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William STYRON

Sophie's Choice [Le Choix de Sophie]

Jonathan Cape, London 1979, 16x24cm, cartonnage de l'éditeur.

Sophie's Choice
 

First English edition.
Publisher's binding in full black cloth. Complete of its printed jacket illustrated with the photographic portrait of the author, with two small missing pieces at the top of the spine.
 
Surprising autograph inscription signed and dated by Meryl Streep, a year before she played the title role in the movie adaptation by Alan J. Pakula, for which she won the Oscar for Best Actress in 1983: "For Keith, thanks for an interesting afternoon, 16/10/1981, London"
This "Keith" could very well be Keith Barish, producer of the Pakula film, who bought the rights from Styron as soon as the novel was published. Meryl Streep will not be casted for the role of Sophie until the summer of 1981, as reported by the New York times of July 22, 1981:
"After a two-year search, Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline have been chosen to play the doomed lovers in the film version of William Styron's novel about a survivor of Auschwitz, ''Sophie's Choice.'' How and why they got the roles casts a certain amount of light on the way things are done in Hollywood.
Mr. Styron's novel was purchased for approximately $750,000 in May 1979 by Keith Barish, a multimillionaire land developer who had decided to go into the movie business. It was the first property he acquired, and he bought it for the director Alan Pakula, who received an Academy Award nomination for ''All The President's Men.''
 
By mid-July, Lord Grade's Marble Arch Productions had agreed to make the book into a $10 million to $12 million motion picture. None of the three men most involved – Mr. Barish, Mr. Pakula and Martin Starger, president of Marble Arts – were exploiting a popular novel. All three saw the book as an important – perhaps great-motion picture. »
The "interesting afternoon" in "London" mentioned in this letter by Meryl Streep in her autograph inscription could therefore be the closing of this agreement in the offices of Lord Grade in London whose Marble Arch Productions financed the 14 million dollars film.
 
Despite the absence of an explicit surname, the circumstances, date, and location mentioned in this surprising and very early dedication make it possible to determine with certainty its recipient as one of the people primarily responsible for casting in Sophie's Choice. More precisely Keith Barish, who weighed in on the choice of Meryl Streep against the opinion of Pakula who preferred Magda Vasaryova to her.
 
Unique presentation copy undoubtedly bearing the first significant inscription by Meryl Streep on this masterpiece which will become one of the greatest films of her career.

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