[ Jack Denton, film director. ] Four Autograph Letters Signed to film maker Percy Nash, with copy of the script of his play 'The Fairyland Express' ('A Xmas Fairy Play By Jack Denton').

ONE: Typed playscript. 64pp., 8vo. Typed in purple ink, on rectos only. In pink card 'Ludgate File', with white typed label on front cover: 'THE FAIRYLAND EXPRESS'. In fair condition, aged and worn, with the leaves bound in with a rusted metal bar. Initial blank leaf with ownership inscription: 'Jack Denton | 12 Montague Road | Richmond | Surrey', as well as 'Mr Percy Nash | see phone'. The first page gives Denton's typed address as '25 Monmouth Road | Watford', and lists the cast, headed by 'Prudence . . . a little girl from Kensington', and 'Eric' and 'Marjorie', who are 'Her cousins . . in fairyland the babes in the woo[d]s', and Prudence's aunt and uncle Mr and Mrs Seymour, 'King & Queen of hearts in Fairyland'. The play is in two acts of 33 and 30 pages. There are occasional pencil deletions, and underlinings in red pencil. The reverses of the last two leaves carrry a couple of capable pencil sketches of old men's heads, the last one a caricature. Loosely inserted on separate leaves are a 'List of Selected Music' and a different list of 'Music', the second with pencil additions and a carbon copy. TWO: Correspondence. Denton's four letters total 5pp., 8vo, and date from 27 March to 8 October 1933. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. The first letter concerns the sending of a second script; the second is a confirmation of an agreement to split profits with Nash fifty-fifty (and is accompanied by a carbon copy of a similar confirmation by Nash); the third (of two pages) suggests changes to the ending of the play (Denton writing from Coventry, to which he has 'unexpectedly come [...] for a few weeks to play with the Repertory Co.'); and theh last (also from Coventry) suggests further changes. Denton directed at least five films - these between 1919 and 1921 and including 'Lady Audley's Secret' (1920) - and acted in at least eight (these between 1914 and 1924. A book of children's verses by Anthony Raine Barker, also titled 'The Fairyland Express', was published by the Bodley Head in 1925, but there does not appear to be any connection between this book and Denton's script, which does not appear to have been produced.