Laugh and Live by Douglas Fairbanks

New York: Britton, 1917. First Edition. Affixed to the front free endpaper 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 the lovely Mary Pickford clutching a bouquet of flowers in her (truncated) lead role in the film of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917). 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 at the height of their relationship 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. This copy was later formerly owned by Twentieth Century-Fox publicist Art Ronnie with his move-themed bookplate. Near fine copy with just a trace of edge wear in a lightly dust soiled dust jacket with a long tear to the front spine fold and some chips and small tears. The front panel of the jacket is a photograph portrait of a laughing Fairbanks. Illustrated with scenes the motion pictures of this silent film star. Rare in dust jacket. (Inventory #: 23196E)