Published July 1913 at 2/-. Late in 1904 an earlier version of Elizabeth Cooper was set in type by The Ballantyne Press (which also printed this edition), and three sets of sheets were printed. According to William K. Magee (John Eglinton), who had one of the sets which was given him by GM, it is “unbound, in eight sheets, and without title page. The text runs to 117 pp., [which is] slightly longer than the 1913 edition.” This earlier printing was arranged by Dr. James Starkey (Seumas O’Sullivan) of Dublin at GM’s request for copyright purposes.

GM had worked on the play for a number of years, sometimes with Mrs. Pearl Craigie (John Oliver Hobbes) with whom he previously had collaborated on The Fool’s Hour (B6) and Journeys End in Lovers Meeting (B11), and during their joint work on the present play it also had been called The Three Lovers and The Peacock’s Feathers. GM wished to protect his interest in the play when he came to a parting of the ways with Mrs. Craigie, but he must have reached an understanding with her, as the three sets of sheets were not used for copyright purposes.

In addition to the set given to Mr. Magee, which is now in the library of the Humanities Research Center of the University of Texas, a set was given to Dr. Starkey, and it was this set that was later in the possession of Ernest Boyd, and is possibly the same set cataloged circa 1929 by Brentano’s Bookstore in New York. Dr. Starkey said GM kept the third set. One of these two, with a Ballantyne “REVISE” stamp dated “4.5.06” in ink on the front leaf, is in the Special Collections division of Hayden Library at Arizona State University.

A still earlier version, in the form of a 112-page typescript of The Peacock’s Feathers (with “occasional hand-written corrections”), is item A656 in the Edward Laurence Doheny Library of St. John’s Seminary, Camarillo, California.

Description

Height: 7 3/8 in; 7.38 in; 18.73 cm

Width: 4 7/8 in; 4.88 in; 12.38 cm

[A]8, B-E8; pp 80, comprising:

half title, verso blank, pp [1-2];
title page, with “Copyright 1913, George Moore” in center and

PRINTED BY

BALLANTYNE & COMPANY LTD

LONDON

at foot of verso, pp [3-4];

PERSONS IN THE PLAY, verso blank, pp [5-6];
text pp 7-80;
white endpapers;
all edges trimmed;
bound in olive green cloth, single-rule border in blind on back and front covers, the latter gilt lettered

ELIZABETH COOPER

A COMEDY BY

GEORGE MOORE

and spine gilt lettered

ELIZABETH

COOPER

COMEDY

GEORGE

MOORE

MAUNSEL

Previous to publication the play was produced 22 June 1913 by the Incorporated Stage Society at the Haymarket Theatre in London, and a copy of the playbill of this production is on p [5]. Each of the three acts was published in an issue of International Magazine (New York), July, August, and September 1913.

A33-a2 First American edition

Sheets of the first edition (A33-a) cut down [7 1/4 in; 7.25 in; 18.42 cm x 4 7/8 in; 4.88 in; 12.38 cm] were used for the American edition published 8 July 1913 at 75¢, with the publisher’s imprint on title page reset

BOSTON: JOHN W. LUCE & CO

DUBLIN: MAUNSEL & CO. LTD

1913

and book bound in tan paper-covered boards, back cover plain, front cover lettered in brown

ELIZABETH

COOPER

A COMEDY

By GEORGE

MOORE

within a full-page Aubrey Beardsley design depicting the stage of a theater with four harlequinade figures in orchestra pit;

flat spine lettered in brown:

LUCE

& CO.

Bibliographical Comment

Elizabeth Cooper was rewritten and published in 1920 as The Coming of Gabrielle (A39). See D:Fr-18 for a French translation and production. No trace has been found of a German translation mentioned by Hone (p 284), who, however, does not state that it was ever produced or published.

Source: Curated by George Moore Interactive LLC (georgemooreinteractive.org) — Shared for research, educational, and personal use.