A Christmas Bouquet: Poems [*SIGNED* limited edition]

(in its original glassine wrapper, but scanned without it) [gilt lettering on spine and front cover a little dulled, but otherwise no significant wear to book; this copy still has its original plain glassine wrapper, which is torn and wrinkled, but will be included for you to retain or dispose of, as you wish]. INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the author on the front endpaper: "To / Merry Christmas / and Happy New Year / Lela." Issued in an edition of 500 numbered copies, this being no. 220. The title notwithstanding, this is mostly non-holiday doggerel by Ginger Rogers's mother, probably best remembered for her tireless promotion of her daughter's career. She had also done some screenwriting early on her life, and after Ginger rose to fame she was promoted (or perhaps promoted herself) into various positions at the studios where her daughter was employed (RKO and later Paramount). During the late 1940s and 1950s she was one of the more prominent names on the right wing of the Hollywood political spectrum; a co-founder of the anti-commie Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, she did her perceived patriotic duty by testifying to HUAC at their initial (1947) hearings into the movie industry, airing her opinion that once Hollywood executives got hip to the devious ways of the "trained propagandists" of the Communist Party, "they will be most happy to clean it [the propaganda] out of their pictures" -- as indeed they proved to be, in the immediate wake of those hearings. Of the two dozen single- or half-page poems in this slim volume, perhaps the most touching (if you are easily touched) are "Angel" (dedicated to Virginia Katherine McMath," Ginger's birth name) and "Ginger" (which metaphorically extols her daughter's ethereal qualities -- the perfume of a rose, a rainbow after rain, like that -- and has a refrain ("Nor you--nor I") that seems to owe something to an old Irving Berlin tune that I can't quite put my finger on). As somebody once said, this is exactly the sort of thing you'll like, if you like that sort of thing. Signed by Author

Product Info

Publisher: Ginger Rogers

Year: 1966

Type: Used

Binding: Hardcover

First Edition

Signed

Seller Info

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