JARNEGAN

New York: Albert & Charles Boni, 1926. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. Tully had started making contacts (and friends) in the nascent movie industry within a few years of his arrival in Southern California in 1912. In the early 1920s, by which time he had finally (more or less) settled in the city, he began finding work in the studios with the aid of such influential friends as novelist/scenarist Rupert Hughes and producer Paul Bern. At a party in February 1924, he was introduced to Charlie Chaplin, who hired him as a kind of writer-of-all-trades - equal parts publicist, ghostwriter and paid confidant/companion. As time went on, Tully found his mercurial boss difficult and the position stressful, and by mid-1925, with the success of Beggars of Life under his belt, he was able to break with Chaplin. His experience among the movie-makers informs this 'Hollywood novel' about a hard-living ex-con/drifter who becomes a big-shot film director" (Prouty, The Dozen and One: A Field Guide to the Books of Jim Tully). This copy is inscribed by Tully on the front flyleaf: "To Frances Fineman[,] who knew me - when - in the glad-mad hungry days - my friend - Jim Tully 1926 N.Y." Octavo. Original green cloth-covered boards over a black cloth spine, with gilt titles. Pencil marking to p.26 and 81 have been erased. Some general shelfwear to the boards; else very good.