1949 INSCRIBED OSSIE DAVIS by Garson Kanin Smile of the World "my idea of actor"

Description

[AFRICAN AMERICAN; ASSOCIATION COPY]
Inscribed to Ossie Davis by the playwright Garson Kanin THE SMILE OF THE WORLD by Garson Kanin, Dramatists Play Service, New York, NY, 1949, hardcover/no jacket, 4-1/2” x 7-1/4”, vi (unnumbered), 80 pages, frontispiece photograph of scene from the play, Garson Kanin’s inscription in green ink on the blank front endpage reads in full, “This one is for Ossie, my idea of a man, my idea of an actor. With thanks and love, Garson Kanin / N. Y. C. August 1949”, this play is notable in the lives and careers of Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee because as they write in their co-authored book “In This Life Together”, in December 1948 on a day off from rehearsals of the play in which Davis played Stewart and Dee played Evelyn, they took a bus to New Jersey to get married;
PROVENANCE:
from the library of Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis at their home in New Rochelle, NY, with ownership stamp “Property of Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis”; CONDITION: very good-plus or better, small piece of dark blue tape with “K 12” visible with reading microscope presumably added by Ossie and Ruby for coding for the book in the large library of their home in New Rochelle, NY; keywords:
association copy, American theater, playwright autograph, Black Americana, entertainment history, black memorabilia, celebrity association
.