Manuscript for an article on David Garrick entitled "England's Greatest Actor and His Times"
N. P: circa 1940's.
Price: $750.00
About the item
27 pages in ink, with numerous corrections in the text. 1 vols. 8vo. A fine manuscript by this well-known book collector and bibliophile. "To write a paper about an actor and his art for a club whose avowed purpose (vide Article 3 of the Constitution) is the business of letters demands no apologies”.
Item #35865
Here Carroll A. Wilson writes about the presence of the actor as a kind of second author, quoting Professor Jenkins on the idea that there is no one Hamlet, and recalling to the reader "how much the actor is called upon to do for the author." Wilson positions the actor as a kind of author whose work does not survive "unimpaired to posternity" but instead "perishes on the fall of the curtain."
With these explanations undertaken, Wilson attempts to describe the "greatest actor ever produced by England .... David Garrick" He goes on to provide a detailed description of Garrick's life and career, and his relationship with Samuel Johnson (as well as many other notable figures of their day).
David Garrick (1717-1779) was an English actor, playwright, theater manager and producer. He promoted realistic, less bombastic acting than was the norm in his youth, and adapted many plays of the Restoration era to the stage. Here Wilson describes him as "such a man as has never since been supplied to the English stage."
This letter does not appear to ever have been published, at least under this title, and is not listed in printed bibliographies on the subject of David Garrick.
