Part 6
Efforts are being made in various directions to improve the conditions of the English Theatre, but no real renaissance of our drama can take place without a new impulse towards the writing of plays. For authors write for an audience, and since, generally speaking and outside a few established reputations, plays cannot succeed in securing the judgment of the public in published form, and the difficulties in the way of their production on the stage are notorious, the Drama is being more and more abandoned as a medium of the literary craft.
The Drama League believes, therefore, that it can perform no more useful function than this of securing publication for the best examples of modern drama that come within its ken. Selections will not be confined to any branch of drama, nor governed by any consideration of a play’s commercial value. Each play to receive the League’s imprimatur will simply be one which seems to the Reading Committee, from whatever point of view, to be, in the first place, worthy of production and, in the second place, of preservation in book form, whether its author’s name is or is not known to the public. It is hoped that the Library will take its place as the recognized representative series of modern British Drama.
_Ask your Bookseller to advise you of all additions to the Library_
Oxford Basil Blackwell Publisher _to the_ Shakespeare Head Press _of_ Stratford-_upon_-Avon
The British Drama League Library of Modern British Drama
_The volumes already published of this Series with Authority (every play in which is selected for publication not by the publisher but by the Selection Committee of the League) are the following_:
1. False Premises _By_ LAURENCE HOUSMAN
Five one-act plays for three and four characters
2. The Man who ate the Popomack _By_ W. J. TURNER
A tragi-comedy of love, in four acts
3. Up Stream _By_ CLIFFORD BAX
A drama in three acts
4. Advertising April: or, The Girl who made the Sunshine Jealous _By_ HERBERT FARJEON & HORACE HORSNELL
A comedy in three acts
_Uniform, paper boards, with coloured cover design by_ GABRIEL PIPPET. _3s. 6d. net each_ _A limited and numbered edition (generally of from 50 to 100 copies), on hand-made paper, signed by the Author, in quarter vellum, with the coloured cover design of the series._ _10s. 6d. net each_ _Any of the above may be obtained from your bookseller, who will also, if requested, advise you of the publications of new volumes of the Library. In case of difficulty write to the Publisher_
Oxford Basil Blackwell Publisher _to the_ Shakespeare Head Press _of_ Stratford-_upon_-Avon
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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
● Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.