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Blunt, Wilfred : John Christie of Glyndebourne

Geoffrey Bles, London, 1968

ISBN 071380212X

8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. A Near Fine unmarked copy (Fine apart from a small marks to fore and lower edges) with near Fine dustjacket which is not price clipped. xiii + 303 pages. 16 illustrations. 2 page genealogical chart. John Christie (1882-1962) was an English landowner and producer. He was the founder of the Glyndebourne Opera House and the Glyndebourne Festival Opera at his home at Glyndebourne, near Lewes in Sussex in 1934. An only child, he was sent to Eton, where he later returned as a member of the Science staff. His 16 years as a schoolmaster were interrupted by two years of active service in the First World War, when he won a Military Cross. After the death of his grandfather his father gave him use of Glyndebourne, an ancient but much renovated country house in the Sussex downs which soon became an absorbing interest to him. In 1930, his father, who had always been mentally unstable, died leaving his Devonshire properties away from the family; this caused a celebrated lawsuit in which John Christie and his mother were successful. A year later John married Audrey Mildmay, the opera singer, with whose help he created the Opera Festival which, in spite of some initial scepticism, has triumphantly succeeded and is now an accepted institution in the pattern of English life. 16. Book Condition: Near Fine. Binding: Hard Cover. Jacket: Near Fine

First Edition