Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$175.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Ex-library copy with book plate in front and blind stamp on the title page. Covers have slight wear to the lower outer corners and some slight soil. Spine is slightly darkened. Contents very good. ; The issues of Volume 31 bound together. The contents include the complete play Pygmalion A Romance In Five Acts by Bernard Shaw, illustrated by May Wilson Preston. First leaf of play has a small repair with paper tape to the blank lower margin. The other contents include Why We Lost Three World's Championships by Christy Mathewson.
Seller: Willis Monie-Books, ABAA, Cooperstown, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$450.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Hardcover. Leather spine and corners. Marbled paper over boards. Patterned endpapers. Raised cords on the spine, with titles in gold. Some wear to hinges and scuffs to corners, but overall the binding is attractive. A title page says, "Three Plays by Bernard Shaw. New York. 1914-1915." There is no publisher or copyright page. The first play is Androcles and the Lion. It is pages 289-312 of Everybody's Magazine. Sept 1914. Vol XXXI, no. 3. The next play is Pygmalion. It is Everybody's Magazine November 1914. Vol XXXI, No. 5. Pages 577-612. The final play is Great Catherine. It is pages 193-212 of Everybody's Magazine, but the volume and issue number are not present (it's January 1915). All three plays are illustrated. All three have half-title pages inserted in this copy, on the same paper and in the same font as the title page. This copy is a bit of a mystery -- they are the first American issues of these plays & at least in the case of Pygmalion, this is also the first separate publication. The publishing house Putnam's seems to have issued Pygmalion be rebinding the Everybody Magazine sheets until they were told to stop it. Whether this is a Putnam imprint or a 'collection' put together by a contemporary enthusiast of Shaw's work, I cannot say. Please email with questions or to request photos.
Seller: Riverby Books, Fredericksburg, VA, U.S.A.
Shaw, George Bernard. Pygmalion; A Romance in Five Acts. Everybody's Magazine, New York, 1914.
Price: US$3750.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: 1st separate edition (unauthorized), and 1st separate issue in English, comprised of sheets from the periodical publication, specially bound up and distributed by Putnam. When advised by Shaw's agent that they had acquired only the serial rights, distribution in this format was halted. Formal book publication in English finally happened in 1916. Near fine original violet cloth, dustjacket chipped and with a split to spine strengthened, else good. An early pencil note on the endpaper promulgates the lie that this is one of 50 copies given to Shaw by the publisher, but this is not a common book and it is scarce in the original jacket. Cloth slipcase and chemise.
Seller: Biblioctopus, Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.