PORGY AND BESS, SIGNED LIMITED FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY GEORGE AND IRA GERSHWIN, DUBOSE HEYWARD, AND ROUBEN MAMOULIAN, WITH ADDITIONAL INSCRIPTIONS FROM GEORGE GERSHWIN AND HEYWARD

GERSHWIN, George. Porgy and Bess. An Opera in Three Acts. By George Gershwin. Libretto by DuBose Heyward. Lyrics by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin. Production Directed by Rouben Mamoulian. New York: Random House, 1935. Folio, original full red morocco, raised bands, new black leather labels on front cover and spine, top edge gilt. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

Deluxe limited edition of the piano-vocal score of Porgy and Bess, number 26 of only 250 copies signed by George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, DuBose Heyward and director Rouben Mamoulian. This copy additionally inscribed twice on the first page of music: “To Sherman Ewing—My best wishes, George Gershwin” and “For Tom Stone—a fellow South Carolinian—DuBose Heyward.” A significant, multiple association copy. Ewing was a Broadway producer and Stone a diplomat.

Gershwin based his only opera on the novel Porgy by DuBose Heyward, who also wrote the libretto. “Though of course I will try to keep my own style moving in the opera,” Gershwin wrote, “the Negro flavor will be predominant throughout.” Gershwin gathered background and inspiration by spending the summer of 1934 in Folly Island near Charleston, South Carolina, where he heard and admired African-American street cries, spirituals and folk songs. “Combining the dramatic structure of opera and the musical style of jazz and Tin Pan Alley, the work was especially important in the development of American musical theater. Although it did not recoup its investment, Porgy and Bess was an outstanding achievement that brought black singers to the Broadway stage in significant roles… More than any of Gershwin’s other works, Porgy and Bess established him as one of America’s most important composers” (ANB). This deluxe edition of the piano-vocal score (according to Fuld, no orchestral score has ever been published) was published in 1935, the year of Porgy and Bess premiere, almost simultaneously with the first edition, and is boldly signed on the limitation page (at the rear) by George and Ira Gershwin and the other principal creators of Porgy and Bess: librettist DuBose Heyward and director Rouben Mamoulian. Additionally inscribed by Gershwin to Sherman Ewing, whose Broadway production credits include Benjamin Britten’s opera The Rape of Lucretia in 1948-49; and by Heyward to Canadian diplomat Thomas Stone, who at the time owned Boone Hall in Charleston, South Carolina. Without original slipcase. Fuld, 539.

Minor offsetting from paper clip to front endpapers and first leaf, color restoration to original morocco. A desirable near-fine copy, particularly so with additional inscriptions from Gershwin and Heyward.