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TYPESCRIPT OF "THE WIZARD OF MAINE." STEINBECK, JOHN. 1902-1968. Typed carbon, titled "The Wizard of Maine" a story by John Steinbeck (as an outline for a musical comedy),"
25 October 2023, 14:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$2,048 inc. premium
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TYPESCRIPT OF "THE WIZARD OF MAINE."
STEINBECK, JOHN. 1902-1968. Typed carbon, titled "The Wizard of Maine" a story by John Steinbeck (as an outline for a musical comedy)," 45 pp, 4to, [Mexico or New York, c.1944-1945], on onionskin paper, with Annie Laurie Williams address at upper left corner of p 1 typed on a different machine, all pages staple bound, leaves toned and thumbsoiled, light creasing.
Steinbeck began writing "The Wizard of Maine" in 1944, hoping to collaborate with the composer Frank Loesser and comedian Fred Allen. "The story, which fit Allen's talent to a T, concerned a snake-oil salesman, a genial humbug who travels from small town to small town doing magic tricks—and doing good, although he pretends to be indifferent to everything but profit and expresses a cynical view of human nature" (Benson 550-551). Steinbeck worked on the story again in Mexico during the summer of 1945, sending the synopsis on to his theatrical agent Annie Laurie Williams at the end of that summer. Steinbeck turned the project over to his neighbor George Frazier to write the script, but after producers Stewart Chaney and Albert Katz had trouble arranging the financing, Steinbeck abandoned the project in 1946.
A holograph manuscript of "The Wizard of Maine" is in the collection of the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, and another sold as item 298 in the Morrow catalogue. It remains unpublished. See Morrow 298.
Steinbeck began writing "The Wizard of Maine" in 1944, hoping to collaborate with the composer Frank Loesser and comedian Fred Allen. "The story, which fit Allen's talent to a T, concerned a snake-oil salesman, a genial humbug who travels from small town to small town doing magic tricks—and doing good, although he pretends to be indifferent to everything but profit and expresses a cynical view of human nature" (Benson 550-551). Steinbeck worked on the story again in Mexico during the summer of 1945, sending the synopsis on to his theatrical agent Annie Laurie Williams at the end of that summer. Steinbeck turned the project over to his neighbor George Frazier to write the script, but after producers Stewart Chaney and Albert Katz had trouble arranging the financing, Steinbeck abandoned the project in 1946.
A holograph manuscript of "The Wizard of Maine" is in the collection of the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, and another sold as item 298 in the Morrow catalogue. It remains unpublished. See Morrow 298.