Leo Tolstoy. War and Peace, Specially Bound Presentation Copy for Gregory Peck from Robert E. Sherwood, Fred Zinne...

Description

Leo Tolstoy. War and Peace, Specially Bound Presentation Copy for Gregory Peck from Robert E. Sherwood, Fred Zinnemann, and Michael Todd. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1954. lxii, 1381 pages, Octavo. Presentation copy gifted to Gregory Peck by the producer Michael Todd, director Fred Zinnemann, and playwright Robert E. Sherwood, likely as an overture to offer him a role in their never-produced film adaptation of the novel. Tan leatherette-covered boards with front board stamped "To / Gregory peck / ...with our Compliments. / Robert E. Sherwood / Fred Zinnemann / Michael Todd." Sherwood had a printed inscription bound-in at the front end paper, "I started reading this book in 1923 and finished it in 1943, when another would-be world conqueror was bogged down and beaten in the Russian winter. There is material here for hundreds of motion pictures; the problem confronting Mike Todd, Fred Zinnemann and me is to determine which is the best and the most faithful to the immortal spirit of Tolstoi. / Robert E. Sherwood." Inner Sanctum Edition, translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude, with a Foreword by Clifton Fadiman. Published at a time when Moscow and all Russia were threatened by German invaders, this edition provides rich documentation of Napoleon's 1812 invasion, treating the novel as history rather than literature. Hardcover; lxii, 1361, [11] pages, maps, together with readers guide pamphlet in rear inner cover paper pocket. Light wear, with vertical creases along the spine. Light wear, scuffs, and rubbing to the binding.

There was a tremendous rush to adapt War and Peace into a film in the mid-1950s, with several versions going into development simultaneously. The Italian producers Dino de Laurentiis and Carlo Ponti announced their adaptation in October of 1954, legendary producer David O. Selznick was working on a treatment, and Mike Todd announced that he, too, would be pursuing his own version, which would be filmed with the cooperation of the Yugoslavian army. (The New York Times) The project, which had Sherwood attached as screenwriter and Zinnemann as director, ultimately fell through when Todd decided to instead focus on his adaptation of Around the World in Eighty Days.

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