BECKETT SamuelLivre Rare Book
2 036 résultats
1952EXE-428Paris, Les Editions de Minuit, 1952. In-8°, pleine reliure de box beige ornée sur les plats et le dos d’un décor mosaïqué fait de coquilles d’oeufs de différents tons, sur fond de laque noire; doublures et gardes de daim mastic; tranches dorées sur témoins; couverture imprimée & dos conservés chemise doublée de daim, étui (Leroux, 1964). ÉDITION ORIGINALE. L’UN DES 35 NUMÉROTÉS sur vélin supérieur, SEUL GRAND PAPIER. Ecrite en français en 1948, cette pièce de théâtre sera éditée Aux Editions de Minuit en 1952, et jouée pour la première fois au théâtre de Babylone le 5 janvier 1953. Assurément la pièce la plus célèbre de Beckett, elle comporte toute les caractéristiques du « théâtre de l’absurde ». « En Attendant Godot » fera scandale lors de sa première représentation, ce qui assurera le succès de la pièce, considérée par beaucoup à l’époque comme ridicule. Connue dans le monde entier, l’édition originale de ce livre est très recherchée, c’est pourquoi les exemplaires numérotés sont quasiment introuvables. Notre exemplaire, relié par Georges Leroux seulement une dizaine d’années après son édition, garde dans un état impeccable son étincelante reliure. Nous connaissons d’autres reliures de Leroux de la même époque à la coquille d’oeuf que le temps a généralement jauni. Cet exemplaire de tête en parfait état, dans une somptueuse reliure quasiment d’époque, en fait un des exemplaires les plus désirables qu’ils soient. FIRST EDITION LIMITED TO 35 NUMBERED COPIES on velin, in a splendid calfskin binding with inlays of eggshell executed by the french binder Georges Leroux. Although this play made scandal when first played in Paris in January 1953, « En Attendant Godot » is undoubtedly the most famous Beckett’s play and the most representative example of the “theater of the absurd”.
19763012London Paris New York: Editions de Minuit and Petersburg Press S.A. 1976. First edition. Wrappers and box. Very Good. UNIQUE MAQUETTE FOR ONE OF THE MOST CELEBRATED ART BOOKS OF THE 20TH CENTURY. With all the etchings aquatints and lithographs of the completed book plus additional versions of the double-page illustrations. From the estate of Rudolf Rieser who designed and created the binding for Fizzles. Fizzles the magnificent collaboration between Samuel Beckett and Jasper Johns was recognized early as one of the most beautiful and significant artists’ books of the 20th century. It was exhibited in 1977 only a year after publication at the Whitney Museum of American Art and included in the landmark 1994 -1995 Museum of Modern Art exhibit: A Century of Artists’ Books.<br /> <br /> The first edition limited to 250 numbered copies plus 30 artist’s proofs and 20 HC copies was issued with original prints by Johns comprising 33 etchings and aquatints in- and hors-texte including two double page color illustrations.<br /> <br /> This maquette was the copy used by Rudulf Rieser for the Petersburg Press as a model for the published copies. As noted in the colophon: “The binding was conceived and executed by Rudolf Rieser in Cologne.†It contains all the text and illustrations with the individual sheets loose in folders. The printed texts are laminated and pasted on the correct pages with notes corrections and annotations in Rieser’s hand. The book is very much in an “assembly†stage with the in-text illustrations on loose slips titles on each folder identifying the pages and illustrations inside and glue residue on the slips and paper folder edges giving insight into how the book was assembled. The hand-written titles supplied by Rieser for the illustrations are particularly helpful for understanding John’s somewhat abstract images. The titles were not included in the published version.<br /> <br /> There are some notable differences between this maquette and the published book:<br /> <br /> –The box pastedowns and first color spread of the final published Fizzles contains a beautiful double-page lithograph by Johns of multi-colored lines at different angels – perhaps the most famous image in the book. In this maquette there are three such spreads. Two are somewhat larger than the ones in the published book and box with lines extending beyond the borders of the final images and one is much larger with many additional lines visible.