Between the Covers

Hardcover. Early reprint. Fine, in supplied, near fine, price-clipped dustwrapper. Full-page Inscription by the author to the subject of this Pulitzer Prize-winning play: "for Katherine Imbrie, who, starting with birth in New Bedford, Mass., has seen and suffered much the same kind of tragedy that comes to Miranda Valhoven in this play – with all hope for a better world – Robert Sherwood. January 1, 1941." Laid in is a letter from Katherine Imbrie to Benjamin Fairless, President of U.S. Steel, objecting to the broadcasting of the play on the U.S. Steel radio program in 1950 because of pending legal proceedings concerning "The Imbrie Incident." Attached is a typed memo from Mrs. Imbrie to William J. Walsh, Jr. concerning the proposed radio production of the play.

The Imbrie Incident occurred on July 18, 1924, in Tehran, Iran. Then American Vice Consul, Robert Whitney Imbrie along with an acquaintance, Melvin Seymour, were attacked by a mob while visiting a public well in the center of Tehran. Though local police and soldiers were close by, they failed to render assistance and some even participated in the assault. Finally, the two Americans were taken away to a nearby police infirmary for treatment. The mob followed them and continued the attack until they finally killed Imbrie. Seymour was somehow spared. Later, the Persian government executed a lone soldier for inciting the mob against the two Americans (by claiming that Imbrie was a Baha'i, a religious minority persecuted in Iran) and awarded Imbrie's widow $60,000 for the loss of her husband.

A quarter of a century later, Mrs. Imbrie was still involved in litigation regarding her husband's accounts. In her memo to Walsh, she wrote: "In answer to my letter objecting to the play Sherwood sent a copy of the book. His preface does not alter the fact that as a ghost writer for F D R he had access to the State Dept files which neither I Members of Congress nor the Attorneys acting for me while my husband's accounts were in litigation [had access to]"

Item #39094