Description
Privately printed by Henry E. Corbyn, Published 1924. Staple-bound pamphlet, [30] pp (unpaginated); 19 cm; plain tan paper wraps.
Rare, out-of-print & unusual books · Since 1997
19
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Catalog notes
Condition & notes
In Acceptable condition. Plain tan paper wraps, ELDORADO stamped on front. Tear running from the foot of the spine fold up to the first staple, with several smaller chips and tears; light to moderate aging and soiling to covers. Text block splitting along the center fold in places, but all leaves attached. Pages browned and brittle, with chipping and small tears along edges. Early owner's address inked at foot of title page. Otherwise unmarked. H.E. Corbyn's dramatization of Edgar Allan Poe's short allegorical poem "Eldorado," expanded into a costume screen play with a small cast (Lady Somebody; Sir Nobody, a Knight; Old Pard, his horse; and a Shadow); the foreword, "Procrastination is the Thief of Time," reprints Poe's poem in full. An uncommon survival from the silent era, when original screen plays were rarely printed in book form, most film-related books of the period being photoplay novelizations of released pictures or how-to scenario manuals rather than original scripts. Privately printed in Oklahoma City by Smith-Moseley. The author was in all likelihood the Henry E. Corbyn (1884-1948) active in the early film-distribution trade, a salesman for First National Pictures and A.H. Blank Enterprises and later editor of the Southwestern Retailer, a background well suited to the privately printed screen play offered here, though period sources do not explicitly connect him to this Oklahoma City imprint.