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DS, four pages, 8 x 13, December 7, 1925. Agreement by which Thomas Hardy grants Philip Ridgeway, manager of the Barnes Theatre, permission to perform "a play in four (4) acts entitled 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles." The contract stipulates that the manager "shall produce the said play for a run in the evening bill in a first class theatre with a first class cast," and "agrees to announce the name of Thomas Hardy as author of the said play on all programmes posters and all other advertising matter." Signed at the conclusion in ink by Thomas Hardy, over a six-pence revenue stamp. Stapled into its original paper folder and in fine condition. Accompanied by two programs and a handbill for Ridgeway's production of Tess of the d'Urbervilles, including a run at the Barnes Theatre (commencing September 7, 1925, with Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies as the leading lady) and at the Duke of York's Theatre (opening July 23, 1929, with Gertrude Bugler as the lead).
Thomas Hardy's novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman was first serialised in the British illustrated newspaper The Graphic in 1891, and subsequently published in three volumes. The novel controversially challenged the sexual morals of late Victorian England, and today is considered a major work of the 19th century. In 1924, Hardy wrote a theatrical adaptation of the novel and chose Gertrude Bugler, a girl from the original Hardy Players, to play Tess in the initial Dorchester run.
Provenance: The Library of Frederick B. Adams, Jr., Sotheby's, November 7, 2001.
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