SALOME'S LAST VEIL. The Libel Case of the Century.
Pp. x+320, 8 plates, appendix, sources, index; demy 8vo; brown art. leather, spine blocked in purple and lettered in gilt, head of spine and fore-corners of boards a trifle bruised; dust wrapper, slightly foxed on flaps and reverse, edges a trifle rubbed and split, the back panel faintly scuffed; bookplate of David Levine, Sydney, on upper pastedown, tiny ink mark at foot of title page, edges of leaves lightly foxed; Granada Publishing/Hart-Davis, MacGibbon, London, 1977. First edition. *'The English premiere of Oscar Wilde's once-shocking Salome was planned for April 1918, with the actress Maud Allan in the lead. A newspaper owned by the MP Noel Pemberton Billing implied that she was a lesbian and a sadist for agreeing to take the part. Maud Allan sued Billing for criminal libel, and a notorious court case began. . . . The defence witnesses included Lord Alfred Douglas; a Jesuit priest; the theatre critic of the Morning Post; and a Captain Spencer, who had been dismissed from the British Secret Service as insane' [wrapper blurb]. Item #181428
Price: $45.00