<br /> <br /> – There are two versions of the double-page color lithograph featured at the end of the book only one in the published book both larger in the maquette – one significantly larger with the individual shapes larger and richer in color.<br /> <br /> –While the text appears mostly the same it is not exact: there is at least one place with a different word choice. Also one page of text is repeated in the maquette on an extra sheet with a few tears and the date is excised on the English title page.<br /> <br /> –Like the published edition the maquette contains the colophon; it does not however have a limitation page signed by Beckett and Johns.<br /> <br /> –Instead of the canvas box with tassel of the original the maquette is housed in a hard chemise of thick board.<br /> <br /> London Paris New York: Editions de Minuit and Petersburg Press S.A. 1976. The maquette though is pre-publication. Oblong folio 13 x 10 in.; 330 x 254 mm; loose sheets in board chemise.<br /> <br /> A UNIQUE ITEM OFFERING INSIGHT INTO THE CREATION OF A LEGENDARY ART BOOK. Editions de Minuit and Petersburg Press S.A. unknown
19762305London Paris New York: Editions de Minuit and Petersburg Press S.A. 1976. First edition. Wrappers and box. Fine. ONE OF THE MOST CELEBRATED ART BOOKS OF THE 20TH CENTURY: SIGNED LIMITED FIRST EDITION SIGNED BY JASPER JOHNS AND SAMUEL BECKETT. ONE OF ONLY 250 COPIES from a total edition of 300. "Two of the most enigmatic artists of our time Samuel Beckett and Jasper Johns collaborated on this complex yet elegant artist's book. Originally written in French. the brooding essays were rewritten in English by Beckett for this project. Nevertheless Johns decided to include both texts that expanded his own involvement to thirty-three etchings and aquatints plus color lithograph endpapers. Johns's imagery is based on a major four-panel painting Untitled 1972 along with his classic imagery related to numbers and body parts. This cerebral volume that provokes more questions than it answers is considered one of the greatest artists' books of the second half of the twentieth century" Johnson and Stein Artists' Books in the Modern Era 1870-2000. Included in the landmark 1995 Museum of Modern Art exhibit: A Century of Artists' Books.<br /> <br /> Magnificently illustrated with original prints by Johns with the complete set of 33 etchings and aquatints in- and hors-texte including two double pages in colors. Printed on handmade wove Auvergne Richard de Bas paper watermarked with Beckett's initials and Johns's signature. Text in both French and English by Beckett.<br /> <br /> London Paris New York: Editions de Minuit and Petersburg Press S.A. 1976. Oblong folio 13 x 9 3/4 in.; 330 x 247 mm publisher's ivory wove paper binding with aquatint endpapers bound in accordion fold around support leaves; publisher's beige linen box with purple tassel lined with colored lithograph. Printed at Atelier Crommelynck. A small amount of offsetting to text as usual despite all tissue guards present. A MAGNIFICENT WORK IN FINE CONDITION. Editions de Minuit and Petersburg Press S.A. unknown books
1954468984New York: Grove Press 1954. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First edition in English translated by the author preceding the British edition. Fine in fine dustwrapper with slightest toning at the spine and a tiny tear. Inscribed by Beckett: "for Dan Pope from Sam Beckett". Additionally Signed by Grove Press publisher Barney Rosset. The scarcest and preferred issue of the Nobel Prize winner's most famous title one of the great works of the world stage. A major innovation in modern drama and certainly the first theatrical success of the Theatre of the Absurd. A beautiful Inscribed copy. Housed in a quarter morocco and cloth clamshell case. Grove Press hardcover
