750
Olivier’s welcome note, on his own headed stationery, reads:
‘Dearest Leo [handwritten],
I have been meaning to write this ever since I heard the happy news to
tell you how very delighted I am that we are to be together again on
LEAR.
Thank you for making anticipation so pleasurable rather than so
apprehensive.
[signed] Your Larry O.’
An affectionate letter, very well preserved.
£295
15. [PARKER, Dorothy] OPPENHEIMER, George
The Passionate Playgoer
New York: Viking, 1958
8vo, pp. 623. Original pale purple boards, lettered in dark purple to
front panel and gilt on dark purple to spine. Top edge purple. Illustrated
dustwrapper. 16pp. photographic illustrations.Slight offsetting to endpapers,
corners a little bumped, but a very good copy in a worn dustwrapper, front
flap detached but present, and with some loss to spine ends.
First edition. DOROTHY PARKER’S COPY, INSCRIBED TO HER
BY THE AUTHOR: ‘To Dorothy with gratitude, love and hope that
she will like being in here as much as I like having her in a book of mine.
Always, George’.
George Oppenheimer [1900-1977] was a playwright, screenwriter --
and, in 1925, co-founder of Viking Press, the publishers of this book
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