Mar 10, 2011 - Sale 2239

Sale 2239 - Lot 332

Price Realized: $ 8,400
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
THE FIRST FOUR SCREEN PLAYS MALCOLM X. BALDWIN, JAMES; JAMES BALDWIN AND ARNOLD PERL. ARNOLD PERL, AND CALDER WILLINGHAM. MALCOLM X. Four screenplays, with various paginations; typically bound in paper wrappers with brass brads, condition generally very good. should be seen. New York, 1969-1970
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This group of screenplays represents the evolution of an idea for a film version of Malcolm X's life, sent to filmmaker William Gunn. None were ever used, though a copy of the Baldwin script was purportedly sent to Spike Lee, who eventually made his own version of Malcolm's life. The most important of these four versions is the first one by Baldwin, and bears an interesting "NOTE" at the beginning. "The legal complexities created by Malcolm's rupture with the Nation of Islam Movement have dictated, in part, the structure of this treatment. The estate of Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam can be considered to be at war, and I have, therefore, been forced to invent what is here called The Movement, without more specifically naming it; and of course I have not been able to use the actual names of any of the people in the Nation of Islam Movement, particularly that of the Honorable Elijah Mohammad. I have, in short, discarded some characters and invented others. But I think I have remained faithful to the thrust and intention of Alex Haley's book, on which this treatment is based, and to the truth of the stormy, much maligned, groping and very moving character of the man known as Malcolm X." Provenance: William Gunn to the consignor.