Round Up - The Stories of Ring W. Lardner

New York: Scribner, 1929. First Edition, First Printing. A spectacular signed presentation copy from Ring Lardner inscribed and signed by the author to silent film stars Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks on the front free endpaper: “To Mary and Doug, From some species of bug. Ring W. Lardner, May 3, 1929.” The finest collection of Lardner’s short stories published in his lifetime including his masterpieces “Haircut” , “Alibi Ike”, and “The Love Nest.” Affixed to the front pastedown is the superb Mary Pickford & Douglas Fairbanks bookplate generally considered the finest bookplate from the Golden Age of Hollywood. The bookplate which reads “DOUGLAS & MARY FAIRBANKS - FROM AMONG THEIR BOOKS is a large pictorial engraved affair. It very charmingly shows Douglas Fairbanks brandishing a sword over his head in his swashbuckling role as the masked Zorro in The Mark of Zorro (1920) and also depicts a beautiful Mary Pickford clutching a bouquet of flowers in her lead role in the film of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917). Laid in is the printed entrance card / ticket to the Mary Pickford estate auction in Glendale, CA in March, 1981 where this item was purchased. It is hard to conceive of the star power of Pickford and Fairbanks during the era of silent film (imagine the appeal of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt times ten). They were virtually the King and Queen of Hollywood, and an invitation to their Beverly Hills home, Pickfair, was like being invited to the White House. In 1929, the year they received this book from Lardner, Pickford and Fairbanks starred together in the very early talking film, The Taming of the Shrew, their only joint appearance on screen, and the same year Pickford won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Coquette. Very good copy in a near fine bright dust jacket. Enclosed in a handsome red cloth gilt-stamped clamshell box. A superb association copy, the finest Ring Lardner presentation copy to appear for sale.