[Christopher Fry, playwright, a leading exponent of verse drama.] Typescript of the text of his children's book 'The Boat that mooed'. Signed 'Christopher Fry'.

Author: 
Christopher Fry (1907-2005), distinguished playwright, with Auden and Eliot a leading exponent of twentieth-century verse drama
Publication details: 
No place or date. [Book published in New York by Macmillan in 1965.]
£200.00
SKU: 22903

9pp, 8vo. Complete carbon typescript. On nine leaves, stapled together. Title at head of first page: 'THE BOAT THAT MOOED.' Fry's signature in blue ink at top left of first page: 'Christopher Fry:'. Fry has cut down the story by deleting and removing a passage. The lower part of the leaf carrying the sixth page of the story has been cut away, and the original seventh page has been removed, hence the typescript pagination 1-6, 8-10 has been amended in manuscript to 1-9. A lighthearted faux-naive story, replete with symbolism. Begins: 'Tom Crunch lived on a boat. All round the boat was water. There was water to the right, water to the left, water in front, and water behind. And also water underneath. Up above there was the sky. | Tom Crunch lived with his Uncle Jack. Uncle Jack was fat and sleepy. All day long he sat and fished in the water. Sometimes he was awake, and sometimes he was asleep. It was hard to tell which he was, because he looked just the same when he was awake and when he was asleep. He kept his eyes shut all the time, unless he was eating fish. Then he kept his eyes open, because of the bones.' There does not appear to have been an English edition of the book, which was published in New York by Macmillan in 1965, with pictures by Leonard Weisgard.