Abe Lincoln in Illinois: A Play in Twelve Scenes

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1939. Hardcover. Foreword by Carl Sandburg. Small 8vo. Burgundy cloth with gilt lettering, pictorial price-clipped dust jacket. xii, 250pp. Near fine/good plus. Jacket quite age toned and edgeworn, with a few tiny edge chips -- but complete and overall quite presentable. A tight and quite attractive early printing of this Pulitzer Prize winner by the American playwright and screenwriter (1896-1955). Pages vii-viii list the original stage cast from the Playwrights' Company production of 1938, with of course Raymond Massey leading the way as Lincoln -- which leads to this copy's fun autograph addition: Tipped to the front flyleaf is an Autograph Note Signed by the third and last wife of Massey, Dorothy Whitney Massey (1902-82). 1p, 6" X 7", New York, NY, 13 December 1939. Addressed to Arnold Gates (1914-93, noted Lincoln scholar). Near fine. Single original horizontal fold. On "Raymond Massey" letterhead, she notes: "Mr. Massey has asked me to thank you for your kind letter, and for sending him a copy of 'Amberglow.' He hopes that you will enjoy Mr. Sherwood's fine play," boldly penned in black ink and signed by the brand-new Mrs. Massey. Here's the fun part: When Massey and his second wife, actress Adrienne Allen, divorced early in 1939, they used husband-and-wife attorneys Whitney and Dorothy Whitney. The Whitney's then divorced and, within two weeks in July, Massey married Dorothy Whitney and Adrienne Allen married William Whitney! If this plot sounds familiar, that's because Massey's friend Ruth Gordon joined with Garson Kanin and used this as the basis for their script "Adam's Rib," filmed in 1949 with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. Canadian-born Raymond Massey (1896-1983) excelled at portraying American historical figures in films, and is justly regarded for his portrayal of the 16th president; a film version of "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" was released in 1940 and earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Laid into this copy is a 3¼" X 8½" stiff green promotional leaflet for the December 12th, 1939 showing of "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" in Cleveland -- the very performance attended by Arnold Gates that prompted him to write Massey and give him a copy of his just-published booklet mentioned by Dorothy Massey in her letter, "Amberglow of Abraham Lincoln and Ann Rutledge.