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DUDLEY FIELD MALONE Typed Letter Signed, 1928

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Autographs

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"My view of the future of the American stage is not at all dictated by patriotism, for culture and art know no boundary lines."

DUDLEY FIELD MALONE, Scopes "Monkey Trial" Defense Attorney.
January 7, 1928, Typed Letter Signed, "Dudley Field Malone", in fountain pen ink on his Attorney office letterhead, New York, one page, 11" x 8.5", Very Fine. Three years after his famous defense of academic freedom speech in the Scopes "Monkey Trial", Malone writes to the Editor of Theatre Magazine, Perriton Maxwell:
"...My view of the future of the American stage is not at all dictated by patriotism, for culture and art know no boundary lines. But I do believe, from my study at home and abroad, that just as men like Thomas Hardy and H.G. Wells and Galsworthy believe that the hope of English literature is in our younger writers, so the future of the world theatre rests with the playwrights, players, producers and audiences of the United States…"
After the Scopes trial, Malone returned to work as a divorce lawyer, but his work declined, and within a few years, Hollywood would see his debut as a dramatic actor. His most notable part: playing Winston Churchill in the film "Mission to Moscow." This letter has a small tear at the fold crease, and light wear, not affecting the large, full signature.

Dudley Field Malone (1882-1950) served as William Jennings Bryan's Third Assistant Secretary when the Great Commoner was Woodrow Wilson's Secretary of State. Subsequently, Malone was an international divorce lawyer. In 1925 he was one of the lawyers who defended John T. Scopes in the famous "Monkey Trial." Responding to Bryan's argument against admitting scientific testimony, Malone gave the greatest speech of the trial in defense of Academic Freedom.

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