LILLIAN GISH - BOOK SIGNED - HFSID 279613

LILLIAN GISH
The book Way Down East, signed with her name and with the name of the book's heroine, whom she played in the movie
Book signed: "Anna Moore,/and/Lillian Gish", 202 pages, 5¼x7½. The novel Way Down East, by Joseph R. Grismer. N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, 1920. Signed on a card affixed to the flyleaf. Full-page photo of Gish as Anna Moore opposite the title page. Lillian Gish (1896-1993), born Lillian de Guiche, began her career as child actress "Baby Lillian" at the age of five. Lillian and her sister, Dorothy (1898-1968), who often toured with Lillian, made their film debuts (along with their mother, Mary Gish) in D.W. Griffith's film, An Unseen Enemy in 1912. Over the next several years, Lillian, who is credited as being the first true actress for recognizing the crucial differences between stage and film work and delivering carefully crafted performances, would make a number of films for Griffith, including The Birth of a Nation (1915), Intolerance (1916), Way Down East (1920) and Orphans of the Storm (1922). In 1923, she went to MGM, where she made La Boheme and The Scarlet Letter (both 1926). In 1930, Gish appeared in her first sound film, One Romantic Night (1930). Way Down East, based on a 19th century stage play by Lottie Blair Parker, was the fourth-highest grossing silent film of all time, and Griffith's last major hit. Gish played Anna Moore, a poor woman tricked into a fake marriage by a wealthy man and abandoned when her child was born. Film critics generally disliked this Victorian-era melodrama but praised Gish's convincing performance. Lillian, who was known as "The First Lady of the Silent Screen", was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Duel in The Sun (1946) and received an honorary Oscar in 1970 for her contributions to film. Lightly worn at edges of book cover. Book internally sound. Otherwise, fine condition.