Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
T S Eliot. The Rock. Faber and Faber Limited, London, 1934.
Price: US$40.77 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: A pageant play written for performance at Sadler's Wells Theatre 28 May-9 June 1934 on behalf of the forty-five churches fund of the Diocese of London. Slim hard cover with grey boards and blue titles on rather darkened spine, but no other significant cover wear. Discrete owner's signature dated June 1934 inside front cover and 86 clean pages. Published in 1934 this 1st edition is in very good to near fine condition.
Seller: McGonigles', Cerne Abbas, United Kingdom
Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns) (1888-1965). The Rock. London : Faber & Faber, 1934.
Price: US$71.38 + shipping
Description: Very good copy in the original title-blocked paper-covered boards. Spine bands and panel edges slightly dulled and dust-toned as with age. Remains particularly well-preserved overall. Physical description: 86 pages; 19 cm. Notes: A pageant play written for performance at Sadler's Wells Theatre on behalf of the Forty-five Churches Fund of the Diocese of London. Subjects: Drama; Screenplays; Theatre; American writers, 20th century. 1 Kg.
Seller: MW Books Ltd., Galway, Ireland
Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns) (1888-1965). The Rock. London : Faber & Faber, 1934.
Price: US$88.00 + shipping
Description: Very good copy in the original title-blocked paper-covered boards. Spine bands and panel edges slightly dulled and dust-toned as with age. Remains particularly well-preserved overall. Physical description: 86 pages; 19 cm. Notes: A pageant play written for performance at Sadler's Wells Theatre on behalf of the Forty-five Churches Fund of the Diocese of London. Subjects: Drama; Screenplays; Theatre; American writers, 20th century. 1 Kg.
Seller: MW Books, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$101.92 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Third impression, September 1934 (first published May 1934). Grey paper-covered boards with title in blue on spine. Condition: Good, covers are generally lightly shelfworn. A couple of pages have light foxing. Front endpaper has some light browning to inner edge of the front endpaper. Inscribed on front endpaper "Barbara from Joan 7.X.36". Binding sound. Dustjacket condition: Good with general light shelfwear and light sunning to rear of jacket. Half-inch repaired vertical tear to centre of lower front cover of jacket. Front inner flap of jacket has a fold to the outer edge. Not price-clipped. 86pp. Eliot's writing for the theatre began with the satirical 'Sweeney Agonistes' fragments. Eliot wrote this play, "The Rock" ,the London churches' pageant play' in 1934, and the choruses are preserved in Collected Poems. Putting it into chronological context, the following year, 1935, he was commissioned by the Canterbury Festival to write "Murder in the Cathedral", about the martyrdom of St Thomas à Becket.
Seller: Karen Jakobsen (Member of the PBFA), Sturminster Newton, United Kingdom
Price: US$108.29 + shipping
Description: First edition. Wrappers issue. Small octavo. 86 pages.Endpapers faintly spotted. Tail of spine a bit bumped. Very good.
Seller: Peter Ellis, Bookseller, ABA, ILAB, London, United Kingdom
Price: US$109.81 + shipping
Description: 86 pp. Original printed wrappers. First Edition. - Some browning to spine, some foxing to endpapers. Gewicht (Gramm): 142
Seller: Müller & Gräff e.K., Stuttgart, Germany
ELIOT, T. S. ( Thomas Stearns ). THE ROCK: A PAGEANT PLAY.. Faber & Faber,, London,, 1934.
Price: US$114.66 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: First Edition. Wraps. 8vo. pp 86. Wraps. Original publisher's grey covers, lettered black. Written for performance at Sadler's Wells Theatre, 28 May - 9 June 1934, on behalf of the Forty-Five Churches Fund of the Diocese of London. 1000 copies were issued in the printed grey wraps (similarly with the hardback). Very faint wrinkling at spine otherwise very good+ or better. Excellent condition.
Seller: Burwood Books, Wickham Market, United Kingdom
Price: US$121.03 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Faber; September 1934; a very good First Edition, 3rd impression; Hardback; with unclipped DW, slightly marked on rear; ; bound grey cloth, blue lettering spine; hint of foxing paper edges. Ref: 4
Seller: Coach Books, Hutton Roof, United Kingdom
Eliot, T. S.. THE ROCK: A Pageant Play. Faber & Faber (1934), London, 1934.