1954326131New York: Grove Press 1954. First edition in English translated by the author preceding the British edition. Illustrated with portrait and three leaves of stills from the stage production. Pagination irregular. vii pp.; 7-60 ff. numbered on left page; 5 pp. 1 vols. 8vo. Fine Fine. First edition in English translated by the author preceding the British edition. Illustrated with portrait and three leaves of stills from the stage production. Pagination irregular. vii pp.; 7-60 ff. numbered on left page; 5 pp. 1 vols. 8vo. First edition in English translated by the author preceding the British edition. Fine in fine dustwrapper with slightest toning at the spine and a tiny tear housed in a quarter morocco and cloth clamshell case. Inscribed by Beckett to another writer: "for Dan Pope from Sam Beckett". Additionally Signed by Grove Press publisher Barney Rosset. Probably the scarcest and most preferred issue of the Nobel Prize winner's most famous title one of the great works of the world stage. A major innovation in modern drama possibly the most important play of the 20th Century and certainly the first theatrical success of the Theatre of the Absurd. A beautiful Inscribed copy. Grove Press unknown
1959468983New York: Grove Press 1959. Hardcover. Fine. First American edition. Quarter cloth gilt and papercovered boards. Fine issued without printed dust jacket. This is copy number 2 of 4 numbered copies marked hors commerce and Signed by Beckett presumably Beckett was given copy number 1. Additionally this copy is Signed by the founder and owner of Grove Press and is noted as being from his personal library: “From the library of Barney Rosset - Grove Press. Barney Rosset Nov. 6 1991.†The limited edition consisted of 30 specially bound hardcover copies: 26 lettered copies and four hors commerce copies. It is hard to overestimate the importance of Rosset in promoting the publication of important out-of-the-mainstream literature and especially in the careers of Beckett Kerouac Burroughs and Ginsburg. A rare book in this state. Grove Press hardcover
195422569New York: Grove Press 1954. Near Fine/Near Fine. SIGNED BY SAMUEL BECKETT on the title page. A crisp lovely copy to boot of the 1954 iconic Grove Press edition not only the 1st American edition but also the first edition to appear in hardback AND the 1st English language edition which Beckett himself translated from his native French. Clean and Near Fine to Fine in a beautiful price-intact $4.75 Near Fine dustjacket. Indisputably one of the three or four most celebrated plays of the 20th century a remarkable triumph of existentialist theatre and the highwater mark of even as exalted a literary career as the Nobelist Samuel Beckett's 1906-1989. Very elusive in such lovely condition and signed by the author. Grove Press unknown
1956172530London: Faber and Faber 1956. Rare inscribed copy signed following a rehearsal for Happy Days First UK edition first impression inscribed by the author on the title page "For Michael Curtis Sam. Beckett. London June '79". The recipient was Dr Michael Curtis a correspondent whom the playwright had invited to view a technical rehearsal for Happy Days on 4 June during the rerun at Royal Court Theatre. Curtis 1922-2002 was a London-based medical practitioner who befriended Beckett while collecting a substantial library of 20th-century literature including many signed and inscribed copies. Beckett's own English translation of En attendant Godot 1952 was first published by the Grove Press in New York in 1954. The publisher's tipped-in notice explains that this first UK edition was subject to occasional textual deletions by the Lord Chamberlain and uses the version of the text as performed at the Criterion Theatre from 12 September 1955. The unexpurgated text was not published in the UK until 1965. The play premiered on 5 January 1953 at the Théâtre de Babylone Paris. "The extraordinary success of this first production in French was responsible for Beckett's rise to worldwide fame as the play rapidly became an object of intense international interest and controversy" ODNB. The English-language theatrical premiere took place on 3 August 1955 at the Arts Theatre London. This copy later passed into the theatre collection of Clive Hirschhorn b. 1940 who spent decades as the Sunday Express's film and theatre critic and whose various histories of Hollywood include The Warner Bros. Story 1978 and The Hollywood Musical 1981. Hirschhorn's ownership inscription is pencilled on the front pastedown. Octavo. Original yellow cloth spine lettered in red. With dust jacket. Housed in custom black cloth folding box. Partial browning of free endpapers; bright unclipped jacket with minor rubbing and single nick: a fine copy in like jacket. hardcover
