Nöel Coward Song Book, The

London: Michael Joseph, 1953. Dear Mr. Bricusse..."
A Superb Noël Coward Association Copy with Telegram and Telephone Message to Leslie Bricusse

COWARD, Noël Coward. The Noël Coward Song Book. With an introduction and annotations by Noël Coward. Illustrated in colour and black & white by Gladys Calthrop. Frontispiece portrait by Clemence Dane. London: Michael Joseph, [1953].

First edition. Large quarto (11 1/4 x 8 7/8 inches; 285 x 225 mm.). [1-8], 9-314, [1], [1, blank] pp. Illustrated throughout with musical notation, photographic reproductions, and five inserted color plates including the frontispiece portrait.

Publisher's original quarter yellow cloth over gray buckram boards, front cover decoratively stamped in gilt, spine lettered in gilt, pale gray endpapers, top edge stained yellow. A near fine copy in the original pictorial dust jacket, jacket moderately worn at spine ends and corners with a few small chips and short tears, but remarkably bright and attractive overall.

Warmly inscribed by Noël Coward on the title-page: "To Leslie Bricusse with all my very best wishes Noël Coward"

An exceptional theatrical association copy linking two generations of British musical theater sophistication: Noël Coward, the defining wit and songwriter of the inter-war and postwar stage, and Leslie Bricusse, whose later successes would include Stop the World - I Want to Get Off, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Doctor Dolittle, Victor/Victoria, and the Academy Award-winning "Talk to the Animals."

Laid into the volume are two remarkable ephemeral survivals documenting direct contact between Coward and Bricusse: An original British Post Office telegram addressed to: "LESLIE BRICUSSE QUEENS THEATRE SHAFTESBURY AVENUE W1" Reading: "DEAR MR BRICUSSE YES AM VERY INTERESTED COULD YOU PLEASE COME SAVOY HOTEL ROOM 312 NEXT MONDAY 21ST YOURS SINCERELY = NOEL COWARD"

An original Swiss telephone message slip from the Société de Banque Suisse, Lausanne, dated "5th January 70," noting:
"Mr Noel Coward asks you to ring him back please..."

The inclusion of both the telegram and telephone memorandum transforms the volume from a merely inscribed copy into a small archive of personal and professional communication between Coward and Bricusse during the later years of Coward's life.

The Noël Coward Song Book remains the great collected monument to Coward's songwriting career, gathering together the lyrics and music to many of his most celebrated compositions, including material from Bitter Sweet, Private Lives, Conversation Piece, Ace of Clubs, Pacific 1860, and his famed cabaret repertoire.

The volume captures Coward at the height of his reputation as dramatist, composer, performer, and arbiter of transatlantic sophistication.

An outstanding association copy with unusually intimate accompanying material connecting two major figures of twentieth-century British musical theater.