PICTURE - INSCRIBED BY JOHN HUSTON
London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1953. First UK Edition. A cornerstone work of film journalism, originally conceived by Ross as a series of articles she wrote for The New Yorker on the production of John Huston's The Red Badge of Courage (1951). "She takes one picture...from the time the property was acquired through every step until its release. All of Hollywood thus passes in review - John Huston, Audie Murphy, Mayer, Gottfried Reinhardt, the columnists, the agents, the cutters - all the vast pageant that Hollywood affords" (from front flap). The filming and post-production were fraught with difficulty; Huston considered the 2-hour cut of the film to be the best he had made as a director, which MGM had cut down to a 69-minute version, reducing Huston's masterpiece from epic status to a second-rate B picture. While the inscription to Baxter is undated, this was likely inscribed for him in London in 1980, where Huston was staying temporarily while publicizing his memoir An Open Book. Baxter would write at length about the encounter for the film blog Film Alert 101 ("From 'the darkened house of his memory' - John Baxter recalls an encounter with John Huston." 13 July, 2019). A definitive work on the filmmaking process, and the only copy inscribed by Huston we have seen. Item #4671
First Impression. Octavo (22cm); red paper-covered boards, with titles stamped in gilt on spine; dustjacket; [7],8-240pp. Inscribed on the title page to Australian writer, journalist, and film-maker John Baxter: "To John Baxter - and its all true - John Huston." Mild wear to spine ends, gentle sunning to upper board edges, with faint dust-soil to upper edge of textblock, tiny rubber-stamp to rear pastedown, and some scattered foxing and staining to text edges, preliminary, and terminal leaves; Very Good and sound. Dustjacket is price-clipped, spine-sunned and edgeworn, with scattered staining, several shallow losses, a few closed tears and splits, pronounced creasing along upper edge, and evidence of old cello-tape removed from edges on verso (with some resulting bleed-through); Good.
Price: $1,750.00