Orson Welles Personally-Owned Scrapbook from Childhood Through Earliest Career, 1917-1939. ...

Click the image to load the highest resolution version.

Sold on Jul 16, 2025 for:

Sign-in or Join (free & quick)

Get one of these:

Share this lot

Track Item Printable Auction Results

Sell One of These

Description

Auction Info

Guides & Info

Description

Orson Welles Personally-Owned Scrapbook from Childhood Through Earliest Career, 1917-1939. Orson Welles' personal earliest-known scrapbook holds significant value for several reasons, both from a biographical and historical perspective. Welles, a multifaceted genius-director, actor, writer, and producer-left behind a remarkable legacy that shaped the world of cinema, theater, and radio. His scrapbook, especially from his early years, offers rare insight into the formative stages of his creative life and provides key context for understanding his future achievements. Welles' scrapbook contains early examples of his artistic interests, inspirations, and the influences that shaped his later vision. As a child prodigy, Welles was involved in theater and the arts from a young age, and this scrapbook is largely composed of news and magazine clippings that illuminate his burgeoning interests in literature, drama, and the avant-garde, giving us a glimpse into the material that sparked his later creative endeavors. Welles' scrapbook is an essential, first-hand artifact of the early 20th century's cultural and artistic iconographies, with its references to the evolving landscape of American theater, radio, and early cinema. Given that Welles played a central role in revolutionizing all of these mediums, his scrapbook offers clues to the cultural forces at play when he was just starting out in his career.
As a public figure, Welles was known for his larger-than-life persona, but he also had a reputation for being intensely private, so this scrapbook provides a unique, intimate look at his life-offering primary-source material previously unavailable through outside sources. These personal items are vital for historians and biographers seeking to understand the man behind the iconic works.
Welles was known to reference his past works, experiences, and themes throughout his career. This scrapbook is packed with references to early projects that inspired later masterpieces. For example, his early fascination with theatricality, radio, and storytelling would become hallmarks of his film style, particularly in works like Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), and Touch of Evil (1958), not to mention his predilection for the works of William Shakespeare.
From Welles' own files and reportedly assembled by both Welles himself-as a juvenile and young adult-and his guardian, Dr. Maurice Bernstein. Comprising over 30 loose scrapbook pages (approx. 16" x 18") housed in a gray cloth board binder (binding posts absent), the collection includes newspaper clippings, magazine articles, advertisements, and programs related to Welles' career from 1932-1939, along with a few personal family photos dating from 1917-1924. There is excellent coverage of Welles nascent foray onto the stage at Todd school, then on to Dublin, Ireland, followed by theatrical tours under the wing of thespian legend Katharine Cornell, and the rest, as they say, is history. One of the most significant artifacts included is an original program for the legendary, controversial Federal Works Projects Administration, John Houseman produced/Orson Welles directed "Voodoo" Macbeth, so named for its all-black cast and Welles unique vision in staging. Though the vast majority of contents are news clippings, scattered throughout are programs, flyers, even occasional unique photos of Welles, almost certainly never published. In addition, as a sort of afterthought, Welles made later use of the inside back cover for clippings from 1950-51 concerning Macbeth and Othello. Nearly all pages are pasted up front and back, plus a number of unattached clippings and ephemera lie loose inside front cover. Virtually all these clippings and artifacts throughout are extremely unlikely to be available anywhere else. (Please note all the pages and contents of the scrapbook are extremely brittle due to age and the front and back covers are somewhat faded, stained, and handled, but the clippings are still largely intact.)

In sum, Orson Welles' personal earliest scrapbook is not just a collection of memorabilia-it's a window into his evolving creative mind, a reflection of the cultural and artistic movements he interacted with, and a unique insight into the life of one of cinema's greatest innovators. It would be an invaluable resource for anyone looking to study Welles' personal history, the development of his craft, and the context in which he became a cultural icon. Consigned directly from the Estate of Orson Welles. Comes with a COA from Heritage Auctions.