Sherrif Ltd

His thirst for the theatre still unquenched after a year's enforced abstinence, His Majesty the King-Emperor continued to go-to-the-play last week. After seeing that hardy perennial Rose Marie (for the fourth time) and The First Mrs. Eraser by limping St. John Ervine (TIME, Nov. 18), the royal attention bent to two more plays, of ascending gravity. First The Middle Watch, a decorous farce of life in the British Navy by Major John Hay Beith; second, gripping Journey's End, by R. C. Sherriff, enthusiastically recommended by the Prince of Wales.* Author Sherriff was summoned to the Royal box.

"I find the play very interesting," said His Majesty as the second act curtain fell on Subaltern Raleigh sobbing hysterically on his bunk, "and I am looking forward to seeing what happens in the next act."

Last week was memorable for Dramatist Sherriff. The evening following the King's visit to his play, the manuscript of Journey's End was put up at auction at the tenth Anniversary Dinner of the League of Nations Union, brought $7,500, highest price ever paid for the manuscript of a living author's first play.*

London papers carried a business announcement last week of the formation of a new corporation, to be known as R. C. Sherriff Ltd. "to acquire the copyright of all and any existing and future literary, dramatic, and artistic works of R. C. Sherriff and to carry on the business of publishers and booksellers." Capital: $5,000. Directors: R. C. Sherriff, Mrs. Sherriff, E. Tudor Mash.

*"The best play I ever saw in my life!"

*Reputedly the highest previous price paid for a living author's manuscript was $5,300, for Joseph Conrad's Almayer's Folly at the Quinn Sale in New York, 1923.