A Damned Serious Business By Rex Harrison
A Damned Serious Business
The Intimate, High-Stakes Inside Story of a Master Character, West End Triumphs, and the Mask of an Iconic Star
The Intimate, High-Stakes Inside Story of a Master Character, West End Triumphs, and the Mask of an Iconic Star
Bibliographic Specifications
- Title: A Damned Serious Business
- Author: Rex Harrison
- Publisher: Bantam Press, London
- Publication Date: 10 September 1990
- ISBN-10: 0593021703
- ISBN-13: 9780593021704
- Edition Details: First UK Hardcover Edition, First Printing. Scarce.
- Binding: Original publisher’s premium blue cloth-bound hardcover casing with crisp gold-stamped spine lettering and custom design endpapers.
- Physical Format: Octavo (8vo), 252 pages. Generously enhanced with a central repository of high-contrast black-and-white family archival photographs mapping his legendary stage breakthroughs, iconic movie frames, and private reclusive escapes.
- Language: English
Official Condition Report
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The Book: Used – Near Fine (NF)
- Exterior / Boards: The original hardcover binding presents in a flawless, showroom-grade preservation state. The navy cloth boards remain beautifully flat, clean, and defensively square at all corner tips. The binding is completely unyielding, showing no vertical spine-lean, crushing, or core degradation.
- Interior: The internal text block is exceptionally clean, bright, and tight. All 252 internal leaves are perfectly intact and remain entirely free of user highlighting, ink signatures, ex-libris library stamps, dog-eared foldouts, or standard dealer pencil markings. A well-sheltered, premium-grade copy.
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The Dust Jacket: Used – Near Fine (NF)
- Condition Detail: The original illustrated paper dust jacket is present, whole, and completely intact under a protective Cellophane cover. The jacket faces show only very limited, superficial signs of standard shelf wear along the topmost margins, keeping its striking design features bright and highly presentable. Completely free of sun-fading, chips, or heavy edge tears.
Synopsis & Historical Value
Published in 1990 as a deeply moving posthumous memoir, A Damned Serious Business stands as the definitive, final first-person exposure of one of the 20th century's most iconic actors: Sir Rex Harrison. Bypassing standard studio promotional spin, this scarce autobiography strips down the enigmatic genius to deliver an immediate, raw window into the mind of a man who fundamentally revolutionized modern theatrical performance.
Harrison tracks his extraordinary trajectory from early amateur days touring seaside piers and regional variety palaces to the absolute apex of international fame. The narrative provides an exhaustive, point-by-point account of his legendary, career-defining portrayal of Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady—a role he famously made his own across both Broadway and the Oscar-winning Hollywood adaptation. From high-stakes clashes with directors to intimate reflections on his six marriages and his deep, unwavering belief that true comedy is a damned serious business, this near-fine hardcover collectible copy is a vital used collectible book that serves as an essential primary historical archive for theater historians and biography purists alike.
Author Profile: Sir Rex Harrison
Sir Rex Harrison (1908–1990) was an English actor, international stage icon, and a monumental giant of global cultural history. Renowned globally for his razor-sharp comedic timing, effortless elegance, and his revolutionary "talk-singing" musical style, his long career fundamentally shaped the contours of the West End and Hollywood golden eras. Over five decades of elite performance, he captured the coveted "Triple Crown of Acting," winning an Academy Award, a Tony Award, and a Golden Globe, a feat that led to his official knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II.
His unique perspective as an absolute master of his craft who commanded global audiences, navigated intricate royal and diplomatic relationships, and reshaped the profile of musical theater ensures his literature carries profound authority. His structured reflections translate a chaotic era of high-stakes campaigns and executive decisions into a highly polished, definitive historical record that remains a vital benchmark of theatrical biography writing.
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