Lot 181: WRIGHT, DARE. 1914-2001. Two original photographs for Lonely Doll, both g

WRIGHT, DARE. 1914-2001. Two original photographs for Lonely Doll, both gelatin silver prints, being: One Morning at Breakfast,, illustration for The Lonely Doll Learns a Lesson (Random House, 1961), 210 x 210 mm, and There, There, Said Mr. Bear, illustration for Holiday for Edith and the Bears (Doubleday, 1958), 270 x 235 mm, each identified and titled in ink on backing, matted and framed. Dare Wright was a Canadian-born American actress, model and photographer but she is best remembered for her haunting Lonely Doll children’s stories. She both wrote and photographed the nine highly successful books about Edith, a Lenci doll who lived with two teddy bears whom Wright bought at FAO Schwartz in New York. The daughter of a popular portrait painter, Wright modeled her heroine on herself right down to the blond pony tail and circular earrings. The deceptively benign, sometimes surreal photographs continue to inspire a wide variety of interpretations from the intriguing to the absurd. On November 27, 2010, Kate Kellaway in The Guardian named The New York Times Bestseller The Lonely Doll one of The Best Illustrated Children’s Books of all time: The black-and-white photographs have glamour, mystery and melancholy. Dare Wright was the subject of Jean Nathan’s critically praised biography The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll (2004).