Behold The Bridegroom.

KELLY, George [Raymond Chandler].

$475.00

Item Number: 149062

New York: Samuel French, 1927.

First French Standard Library Edition of this three-act play written by George Kelly in 1927. Octavo, original publisher’s wrappers with a black and white illustration. Raymond Chandler ownership stamp on the title page. Raymond Chandler was a novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Great Depression. His first short story, “Blackmailers Don’t Shoot”, was published in 1933 in Black Mask, a popular pulp magazine. His first novel, The Big Sleep, was published in 1939. In addition to his short stories, Chandler published seven novels during his lifetime (an eighth, in progress at the time of his death, was completed by Robert B. Parker). Chandler had an immense stylistic influence on American popular literature. He is a founder of the hardboiled school of detective fiction, along with Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain and other Black Mask writers. The protagonist of his novels, Philip Marlowe, like Hammett’s Sam Spade, is considered by some to be synonymous with “private detective”. Both were played in films by Humphrey Bogart, whom many consider to be the quintessential Marlowe. In very good condition.

​Behold the Bridegroom is a three-act play written by George Kelly in 1927. The narrative centers on Antoinette Lyle, a sophisticated and affluent woman who, after returning from Europe, confronts the emptiness of her hedonistic lifestyle. Her encounter with a morally upright, albeit financially modest, young man leads her to a profound self-realization about her lack of character and the consequences of her selfish ambitions. Despite a noteworthy performance by Judith Anderson in the lead role, the play had a limited run of 88 performances at the Cort Theatre. This work exemplifies Kelly's critical examination of societal norms and personal ethics, themes prevalent in his broader oeuvre.