1958140948989New York: Grove Press 1958. First American Trade Editions. Near Fine/Near Fine. Three volumes all first American trade edition first printings. All signed by Samuel Beckett on the title pages. vii 241 vi 120 2; ads x 179 pp. Malloy is bound in publisher's charcoal grey cloth with spine lettered in gilt Malone Dies is bound in coarse linen lettered in brown; lacking the scarce glassine jacket The Unnamable is bound in publisher's dark grey cloth stamped in gilt. <p>All generally Near Fine with light wear to spine ends and toning to jacket spine of Molloy; toning and foxing to cloth of Malone Dies with offsetting at endsheets and former owner's stamp at front free endpaper; light toning and foxing to recto of jacket of The Unnamable heavier to blindside. <p>Fantastic signed copies of a trilogy of anti-novels that dismantled traditional notions of plot and narrative. The author wrote them in French attempting to liberate his prose from convention and follow in the foot-steps of his mentor James Joyce. Each work in its own absurdist way blazed the trail for novels as an artistic medium early ventures into what would eventually be called postmodern literature. Federman & Fletcher 374.1 375.01 377.1. Grove Press unknown
1954BECKETTS014598Grove Press New York. 1954. First edition in English paperback issue in the Evergreen series simultaneous with the hardback. Octavo. ff 60 6. Pictorial wrappers.Presentation copy from the author inscribed by him on the title-page: ''for Laz and Margaret from Sam affectionately - Paris May 1956''. The recipients are Beckett's friends the poet and economist Lazarus Aaronson and his wife. It seems that the print run for the hardbound copies was so restricted that none was sent to Beckett himself which meant that even people close to him were presented with these paperbacks. This is a very early inscription as those usually encountered date from the Seventies and Eighties.Some marginal tea staining to four pages. Covers rubbed and tanned at the spine and edges. Good. A copy of some significance. Grove Press, New York. paperback
192925938Paris: Shakespeare and Company Sylvia Beach 1929. First edition. 3-194 2 p. 191 x 140 mm. 7 1/2 x 5 1/2 in. Original printed paper wrappers. Copy no. 60 of 96 numbered copies printed on Arches paper. Mogens Boisen's copy the Danish translator of Ulysses inscribed to him by Sylvia Beach and with two letters from him to a former owner explaining the circumstances. Small chip from rear wrapper edge light creasing on front wrapper otherwise a fine copy. In a folding box with the announcement. "Dante.Bruno. Vico.Joyce" published here constitutes Samuel Beckett's first appearance in print. Shakespeare and Company, Sylvia Beach unknown
1935140949018Paris: Europa Press 1935. First Edition Limited Issue. Near Fine. First edition the first copy of the limited issue #I of 25 copies printed on Normandy vellum and signed by Samuel Beckett. Unpaginated 36 pp. Bound in publisher's fawn French wraps lettered in black. Near Fine with nearly imperceptible glue repair to binding light toning to wraps and contents faint foxing to upper edge of textblock and trivial thumbing. <br /> <br /> <p>The standalone limited issue of Beckett's short story written in 1933 at the request of his publisher Chatto and Windus and then rejected by the editor for being too nightmarish. Europa Press published the story in a run of 327 copies of which 25 were signed by Beckett in an upright hand that contrasts markedly with the flattened signature of later years. Europa Press unknown
1958328723New York: Grove 1958. First. hardcover. very good-. Translated from the French by the Author. 179p. small 8vo cloth backed boards; spine sunned. New York: Grove Press 1958 First Edition in English<br/> <br/> Specially bound limited edition of 26 lettered copies of which this is copy number F. Signed by Beckett and with a penciled presentation on the flyleaf from Barney Rossett the publisher. Pages 113 -120 are slightly rough at the fore-edges otherwise a good clean copy.<br/> <br/> Grove unknown
