Mar 30, 2023 - Sale 2631

Sale 2631 - Lot 238

Price Realized: $ 27,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(LITERATURE.) Richard Wright. Annotated typescript of his adaptation of "Daddy Goodness." [1], 22, [3], 37, 40, 19 mimeograph pages. 4to, 10 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches, cloth-backed plain wrappers bound with two clips, worn; minor wear and toning to contents, manuscript revisions in Wright's hand on 14 pages. [Paris], circa 1958
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Additional Details

This play had its origins with a 1958 French religious satire by Louis Sapin, "Papa Bon Dieu." "Native Son" author Richard Wright adapted it to a setting in the American South, drawing inspiration from charismatic Black religious leaders such as Daddy Grace and Father Divine. Three readings were held in Paris in 1959, and a full production was cast for later in the year, but the production fell through due to lack of financing. His literary career frustrated on several fronts, Wright died the next year at the age of 52. The play had its first full production at the Negro Ensemble Company in 1968, and was revived as a musical which played in Philadelphia and Washington in 1979.

The title page reads in full: "Daddy Goodness by Louis Sapin, Free Adaptation for the American Stage by Richard Wright, Songs by Derry Hall (A Folk Comedy in Four Acts to be Played with the Utmost Credulity, Verbal Atmosphere, and Emotional Abandon)." One other version of this script shown in OCLC (a longer 155-page draft in five acts at the Morgan Library), and none traced at auction.

Provenance: from the collection of literary scholar Edward Margolies (1925-2017), author of "The Art of Richard Wright."