Citizen Kane Script for Sale

Apropos to our winter issue's cover story on Hollywood script collecting, a working script of Citizen Kane goes to auction next week at Sotheby's March 5-6 sale of the collection of Stanley J. Seeger. The film won the Oscar in 1940 for best original screenplay. The mimeographed typescript runs 224 pages with numerous additions and deletions and is twice inscribed on the cover sheet: "Mr Welles' working copy." Last sold at auction in 1991, this time Sotheby's London expects it to reach $25,000-33,000.

In chronicling Welles' creative collaboration with writer Herman Mankiewicz on the Sotheby's blog, David Macdonald writes, "This particular script, then, is not only Welles's own copy at a critical moment in the development of Citizen Kane, but is a fascinating insight into the collaborative development of this glittering story of megalomania, obsession and loss."

Image via Sotheby's.