Samuel Merwin's original mansucript for "In Red and Gold" with several ALs to the screenwriter Albert S. LeVino (1878-1947) who owned it.
Concord, MA: 1921-1922. Folio. 9 x 12 inches. Deco gilt design on red calf with gilt borders, gilt design on top board, spine with raised bands, gilt-decorated compartments, lettered in gilt, silk moiré endpapers; red buckram slipcase.
Approximately 226 manuscript pages, tipped-in on larger blank pages, recto side only. Also tipped in at the front are 6 pp. of handwritten correspondence by Merwin, including two original envelopes to Le Vino.
The original handwritten manuscript of Merwin's novel, with edits and corrections throughout in the author's hand. Tipped in at the front are 6 pages of correspondence from Merwin to screenwriter Albert S. Levino, discussing various projects.
Samuel Merwin, Sr. was an American playwright and author. After attending Northwestern University, he worked between 1905 and 1911 as associate editor and then editor of SUCCESS magazine. In 1907 the magazine sent him to China to investigate the opium trade. The first edition of In Red and Gold was published in 1921 by Bobbs Merrill.
Provenance: Estate of
Albert S. Le Vino (1878-1947).
The manuscript starts with changes to the very first sentence
"CHAPTER I—FELLOW VOYAGERS
On a night in October, 1911, the river steamer Yen Hsin lay alongside the godown, or warehouse, of the Chinese Navigation Company at Shanghai. Her black hull bulked large in the darkness that was spotted with inadequate electric lights. Her white cabins, above, lighted here and there, loomed high and ghostly, extending as far as the eye could easily see from the narrow wharf beneath. Swarming continuously across the gangplanks, chanting rhythmically to keep the quick shuffling step, crews of coolies carried heavy boxes and bales swung from bamboo poles." Item #51-3385
Price: $1,500.00