Up the Years from Bloomsbury: An Autobiography [*SIGNED*]

(no dust jacket) [some minor wear to the extremities, gilt spine lettering slightly rubbed, all in all a bright attractive copy; one-time owner's name at top of front endpaper (see notes)]. (B&W photographic plates) INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the author on the front endpaper: "To Mr. Cecil deMille / with my best wishes / from George Arliss / Dec. 1928." The first of two memoirs by this distinguished actor, whose horse-faced visage and stentorian dramatic style graced a number of "prestige" pictures (and a few potboilers) in the twilight years of his career. (He didn't make his first film until he was in his fifties, following a long career on the English and American stage.) For a half-dozen years in the early talkies era, he was Hollywood's go-to actor for portraying important historical figures: Benjamin Disraeli (a role which garnered him the Academy Award as Best Actor in the Academy's third year), Alexander Hamilton, Voltaire, Cardinal Richelieu, a couple of the Rothschilds, the Duke of Wellington, etc.). This particular book deals almost entirely with his stage career, with only the final chapter ("Before the Camera") being devoted to his early film work; he would published a second memoir, "My Ten Years in the Studios," in 1940. Although this copy was inscribed for presentation to producer/director Cecil B. DeMille, it seems to have been appropriated by his wife Constance (it's her signature that appears at the top of the front endpaper); for whatever it's worth, though, (a) the book doesn't appear to have actually been read by either Mr. or Mrs. DeMille, and (b) C.B. never cast Arliss in any of his pictures. Signed by Author

Product Info

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Year: 1928 (c.1927)

Type: Used

Binding: Hardcover

Signed

Seller Info

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