1903 · London
by [Vale Press]. Marlowe, Christopher.
Slim 8vo. London: Ballantyne Press [for The Vale Press], 1903. Slim 8vo, li, [1] pp. Full crushed green morocco by G.P. Putnam's Sons at the Knickerbocker Press; gilt-tooled turn-ins, green linen pastedowns, ribbon marker, backstrip with raised bands and title in gilt. Binding worn, joints cracking, internally fine. § One of 310 copies. Published by Ricketts to raise funds for the Romantic Stage Players to stage W.B. Yeats' Countess Cathleen. The short-lived group of amateur performers was led by Thomas Sturge Moore, Lawrence Binyon, and W.B. Yeats, with the goal of reviving romantic drama and "art theatre," employing "musical speech" and a new concept of decorative "almost symbolic" scenery." May Morris and Florence Farr were actor members of the company. Sales of Doctor Faustus raised £150 but the players disbanded later in 1903 before the money could be spent. Happily, the dramatic company was revived in 1906 as the Literary Theatre Society Ltd. and Ricketts's contribution was eventually put to use to fund performances of plays by Thomas Sturge Moore, Oscar Wilde, and Harley Granville Barker. Watry B45.
(Inventory #: 123163)