West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), Wednesday 11 June 1924, page 11


AUTHOR'S IRREPARABLE LOSS.

Life-time's Collection Burned.

'Except for my furniture I have lost the whole of my personal belongings.' said Mr. J. B. Fagan. the playwright and producer. referring to a disaster

which overtook his effects while they were being conveyed from London -to Oxford by motor lorry. At Gerrard's Cross the lorry caught fire, and practically all the contents were destroyed. These included manuscripts of plays, rare books on the theatre, stage costumes and pro-perties, and a volume of unpublished poems. 'Some of the manuscripts de-stroyed were of unpublished plays of which no copies exist,' said Mr. Fagan, and the books have taken me almost all my life to collect. The loss is an ir-reparable one.' Many artistic dresses and properties for the Oxford Playhouse were de-stroyed, as well as the whole of Mr. Fagan's silver, including many presenta-tion pieces of intrinsic value.