Louis xiv

London: Collins, 1964. 384pp. With a frontispiece and seven plates. Original publisher's blue cloth, red title label to spine, with the original publisher's price-clipped dustwrapper. Inscribed to half-title: 'Christmas 1964 For some train journeys to Brighton. George'. Loosely inserted is a Christmas gift-label inscribed ‘Larry from George’, previously taped to decorative FFEP. Likely inscribed by George Devine (1910-1966), an influential figure in English theatre. Devine was a close friend of Olivier over many years, and had acted together in Olivier’s 1948 production of The Skin of Our Teeth alongside both Olivier and his second wife Vivien Leigh. Olivier's third wife, Joan Plowright, studied under Devine at the Old Vic Theatre School, and he later supported her initially clandestine relationship with Olivier. From the library of Laurence Olivier, to whom many books were gifted over the length of his illustrious, industrious, and enduring career as one of the most important figures of stage and screen in the 20th century. . Second impression. 8vo.