JEROME "JERRY" LAWRENCE - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 03/01/1986 - HFSID 160026

JEROME LAWRENCE.
A letter from the playwright to a friend, saying he unfortunately cannot accept his invitation
Typed letter signed: "Jerry", 1p, 5¼x8. Malibu, California, 1986 March 1. On note card picturing his home, "Walden West", to Anne. In full: "I wish I could accept your gracious invitation, but I am booked to lecture the Friday before Easter and the Monday after - both on this Coast. How thoughtful of you to ask me - and I will break my neck to accept the NEXT one. I will be in New York just after Easter, however, for about ten days - and hope we can have lunch or a drink or whatever together. I'll be at the Algonquin from April 2 to 11. And next time you are West, I insist you come visit 'Walden West.' Thoreau awaits you." In the year Lawrence wrote this letter, the Theatre Research Institute at Ohio State University in Columbus was renamed the Lawrence-Lee Theatre Research Institute in honor of Lawrence and his long-time collaborator, Robert E. Lee. Playwright Jerome Lawrence (1915-2004), born Jerome Lawrence Schwartz, and Lee collaborated on 39 works, including Mame (for which Lawrence was nominated for a Tony Award in 1966), Inherit the Wind, First Monday in October and The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, during their 25-year partnership. Lawrence, who had begun his career as a reporter/editor for Ohio newspapers and was later a writer for CBS radio, was inducted into the national Theatre Hall of Fame in 1990. Fine condition.