Of Stone and Star

Rogers, Arkansas: Avalon Press, 1948. 8vo, First Edition, Hardcover, 108 pgs. Signed on Front FEP by the Utah Sonneteers, "For Nan Merriman, with love and best wishes.....Leila Grace Bassford, Alice Morrey Bailey, Dorothy J. Roberts, Anna Prince Redd, Berta H. Christiansen, Claire Stewart Boyer, Vesta P. Crawford". Book is in Good condition with light bumping/rubbing to edges. Text on spine is mostly rubbed off. Interior is clean and tight. Silver cloth cover with dark blue text. "Nan" Merriman (April 28, 1920 - July 22, 2012) was an American operatic mezzo-soprano. She studied singing in Los Angeles with Alexis Bassian and Lotte Lehmann. By the age of twenty she was singing on Hollywood film soundtracks and it was there that she was spotted by Laurence Olivier. He picked Merriman to accompany him and his wife, actress Vivien Leigh, on a tour of Romeo and Juliet, where she performed songs during the set changes. Merriman sang many roles both live and on radio under the baton of Arturo Toscanini between 1944 and 1952, while he was conductor of the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Among the roles she sang with him, were Maddalena in Act IV of Verdi's Rigoletto, Emilia in Verdi's Otello, Mistress Page in Verdi's Falstaff, and the trousers role of Orfeo in Act II of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice and also sang in his first and only studio recording of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, with the NBC Symphony Orchestra, in 1952. She was also featured as Dorabella in a 1956 La Scala performance of Mozart's Così fan tutte, which was conducted by Toscanini's short-lived protégé, Guido Cantelli.. Signed by Authors. First Edition. Cloth. Good/No DJ. 8vo. Hardcover.