[Typescript]: In Defense of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

(Chicago): The Author, 1966. Softcover. Near Fine. Typescript. Small quarto. 72pp., mechanically reproduced rectos only, with corrections in facsimile, correction fluid, and a couple in ink. Unprinted brad-bound wrappers are irregularly sunned and moderately worn; the text has a slight ripple but is otherwise fine. An essay defending Shakespeare's (N.B. Misspelled "Shapespeare's" on the title page) *Romeo and Juliet* by noted sociologist and University of Chicago legal scholar Hans Zeisel. Laid in is a March 1966 two-page Typed Letter Signed to American critic Mary McCarthy in Paris (care of John West of the The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), sending the typescript along. Zeisel introduces himself and his reason for writing the essay—which he claims took about 15 years—and quotes brief compliments from Gilbert Murray and Lionel Trilling. (He also includes copies of two unrelated articles he authored.) Zeisel ends the letter by writing, "Withal, I feel a bit embarrassed at the imposition. And yet, I must admit, the thought that you might care to ally yourself with my essay, fills me with delight." Zeisel's daughter has been quoted as saying that this essay was one of her father's "proudest papers," and she notes that it was ultimately published in the 1967-68 volume of *Shakespeare Studies*, a journal by the Shakespeare Society of Japan. An early draft of a defense of Shakespeare's most famous play by a noted sociologist, legal scholar, and (in the best sense of the word) amateur literary critic, with an excellent association. The University of Chicago Law School website has a page giving bibliographical information on the Japanese publication (but no access to it), and neither *OCLC* nor *KVK* locates copies of this typescript or the published edition.