A Turn of the Wheel, A Play in Three Acts *RESERVED*

An unknown Great War play of the Arras tunnellers by W Howard Livens, a decorated Royal Engineer and weapons inventor

Author

Publisher

Printing Details

Assumed first edition, and only copy. Typescript with some manual annotations, string bound and held in a folder. The play's text is typed recto, and is paginated by scene ([3], 35, 34, 40a, [1]).

Loosely inserted is a typed letter signed from the Lillah McCarthy Productions company at the Kingsway Theatre in London, WC2, politely rejecting the script. The letter is signed by Allan Wade, a British theatre director, actor, writer and friend and bibliographer of W B Yeats.

An unpublished and previously unknown Great War play by a notable weapons and armaments inventor of the British Army. The play is in three acts, with act one set in the Arras in 1514, in the garden, hall and dungeons of the Count de Chasseloup's house, act 2 is the same location in September 1914 but under German occupation, and act three (April 1917) is in the gardens and cellar of the same house but this time with the British Army's Royal Engineer tunnellers. The play takes the same location throughout and leads up to the immense effort of the British tunnellers of the Royal Engineers in their efforts to dig tunnels for the troops to charge through and emerge for the Arras Campaign on the Western Front, which was to be on April 9th 1917.

The author (here writing under the nom de plume Philip St Omer) was Captain William Howard Livens, a Royal Engineer who worked predominantly in chemical and flame warfare, being best known for his Livens Projector, a simple mortar-like weapon that could throw large drums filled with inflammable or toxic chemicals. It remained the standard army method of delivering gas warfare until the start of the Second World War. He carried on inventing after the war, both domestic and military projects. This, as far as I know, is his one and only foray into drama.

Condition

Good condition. The blue folder is worn to the spine but in otherwise good condition. The contents are in good order but the title page has offsetting from a label to the front pastedown of the folder. The play remains in strong readable condition. The letter is loosely inserted and in good, clean condition.

Sold