1956101780London: Faber and Faber 1956. First British edition of the author's masterpiece. Octavo original black cloth. Signed by Samuel Beckett on the title page. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket with a touch of rubbing to the extremities. Translated by Beckett from the original French. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. Rare and desirable signed. “One of the most influential plays of the post-war period†and a central document of the Absurdist school Waiting for Godot earned Beckett worldwide acclaim Drabble 1038. “Beckett’s work invented an entirely new theatrical language palpable and comprehensible images of the absurd and unforgettable metaphors of the human condition†Hollier 1010. "One of the true masterpieces of the century" Clive Barnes The New York Times. Faber and Faber hardcover
192925938Paris: Shakespeare and Company Sylvia Beach 1929. First edition. 3-194 2 p. 191 x 140 mm. 7 1/2 x 5 1/2 in. Original printed paper wrappers. Copy no. 60 of 96 numbered copies printed on Arches paper. Mogens Boisen's copy the Danish translator of Ulysses inscribed to him by Sylvia Beach and with two letters from him to a former owner explaining the circumstances. Small chip from rear wrapper edge light creasing on front wrapper otherwise a fine copy. In a folding box with the announcement. "Dante.Bruno. Vico.Joyce" published here constitutes Samuel Beckett's first appearance in print. <br/><br/> Shakespeare and Company, Sylvia Beach unknown books
195621046London: Faber and Faber 1956. First British edition of the author's masterpiece. Octavo original black cloth. Presentation copy inscribed by the author on the title page "For Dr. Murray with all good wishes Samuel Beckett Paris July 1981." From the library of Irish book collector Dr. Philip Murray author of The Adventures of a Book Collector. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket that shows some light rubbing to the spine. Translated by Beckett from the original French.<i> </i>Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. Rare and desirable signed and inscribed by Beckett. One of the most influential plays of the post-war period" and a central document of the Absurdist school Waiting for Godot earned Beckett worldwide acclaim Drabble 1038. "Beckett's work invented an entirely new theatrical language palpable and comprehensible images of the absurd and unforgettable metaphors of the human condition" Hollier 1010. "One of the true masterpieces of the century" Clive Barnes The New York Times. Faber and Faber hardcover books
195721144Paris: Les Editions de Minuit 1957. First edition first issue on "grand papier" published January 30 1957. One of 50 copies printed on "velin pur fil du Marais" this being - fittingly - number 13. Endgame is one of Beckett's greatest works the play which he called ‘more inhuman' than Godot and which Harold Bloom in The Western Canon acclaimed as the greatest dramatic work of the 20th century. Bloom argued that Endgame is a ‘greater yet more savage work than Godot: I cannot think of any other 20th century work of literature composed as late as 1957 that is nearly as original an achievement as Endgame nor has there been anything since to challenge such originality. Beckett may have foresworn "mastery" as not being possible after Joyce and Proust but Endgame reaches it'. An immaculate unopened copy of this rare issue preserved in a folding linen box with leather spine. 8vo original printed wrappers. An immaculate unopened copy of this rare issue preserved in a folding linen box with leather spine. Les Editions de Minuit unknown books
195949154New York: Grove Press 1959. First American Edition . Hardcover. Fine/fine. 254p octavo. Quarter cloth and paper covered boards. A fine copy issued without a printed dust jacket . This is copy lettered D of 26 lettered specially bound copies signed by Samuel Beckett on the limitation page. Additionally signed by Grove Press Barney Rosset: "Publisher's Copy / BarneyRosset - Grove Press" on the front flyleaf. The limited signed issue consists of only 30 signed copies. This lettered issue and four hors commerce signed copies. An exceptionally scarce publication in the signed issue. <br/><br/> Grove Press hardcover
