“One of these mornin’s you’s gonna rise up singin’.”
George Gershwin had wanted to write an opera about the African-American experience long before he read DuBose Heyward’s novel Porgy in 1926. But in Heyward’s portrayal of life on “Catfish Row”—based on the very real Cabbage Row in Heyward’s hometown of Charleston—Gershwin recognized his material. He immediately [...]
Category Archive for 'signed'
Tender Is The Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Posted in signed on Sep 29th, 2008
“Flashes Of Genius By An Expert In Self-Destruction”
In 1925 Fitzgerald published The Great Gatsby to immediate critical acclaim and popular success. Eight years later, he was no closer to delivering another novel. His editor at Scribner’s, the legendary Maxwell Perkins, worried about Fitzgerald but never lost faith, writing to him in August of 1933, “Whenever [...]
James Joyce, Henri Matisse - Ulysses
Posted in Rare Books, signed on Feb 24th, 2008
“It was a great idea to bring them together; celebrities of the same generation, of similar virtuosity” - Monroe Wheeler on the Joyce-Matisse Ulysses
George Macy’s decision to commission Henri Matisse to illustrate Ulysses was a bold move for his fledgling Limited Editions Club in 1935. Scandal still swirled around James Joyce’s masterpiece, which had been [...]