Description

Strachey, Lytton. Elizabeth and Essex. New York: Crosby Gaige; London: Chatto & Windus: 1928. [x; 244; iv; x; i] Frontispiece and four other full-page illustrations. Bibliography and Index at the end, with limitation page stating this is copy 1004 of 1060 copies printed by William Edwin Rudge and signed by the author, 1000 copies of which were sold and distributed in America by Random House and 60 in the United Kingdom.

This copy is signed by the author on the verso of the initial blank. 23 cm. Patterned boards in green figural paper with a dark green cloth spine and gilt lettering. Both the front and back covers are sunned along the top, and the spine is worn at the head and foot, otherwise this is a good copy. “Chatto & Windus London” is printed at the foot of the spine.

In LIFE, Vol. 7, No. 17, p. 35, the Hollywood movie about Strachey’s book was featured. According to LIFE, “When Warner Bros. began to film … their picture was titled Elizabeth the Queen (after Maxwell Anderson’s 1930 play). This was agreeable to Bette Davis but her co-star, Errol Flynn, disliked the omission of Essex’s name. Title No. 2, The Knight and the Lady, displeased Miss Davis because it reduced Elizabeth in rank. Title No. 3, Elizabeth and Essex, meant paying $10,000 to the estate of Lytton Strachey, whose 1928 best-seller of that name is the fullest authoritative study of this Tudor adventure. Finally, Charles Laughton suggested the present title.” The “present title” was The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex.