[CALIFORNIA NOVELIST - TYPESCRIPT]. "Manila Galleon" / "That Year's Galleon" (early title)

S.l. (probably Santa Barbara, CA), 1936. Unbound. Very good. Large 4to. (8 1/2 x 11"). Unpaginated: 23 chapters + Epilogue, each individually paginated. Typewritten on "Superior Manifold - Esleeck Mfg Co." Preserved in a protective cloth case. This appears to be the only significant Cameron Rogers manuscript still in private ownership (the University of Oregon has ten of them, for which see below). It is an early typescript of the novel "Manila Galleon," composed while the author's working title was "That Year's Galleon." The novel, a work of historical fiction, explores the Manila-Acapulco gallion trade, and is set in the Philippines in 1621. Among the characters are: Don Alonzo Fajardo y Tenza, the Governor; his disturbingly beautiful wife Dona Catalina Maria Sembrano; Don Juan de la Mesa y Suero, the captain of the Spanish galleon La Nuestra Senora de la Vida which sails from Manila to Acapulco. The work was published in 1936 by D. Appleton-Century Company, New York (consisting of 232 pages). William Rose Benet, in his review of the novel, mentions that "the tragic romance of the book, counterpointed by one of comic tragedy, unfolds speedily. [...] Effects both moving and beautiful (not to say also shrewd and comic) are achieved with laudable economy of means. [...] The work of an expert writer and contains no shoddy" (SOURCE: The Saturday Review, 8 Aug. 1936, p. 6).

¶ The paper stock of the present typescript was "Superior Manifold," manufactured in the 1920s by Esleeck Mfg. Co. of Turners Falls, Mass. "Superior Manifold" is mentioned in advertisements in the 1921 "Lockwood's Directory of the Paper and Stationary Trade," the 1922 "American Stationer" (vol. 90), the 1922 "American Printer and Lithographer" (vol. 74), and 1924 and 1925 issues of "The Rotarian." Further reference to Esleeck's "Superior Manifold" have not been forthcoming.

¶ Rogers (1900-1971) contributed to three Hollywood films in the 1930's and 1940's: "Cardinal Richelieu" (1935), "White Banners" (1938), and "Belle Starr" (1941). He was the son of noted poet and magazine editor Robert Cameron Rogers. His first wife was the writer Frances Colby, daughter of Bainbridge Colby (a former Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson) and the novelist Natalie Sedgwick Colby. His second wife, screenwriter, Elisabeth Cobb, was the daughter of humorist, Irvin S. Cobb. Rogers lived in Santa Barbara, CA for most of his life (the present MS was given by the author to one of his Santa Barbara friends -- see below). His other works include "The Magnificent Idler," a fictional account of Walt Whitman (1926), "Colonel Bob Ingersoll" (1927), "Gallant Ladies" (1928), "The Legend of Calvin Coolidge" (1928), "Cyrano" (1929), "Oh Splendid Appetite!" (1932), "Flight Surgeon" (1940), "Trodden Glory: The Story of the California Poppy" (1949) and many articles, essays and reviews.

¶ Provenance: by gift to Lydia Bodrero (1902-2009) of Santa Barbara, CA (she was the wife of Ranieri Bourbon del Monte, 5th Prince of San Faustino) -- by descent to her Montino Bourbon del Monte, 6th Prince of San Faustino, Marchese del Monte Santa Maria (b. 1942) of Santa Barbara.

COMMENT: The University of Oregon holds manuscripts of "The Hours I Spent," "A Judge in Early Arcady," "A Melody in Minor," "A Prince of Peru," and "Steadfast in his Heart.