Memo from David O. Selznick

London: Macmillan. Near Fine in Near Fine dj. 1973 (c.1972). 1st UK edition. Hardcover. [nice clean copy, just slightly bumped at the top of the spine but otherwise unblemished; the jacket is very lightly rubbed, with some minor wrinkling at the spine ends and an infinitesimal closed tear at the bottom of the front panel; it was also slightly mis-folded onto the book at the front foldover, with a resulting vertical wrinkle/crease along the left edge of the front flap]. (B&W photographs) An endlessly fascinating read-through of the correspondence files of the legendary producer of GONE WITH THE WIND and other classics (and an occasional non-classic) -- albeit, as editor Behlmer explains in his foreword, presenting "a rather one-sided case, with no opportunity for the several victims of Selznick's unhappiness or, in some instances, wrath, to offer rebuttals or countercharges." The selection of memos -- from among two thousand file boxes of Selznick's papers -- was a monumental task, and although it was by necessity a highly selective process, at the end you feel like you've gotten a pretty comprehensive picture of DOS -- "at times pontificating and overly fussy," as the editor allows, but "also brilliant, knowledgeable, tasteful, painstaking, and possessed by what he was doing." The book itself was something of a landmark of cinema scholarship: never before had a book of film history (or biography) been presented as an assemblage of primary documents, and it's not saying too much to state that it raised the bar for future film historians' excavation of such archives. Quite fittingly included in the important bibliography "100 Books on Hollywood & the Movies." ****NOTE that additonal postage charges will be assessed for international shipping of this heavy book (which is a little bit heftier, in fact, than the original American edition); if this concerns you, please contact us for a shipping quote before placing your order.**** (xx) .