Price: US$125.00 + shipping
Description: First edition. "Written for Performance at Sadler's Wells Theatre 28 May - 9 June 1934 on Behalf of the Forty-five Churches Fund of the Diocese of London." Softcover issue (also issued in hardback). 12mo gray, printed paperwraps with flaps. Cover edges tanned, foxing to fore edges and blanks, some rubbing and light creasing to spine; altogether about very good.
Seller: Quill & Brush, member ABAA, Middletown, MD, U.S.A.
Price: US$127.40 + shipping
Description: FIRST EDITION, ownership inscription to half-title, pp. 86, crown 8vo, original grey wrappers printed in black, lightly handled and a little rubbed at edges, good. One of 2,000 copies in this binding from the first edition. (Gallup A26a)
Seller: Blackwell's Rare Books ABA ILAB BA, Oxford, United Kingdom
Price: US$140.14 + shipping
Description: 8vo., 86pp., some light scattered spotting to blank endpapers, orig. grey paper boards, spine lettered in blue. A practically fine copy in a VG++ dustwrapper which has a few tiny closed nicks to extremities. (Gallup, A26a, One of 1,000 copies printed in boards, with an additional 1,000 copies published in softcovers).
Seller: Geoffrey Jackson, Royal Wootton Bassett, WILTS, United Kingdom
Price: US$150.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: First edition, wrapped issue. 12mo. 86pp. Gray printed wrappers. Owners bookplate on front pastedown, lightly browned spine, else a near fine copy. *Gallup* A26a, also issued in grey boards; 1000 copies issued in wrappers.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.
ELIOT, T. S.. The Rock A Pageant Play. Faber and Faber, London, 1934.
Price: US$200.00 + shipping
Description: 8vo. 86 pages. Original printed wrappers. FIRST EDITION. One of 1,000 copies in wrappers from an edition of 2,000 (the remaining copies were issued in boards). Gallup A26a. Light toning to spine and edges, but generally a very good copy
Seller: Riverrun Books & Manuscripts, ABAA, Ardsley, NY, U.S.A.
Eliot, T.S.. The Rock. A Pageant Play. Faber & Faber Limited, London, 1934.
Price: US$200.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1934. This is a Near Fine copy of the First Edition, "Written for Performance at Sadler's Wells Theatre 28 May - 9 June 1934 on Behalf of the Forty-Five Churches Fund of the Diocese of London." Gray paper-covered boards with titling in blue on the spine. Clean text; 86 pages. Very bright and clear. Spine and margins slightly darkened. The dustwrapper is Very Good (Plus), complete and unclipped. Tiny chips to head and foot of the spine; closed tear on the front panel. In an archival plastic protector. First Edition. Hard Cover. Near Fine/Very Good Plus. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.
Seller: Quercus Rare Books, Chico, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$250.00 + shipping
Description: 12mo, boards, dust jacket. Edges & endpapers lightly foxed as often, otherwise a very fine copy. Edges & endpapers lightly foxed as often, otherwise a very fine copy First edition. One of 1000 copies in boards (out of a total edition of 2000 copies). Gallup A26a.
Seller: James S. Jaffe Rare Books, LLC, ABAA, Deep River, CT, U.S.A.
Price: US$300.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Small 8vo, 7 1/2 x 5 inches (190 x 125 mm); 86 pp. Original grey paper-covered boards, blue lettering on spin; original grey dust jacket with white and red lettering, unclipped (price of 2s. 6d. net) with minimal toning and only one small tear in the rear flap panel, else very fresh interior pages evenly toned but clean and binding tight. [Gallup A26a]. This pageant play with words by T. S. Eliot and music by Martin Shaw was first performed at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London on 28 May 1934. In a prefatory note Eliot disclaimed full responsibility for the text, saying "I cannot consider myself the author of the "play", but only of the words which are printed here." By Eliot's account, the text was written in collaboration with director E. Martin Browne and R. Webb-Odell. It was part of a massive project to fund the construction of forty-five new churches in the Anglican diocese of London. The director E. Martin Browne had been commissioned to stage the pageant and had asked Eliot to write the words for his scenario and provide the choral segments that would unify the sprawling production, which featured some 330 characters played by amateur actors in more than 20 different scenes, each presented as a moment in the construction of the historical church. Eliot's work with Browne on this project led to another successful collaboration, "Murder in the Cathedral," which was commissioned for the Canterbury Festival by the Bishop of Chichester. From the estate of Robert Cecil Bald (1901 -1965), an Australian scholar of English Literature, who moved to the US to teach at Cornell University in 1937 and was then a professor at the University of Chicago from 1952 to 1965.
