Miel

1971 · rif. 18285E — Garden City: Doubleday 1971. First Edition. Signed presentation copy from Darryl F. Zanuck film mogul of 20th Century - Fox to screenwriter director and film producer Nunnally Johnson inscribed on the printed half-title: “To Nunnally With affectionate regards from this chronicle ‘the subject’. Darryl.” With the bookplate of Nunnally Johnson affixed to the front pastedown 4” x 5 3/4” light blue paper printed in large lettering: “Nunnally Johnson His Book” with a drawing of an open book in the center with the following amusing text: “Ex-Liberus Pro-Bono Publico Ex-Cathe-dra Sic Semper Tyranus Klassy Kut Klothes.” Near fine bright copy with some minor edge wear in a very good dust jacket with a touch of dust soiling and some small chips and tears. Illustrated. Very rare inscribed. Darryl F. Zanuck 1902 - 1979 was one of the founding fathers of the modern American film industry. In 1929 he became head of production for Warner Brothers helping to successfully guide the studio out of the silent film era into sound. After establishing Warner Brothers’ film style with such classics as ‘The Jazz Singer’ ‘The Public Enemy’ and ‘I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang’ he broke out on his own in 1933 after a dispute over studio policy and went on to form Twentieth Century Films with support and backing from Louis B. Mayer and Joseph M. Schenck. In 1935 Twentieth absorbed the financially troubled Fox studios thus becoming Twentieth Century-Fox. He was an unusually active participant in the development of the films his studio was producing and established a reputation as the most ‘hands-on’ of the major studio bosses as this script indicates. As producer some of his best known films include ‘Les Miserables’ ‘Young Mr. Lincoln’ ‘Drums Along the Mohawk’ ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ ‘How Green Was My Valley’ ‘Gentlemen’s Agreement’ ‘All About Eve’ ‘Viva Zapata!’ ‘The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit’ ‘The Sun Also Rises’ and ‘The Longest Day’ which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture. Nunnally Johnson 1897 - 1977 left his career as a journalist and short story writer in New York for Hollywood and found work as a scriptwriter and was hired full-time as a writer by 20th Century-Fox in 1935. Not long after he began producing films as well and cofounded International Pictures in 1943 with William Goetz. Johnson was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Screenplay in 1940 for ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ and the Directors Guild of America Best Directors Award in 1956 for ‘The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit’. He is also the author of such classic films as ‘The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel’ with Zanuck producing ‘The Prisoner of Shark Island’ ‘Jesse James’ ‘Tobacco Road’ ‘Three Came Home’ ‘The Keys to the Kingdom’ etc. Doubleday unknown