Beschreibung:

Evans, Edith A SUBSTANTIAL COLLECTION, COMPRISING: i) Three scrapbooks compiled by Evans from World War II to the mid-50s, containing amateur photographs of Evans, family, and friends (including George Bernard Shaw and many other theatrical figures) from her childhood to her old age, with images of her in private, also on stage and in costume, at benefits and public occasions, with troops in an ESNA company during World War II in India and elsewhere, and on post-war tours of the Soviet Union and South Africa, as well as a few signed photos by actors and others including Giovanni Martinelli; autograph letters and cards by actors and playwrights (many loose in envelopes by John Gielgud (complaining of trends in theatre and of "that horrid Tynan who shows off"), Glen Byam Shaw Noel Coward, Peggy Ashcroft, Vita Sackville-West ("I should like to buy you, and have you for keeps. Would you be very expensive?"), Christopher Fry (small group of letters and an autograph poem), Alex Guinness, Bette Davis, Terence Rattigan, James Bridie, Antony Quayle, and others; press cuttings, ephemera and pressed flowers (including military passes and pressed flowers from Tolstoy's garden), 3 volumes, folio, about 340 pages, plus blanks, in green and blue boards, mostly 1943-56 but with some earlier material ii) Edith Evans personal diaries, three volumes, all with regular entries: pocket notebook with entries relating to a production of The Cherry Orchard, 37 pages, plus blanks, 12 November to 18 December 1948; Smythson's 'Royal Court' daily diary for 1949, with regular entries until 3 November, blue covers; notebook with irregular entries 8 March-8 September 1967, followed by a list of names, 13 pages, plus blanks, floral boards iii) Photographs and portraits of Edith Evans: Bryan Organ pencil portrait, head and shoulders, signed and dated, August 1976, framed and glazed (image 205 x 230mm, frame 810 x 665mm); three framed photographs including Yvonne Gregory, photographic portrait of the young Edith Evans, signed by the photographer, inscribed on the mount by Evans to Bryan and Nanette Forbes, framed and glazed (image 200 x 150; frame 465 x 360mm), and Florence Vandamm, photographic portrait, half-length, signed on the mount by the photographer and by Evans ("Edith, 1.1.16"), framed and glazed (image 200 x 150mm; frame 370 x 290mm); 9 other vintage studio photographs; later copy prints including two large format prints (500 x 400mm) iv) Two files of letters, including 3 to Edith Evans, one by George Bernard Shaw, just before the opening of Back to Methuselah with a sketch of Evans as the Serpent (2 pages, 17 September 1923), the remainder to Bryan Forbes relating to his friendship with and biography of Edith Evans, by Edith Evans (10 letters, 1967-75), agreeing to collaborate on a biography and on her health problems, John Gielgud (18 letters, 1977-99 where dated, several with autograph envelopes), candidly discussing her character ("a strange mixture of arrogance and humility") and career, and also on other books by Forbes, and related material including a document signed by the cast of 'The Dark is Light Enough' (23 June 1954), altogether c.45 items v) Red box file, containing 32 letters (mostly autograph) by Edith Evans to Bryan Forbes and 15 letters (autograph and typed) by Forbes to Evans, on productions, films, and social affairs, 1968-76; three letters by Edith Evans to Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies, 1931-41; 8 letters to Edith Evans including by Michael Redgrave to Edith Evans (2 pages, n.d.), her husband George Booth (2 intimate letters 1924), and Stephen Tennant (illustrated); correspondence and papers of Bryan Forbes relating to Evans his biography, and her estate including material relating to her funeral, transcripts of interviews, and reproductions of photographs vi) 35 books from her library, mostly inscribed by or to her, including books presented by Sibyl Thorndike, Muriel Bradbrook, James Bridie, and others (list available on request) v