Seller: Rob Zanger Rare Books LLC, Middletown, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$318.51 + shipping
Description: First edition, first impression, one of 1,000 copies in boards (issued simultaneously with 1,000 copies in wrappers). One of the earliest of Eliot's works to be more-or-less dominated by Christian doctrine (and created in collaboration with a veritable synod of churchmen), The Rock envisages the modern era with Eliot's characteristic brand of scornfully sweeping bitterness. Gallup A26a. Octavo. Original white blue-speckled boards, spine lettered in blue. With dust jacket. Spine and extremities lightly toned, light spotting to edges and to initial and final leaves, a near-fine copy in very good jacket, lightly toned and soiled, trivial peripheral nicks, tiny split to spine panel, price intact and without repair.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
Price: US$318.51 + shipping
Description: First trade edition. Small octavo. 86 pages. One of 500 copies issued in boards. A further 500 were issued in wrappers.Faint hint of darkening to edges of covers. Fine in very good indeed, slightly chipped dustwrapper.
Seller: Peter Ellis, Bookseller, ABA, ILAB, London, United Kingdom
Price: US$350.36 + shipping
Description: [Drama] FIRST EDITION, first impression. Octavo (20 x 13cm), pp.86 [2]. Publisher's grey paper over boards with blue titles to spine. With the grey typographic dust-jacket, priced at 2/6. Also issued in soft covers, the hardback being the first of the two bindings. 1000 hardback copies only. A crisp, clean copy, showing just a touch of spotting to edges and endpapers, and some toning to spine. Jacket toned to spine and back panel, with some light wear and chipping to edges. Very good. Written in aid of a church-building fund, The Rock made the building of a London church its central action, relating that contemporary event to the long history of the Church's struggle in England and to current events that threatened it (especially the challenge of the rival but godless creeds of fascism, communism, and capitalism), emphasising that such building is essentially a spiritual enterprise that encounters constant testing of the faith. "The Rock" itself, first Christ and then Peter, reappears throughout to bolster the faith. A vastly important catalyst production, it was performed at Sadler's Wells Theatre 28th May- 9th June 1934 and almost immediately following the run, Bishop Bell commissioned a church drama concerning Canterbury Cathedral, which, as 'Murder in the Cathedral', was performed in that city's Chapter House Theatre in June 1935, was filmed in 1952, and became the most famous of T S Eliot's five plays. Gallup A26a.
Seller: Adrian Harrington Ltd, PBFA, ABA, ILAB, Royal Tunbridge Wells, KENT, United Kingdom
Price: US$637.02 + shipping
Description: First edition, first impression, one of 1,000 copies in boards (issued simultaneously with 1,000 copies in wrappers); a particularly nice copy. One of the earliest of Eliot's works to be dominated by Christian doctrine (and created in collaboration with a veritable synod of churchmen), The Rock envisages the modern era with Eliot's characteristic brand of scornfully sweeping bitterness. The Rock "was part of a massive project to fund the construction of forty-five new churches in the Anglican diocese of London. The director E. Martin Browne had been commissioned to stage the pageant and had asked Eliot write the words for his scenario and provide the choral segments that would unify the sprawling production, which featured some 330 characters played by amateur actors in more than 20 different scenes, each presented as a moment in the construction of the historical church. Eliot's work with Browne on this project proved so successful that they collaborated on every play that he wrote thereafter. In the audience for The Rock was the Bishop of Chichester, George Bell, who asked Eliot to collaborate again with Browne on an original work for the Canterbury Festival. The result was Murder in the Cathedral" (Harding, p. 121). Gallup A26a (copies in boards and wrappers issued simultaneously). Jason Harding (ed.), The New Cambridge Companion to T. S. Eliot, 2017. Octavo. Original grey paper-covered boards, spine lettered in blue. With dust jacket. A fine copy, in jacket with very minor creasing to flap extremities, else fine and very fresh.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom