COLLECTION OF 47 ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS, 16 ANNOTATED ON THE VERSOS BY PARKER
[1942]. Photograph. A collection of 47 original photographs, nearly all by Jacob Lofman, of Fox House, the Bucks County home of Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell, 33 approximately 8" x 10" with 14 smaller images. Sixteen of the 8" x 10" photographs, some featuring Parker and Cambell, are ANNOTATED by Parker in pencil on the versos, often quite sarcastically. Some examples: "They call it the wilderness around here. Maybe some day somebody will reclaim it. Ah, isn't it mean to take a place from such a stupid angle?"; "For this we shivered and shook and risked our necks on that swaying ladder!"; "Obviously, the basket of food was brought us by the Salvation Army--"; "You look fine -- but I! And whatever became of my right hand?"; "He really should have known about shadows! But it is a lovely view, isn't it?"; and much more. All of the annotated photographs have stamps on the verso stating that they are private and copyrighted by Conde Nast Publications with the photographer's studio name, PIX Incorporated of New York City. Nine of the photographs were used to illustrate an article by Parker, "Destructive Decoration," in the November 1942 issue of HOUSE & GARDEN: "Then there was the terrible day when they found that, on the outside of the house, we had painted the blinds, not tea-room blue, but Mediterranean pink. All shuddered, and several swooned. And then, when we cut down a clump of sickly, straggly maples so that we might have an uninterrupted view of dipping meadows and the hills of Jersey beyond – well, that did in even the hardest to die of the Fifty-Second Street Thoreaus. Now only the natives speak to us. We feel all right" (page 33). The "Fifty-Second Street Thoreaus" are fellow authors who visited and were horrified by the destruction of the trees. Parker and Campbell purchased the house in 1936 with income from their Hollywood screenwriting and lived there for 20 years. Exceptional collection highlighting Parker's acerbic wit. A couple of photos with tears but most are Near Fine or Fine. Item #022398
Parker and Campbell produced over 20 scripts made into movies, most famously the script of the Oscar-winning A STAR IS BORN. The couple was married from 1933 to 1947, and again from 1950 until 1963 when Campbell died of an apparent suicide.
Price: $35,000.00