The Black Dragon Mine: A Four Act Play
Claremont: Pomona College, 1914. First Edition. Stiff illustrated wrap. 12mo. Pp. 56. Stiff yellow paper covers with titles and illustration printed in green, saddle stapled: edges lightly rubbed and age toned. Senior play written for and presented by the Pomona College class of 1914 at the Greek Theatre, Claremont California, June 16, 1914. A bright, well-preserved copy. Very Good. Item #6789 Playwright James Porter (1883-1962), who forged a career as a successful sculptor and entrepreneur, was born in Tianjin, China, the son of medical missionaries. While quite young, his family fled China during the Boxer Rebellion. Conversational fodder among his parent's generation may have included reference to Boxer conflicts in Shanxi Province, some 500 kilometers inland from Tianjin. Known as "Tank" Porter, in 1904 his family landed in La Mesa, CA, where the Porter name was well established: Porter Hill is a local landmark; his uncle served as La Mesa's mayor. In 1914, the year of this play's production, he obtained his BA from Pomona College, now part of the Claremont College consortium. Porter later studied under Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor best known for Mount Rushmore; Porter's oeuvre, in bronze, stone and plaster, is marked by several public installations, mostly in the San Diego area. As a business entrepreneur, he invented the rotating lawn sprinkler, which was made and distributed by his La Mesa-based Brown Manufacturing Company. This play is quite scarce, with no institutional copies appearing through an OCLC search. The book is now housed in a removable, clear sleeve with an acid free backing.
A class play "set in the province of Shansi, North China, in 1899 just before the Boxer uprising." In the drama, Westerners and Chinese struggle over a coal mine.
Price: $100.00