19841039Stamford: The New Overbrook Press 1984. This copy in a unique binding by Jack & Emma Craib: full black morocco with mother-of-pearl onlays forming design of characters from the play climbing out of the cylinder tube in which Beckett has set the play. The design reveals itself as a pictorial image only with the use of an anamorphoscope which is a 6 inch silver tube sitting on top of one of the marble onlays. Limited to 250 copies on Rives each copy signed by Samuel Beckett. Each of the seven etchings is hand-numbered and signed by the artist Charles Klabunde. Charles Klabunde master engraver was born in Nebraska where he spent the first two formative decades of his life. He received his MFA at the University of Iowa where his unusual talents were discovered by master print-maker Mauricio Lazansky who invited Klabunde to join his Print Workshop. Following his one-man exhibition at The Minneapolis Institute of Art the artist moved to New York where he established his own printmaking studio and taught at Cooper Union. His work was prominently featured in the 1969 Associated American Artists' "New Talent in Printmaking" Exhibition and in 1970 in "five New York Printmakers" at the Whitney Museum of American Art. In 1971 he received the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship. His works are represented in The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Museum of Modern Art The Victoria and Albert Museum The National Gallery The Art Institute of Chicago the Bibliotheque Nationale etc. Klabunde's imagery and iconography although highly individualistic is often traced from the work of Bosch Durer Breughel Callot Rembrandt Blake Goya Meryon Redon Klinger Ensor Magritte Klee and Picasso. Samuel Beckett received the Nobel Prize in 1969 and great attention was focused on his next work THE LOST ONES which was his most sustained narrative to have appeared for many years. "Inside a flattened cylinder fifty metres round and sixteen high" live Beckett's lost people. Their relentless search for an escape from the cylinder gives THE LOST ONES a tragic force as a mirror of our own existence. Beckett requested that The New Overbrook Press edition include certain alterations to THE LOST ONES which make it the definitive version of his work. The author translated the text from the original French version LE DEPEUPLEUR. The publisher Charles Altschul designed this limited edition as the inaugural offering of The New Overbrook Press. A graduate of Yale University he has received numerous awards for his fine printing and bookmaking. The New Overbrook Press unknown books
19292621Paris: Shakespeare and Company 1929. First edition. 194 pp. Original printed wrappers with cover design by Sylvia Beach. Top edge uncut and unopened. Some slight overall soiling to the wrappers slight chipping to the lower edge of the spine. Chemised in a custom slipcase.<br /> <br /> One of 96 numbered copies on Verge d'Arches the numbered copies are twice as thick as the ordinary edition due to the paper used. Various tributes and studies of Joyce's Work in Progress which was published ten years later as Finnegans Wake. As Beach wrote "these were writers who had been watching Work in Progress from the beginning each seeing it from his own angle but interested in Joyce's experiment and friendly towards it." Beckett's first appearance in book form with texts by Marcel Brion Frank Budgen Stuart Gilbert Eugene Jolas Victor Llona Robert McAlmon Thomas McGreevy Elliot Paul John Rodker Robert Sage and William Carlos Williams. With letters of protest by G.V.L. Slingsby and Vladimir Dixon reputed to have been written by Joyce himself. Slocum & Cahoon B10. Federman & Fletcher 1. Wallace B11. Shakespeare and Company unknown
198322965Iowa City: Iowa Center for the Book at The University of Iowa 1983. First edition thus. One of 52 press-numbered copies signed by the author and the artist the total edition printed by hand on dampened Arches Cover paper by Cheryl Miller L.J. Yanney K.K. Merker and Cynthia Rymer. Berger 80. A very fine copy. Rare. Henke Dellas. Folio thirteen full-page etchings by Dellas Henke original quarter black morocco black morocco fore-tips and paste paper over boards speckled endpapers by Bill Anthony publisher's slipcase. A very fine copy. Rare. Iowa Center for the Book at The University of Iowa unknown books
