Maude Adams
New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1901. First Edition. Hardcover. 16mo. Pp. 110. Frontis. gravure portrait photo with tissue guard. Illustrated with twenty black & white halftone photo portrait reproductions. Copyright page states Published September, 1901. Title page in red and black, decorative running heads. Front free endpaper inscribed in ink "With Love from Maudie." Ivory cloth, titles and illustrations stamped in gilt on the cover and spine, head edge gilt, others untrimmed, red bookmark ribbon bound in. Mild spine lean, spine tail bumped, light soiling to covers, bookplate of Harry Miller Robbins (Yale, '02) on front pastedown shadowed on ffep, text leaves minimally age toned, gilt remains brilliant. Very Good. Item #6825 Born Maude Ewing Adams Kiskadden in Salt Lake City in 1872 to an actress mother, 'Miss Maude' performed on stage through childhood. Then under contract with Charles Frohman she appeared as Lady Babbie in J. M. Barrie's The Little Minister on Broadway in 1897, setting an all-time box office record and becoming a star with a reputation for virtue if not innocence. This illustrated biographical sketch and review of her career to 1900 by New York drama critic Davies covers her earliest roles through Masked Ball to L'Aiglon. She went on to greater fame in her second major male role, as Peter Pan, then in her first retirement helped develop and patent improved electric lighting for stage and film production. She died in 1953 and was buried beside her partner, publisher Louise Boynton. In an interview quoted on the final pages Maude expresses a Continental view of women's rights. A charming production, well-preserved.
Although the inscription does not correspond with samples of Adams' handwriting, she had connections to St. Paul, Minnesota, where the Robbins family was once prominent. Withal, we are unable to claim this as Adams' inscription.
Price: $40.00