Marie EJ Hobart : Athanasius A Mystery Play [ Association Christopher LaFarge Architect ]
$200
In stock
Description
First edition of the Christian mystery play Athanasius inscribed by the author Marie Hobart to famed church architect Christopher LaFarge , one of the original designers of the Cathedral of St John The Divine
Hobart, Marie EJ. Athanasius A Mystery Play In Three Acts And A Prologue. Longmans, Green, and Co: New York. 1911. First edition. Association copy.
This copy of Athanasius A Mystery Play In Three Acts And A Prologue by Marie EJ Hobart represents a piece of the short lived modern religious drama movement of the early 20th century as well as a piece of New York church building history having been presented to architect and original St John the Divine designer, Christopher LaFarge.
The wife of Henry Lee Hobart, a successful importer and enthusiastic Episcopalian who was a member of the Church Club of New York and a supporter of the Seaman’s Church Institute, Marie EJ Hobart was born in Belgium and turned to writing plays during her time as a Sunday School teacher at Trinity Church near Wall Street. These “Saint Agnes Mystery Plays”, named after Trinity’s Saint Agnes Sunday School, include teachings on the Catechism, early church history, as well as “The Great Trail”, an “Indian Mystery Play” starring characters like “Brave Bear” and “Red Wolf” intended for use in missionary work among Native Americans. This particular example teaches the life and story of St Athanasius of Alexandria and was printed by the Plimpton Press of Norwood, Massachusetts.
Although most of these plays were written during the Hobarts retirement years in East Hampton, New York starting in 1914, this play from 1911 was presented to Christopher LaFarge by the couple on December 30th of that year. This was the same year that LaFarge, the surviving half of the Heins & LaFarge architectural firm who had proposed the winning design for the Cathedral of St John The Divine in 1891, was unceremoniously fired from the project after nearly 20 years of work. The original Heins & LaFarge Byzantine design, “Three Arabesque Scrolls Within A Circle” was scrapped soon after the building of the Cathedral’s choir in favor of a still incomplete Gothic design. (Heins & LaFarge also built the first City Hall Subway station, the city’s first subway terminal, abandoned in 1945 and visible today only on tours or through the windows of a passing 6 train).
8vo, 121pp, yellow cloth boards with title and author gilt to front, title gilt to spine. Edges and spine darkened. Corners bumped and rubbed. Bruising to bottom board edge. Two small stains to back board cloth. Presentation inscription dated December 30, 1911 on first free endpaper. Occasional foxing, pages otherwise clean. Illustrated with seven photo plates. Good condition.
If you liked this book, you might also like this original copy of a New York state Report on the Bloomingdale Asylum, later removed to make way for Columbia University and St John the Divine in Morningside Heights
