Autograph Quotation Signed

Noted British playwright best remembered for "Peg o' My Heart" (1913), a smash hit featuring his wife Laurette Taylor; he also wrote and produced the film version, which starred Marion Davies. AQS, 1p, 8" X 10", n.p., May 1923. Near fine. Handsome quotation of a brief dialogue speech given by the character Arthur Carlton on page 28 of the 1922 first edition of "The National Anthem: A Drama." Reads: "Listen to that damned, senseless, barbaric discord. The kind of sound you'd expect Indians or negroes to beat out when they're frenzied with rum. --- Listen! You can hear their brains rattling in their skulls. God! It's become like a National Anthem! Whenever a band strike up a jazz I feel like standing up and taking my hat off. It's our national anthem." Nicely accomplished in black fountain pen, signed and dated at the conclusion. From the collection of University of Chicago geology professor Albert Johannsen (1871-1962), author of "The House of Beadle and Adams and Its Dime and Nickel Novels" (1950), the definitive reference work and bibliography on the subject. Johannsen's original 8½" X 11" file folder, bearing his printed "Collection of Albert Johannsen" label (partly filled in by Johannsen), accompanies this item.