Home Talent

New York: Henry Holt and Company. Near Fine. (c.1926). First Edition. Hardcover. NOISBN . (no dust jacket) [light bumping at top rear corner and top of spine, otherwise a nice clean copy with no significant wear; vintage bookseller's label (Paul Elder & Co., San Francisco) at bottom corner of rear pastedown]. A novel of the theatre, centering around a small-town troupe in the fictional Midwestern town of High Platte and the dreams of some of its younger members for the greater glories of the big-city footlights. The author was a successful actress herself, who settled in Hollywood after leaving the stage and enjoyed an extremely active late-in-life career as a character player in early talkies, including small roles in SHANGHAI EXPRESS, DINNER AT EIGHT and numerous other films. She also authored about half a dozen novels, plus a handful of travel books that were illustrated by her husband, artist Walter Hale (1869-1917); the latter books are relatively easy to find, her novels considerably less so. .