198322965Iowa City: Iowa Center for the Book at The University of Iowa 1983. First edition thus. One of 52 press-numbered copies signed by the author and the artist the total edition printed by hand on dampened Arches Cover paper by Cheryl Miller L.J. Yanney K.K. Merker and Cynthia Rymer. Berger 80. A very fine copy. Rare. Henke Dellas. Folio thirteen full-page etchings by Dellas Henke original quarter black morocco black morocco fore-tips and paste paper over boards speckled endpapers by Bill Anthony publisher's slipcase. A very fine copy. Rare. Iowa Center for the Book at The University of Iowa unknown
198320709Iowa City: Iowa Center for the Book at The University of Iowa 1983. First edition thus. One of 52 press-numbered copies signed by the author and the artist the total edition printed by hand on Arches Cover paper by Cheryl Miller L.J. Yanney K.K. Merker and Cynthia Rymer. Berger 80. A fine copy in publisher's slipcase which is slightly sunned at the edges. Henke Dellas. Folio thirteen full-page etchings by Dellas Henke quarter black morocco black morocco fore-tips and paste paper over boards speckled endpapers by Bill Anthony. A fine copy in publisher's slipcase which is slightly sunned at the edges. Iowa Center for the Book at The University of Iowa unknown
19352557Paris: Europa Press 1935. First edition. 38 pp. Publisher’s printed wrappers. Some minor creasing to covers else fine. One of 300 copies on Alfa of a total edition of 327 copies this copy unnumbered. Inscribed by Beckett on the half-title “‘Echo’s Bones were turned to stone’ Ovid Met. 3 --- for Alain and Norma Bosquet in friendship Sam Beckett Paris August 1956†Beckett retained copies of the book for decades as it had sold very poorly and gave some out as gifts to friends. Beckett translated several of Bosquet’s poems. A rather uncharacteristically warm inscription. Federman & Fletcher 22. Europa Press unknown
19574335Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit 1957. First Edition. Trade Issue one of 3000 copies. Octavo 18.5cm; publisher's original printed wrappers with pages chiefly unopened; 1217pp. Inscribed on the half-title page in the month following publication to Columbia Records president Goddard Lieberson and his wife: "For Mr. & Mrs. Goddard Lieberson / vous cordiale / Samuel Beckett / Paris Feb.1957." Gentle sunning to spine tanning to text edges with a few preliminary and terminal leaves roughly opened else Near Fine housed in a bespoke slipcase and chemise. <br /> <br /> Attractive copy of Beckett's second dramatic masterpiece concerning the ennui surrounding Hamm and Clov two mutually-dependent characters living in a wasteland of rubbish. Lieberson 1911-1977 was the president of Columbia Records from 1956-1971 and again from 1973-1975. Prior to that he had been the producer and driving force behind their adoption of the long-play record LP which allowed for the complete recording on one disc of whole symphonies entire operas and Broadway musicals. He produced several of Columbia's first LP original cast recordings such as South Pacific and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes though he seldom recorded whole plays. The one exception was the original 1956 Broadway production for Waiting for Godot starring Bert Lahr as Estragon and E.G. Marshall as Vladimir. Best known as the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz Lahr's presence on the bill was not enough to make Godot a hit - audiences left in droves and the show folded after 60 performances. Lieberson however saw something special and called for a complete recording of the play. The LP also fared poorly now a collectible oddity though it is thanks to Lieberson that an audio performance of the original Broadway cast exists at all. Given the poor success of Godot Fin de Partie neither made it to Broadway nor was it recorded by Lieberson. The play's American premiere was held in 1958 at the Cherry Lane Theatre in Greenwich Village staged by Godot's original director Alan Schneider and featuring Alvin Epstein one of the play's original cast members in the leading role of Clov. A good association copy likely inscribed just days following publication January 30. Federman & Fletcher 265. Les Éditions de Minuit unknown
