Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$114.95 + shipping
Description: First edition, with autograph letter from the author's wife mounted to front pastedown; 8vo; minor toning; publisher's sage cloth, upper hinge pulling, backstrip partly detached, marked and rubbed. The short letter from Charlotte Shaw nee Payne-Townshend is written to one 'Munro', sending this book and hoping to arrange a rendezvous imminently, signed C.T. Shaw and dated 24 June 1924.
Seller: Shapero Rare Books, London, United Kingdom
Price: US$995.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Tan cloth, lettered in gilt, deckled text block edges. 1st ptg., w/ matching dates. Modest binding lean, cover cloth a bit soiled and lightly foxed. Foxed top text block edge. Spine extremities a bit rubbed. Former owner William Hoar's illus. book plate mounted inside front cover, with mild tanning to endpapers and several early leaves, scattered light foxing along some fore-edges through interior. xci,267 pp. Mounted on leaf (likely tipped-in) preceding Preface is a post card inscribed by Shaw, postmarked 13 Dec. 1923 at Welwyn, Herts., home of course to Shaw's Corner, addressed to W. Hoar Jr. (2 Symons St., Sloane Square, [London] SW3) and reading as follows: "Ayot St. Lawrence, Welwyn, Herts. 12/12/23 / Very many thanks. I am delighted to / have infragable evidence that the Celebrated / Buffoon was not really an ad hoc invention of / my own, as most of my friends supposed / G. Bernard Shaw." Mounted on the facing page is a clipped list of Books Wanted from Jackson & Faux (Blackburn) on which 2 Xs have been placed next to the title "Buffoon's Natural History." (We refer the reader to p. vii of GBS's Preface for an explanation of the once-celebrated and now-forgotten Buffon.) The leaf containing the post card has been customized in such a way that its verso forms a border for a sepia photographic portrait of an impish Shaw, hands folded and staring directly into the camera, which is the obverse of the post card that he had inscribed. A thoroughly delightful "extra-illustrated" copy of this Shavian classic. Size: 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall
Seller: Saucony Book Shop, Kutztown, PA, U.S.A.
Shaw, George Bernard. Back to Methuselah. A Metabiological Pentateuch. Constable & Co, London, 1921.
Price: US$1500.00 + shipping
Description: First English edition. 1 vols. 8vo. Inscribed to Lillah McCarthy. Inscribed on the flyleaf to Lillah McCarthy, the prominent English actress of the 20's: "To Lillah / from G.B.S." Shaw was close personal and professional friend of McCarthy's and contributed a Foreword to her memoirs, MYSELF AND MY FRIENDS (1933). Laurence A161b Original pale green cloth, spine slightly darkened, copious pencilled notes by previous owner on endpapers, stamp of "Lillah McCarthy Productions Ltd." on flyleaf, and McCarthy's signature as "Lady Keeble", of Oxford
Seller: James Cummins Bookseller, ABAA, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$3000.00 + shipping
Description: First edition of this collection of plays by the Nobel Prize-winning playwright. Octavo, original cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title page in the year of publication, "To H.S.S from G.B.S 22nd June 1921." Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Housed in a custom half morocco and chemise box. Rare in the original dust jacket and inscribed. These plays were written during 1918 to 1920 and published by Constable (London) and Brentano's (New York) in 1921. They were first performed in 1922 by the New York Theatre Guild at the old Garrick Theatre in New York City and, in Britain, at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 1923.
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.
Price: US$3750.00 + shipping
Description: First Edition. Hardcover. Signed by Author. Shaw, George Bernard. BACK TO METHUSELAH. A Metabiological Pentateuch. Inscribed. London: Constable and Company, Ltd., 1921. "You see things; you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not?" First English Edition; preceded by the New York edition, which Shaw condemned for its numerous misprints. 8vo., 267 pp. Publisher's gilt- stamped light mossy green cloth. A significant presentation copy inscribed in black fountain pen on the half-title: "To Robert Loraine / from G. Bernard Shaw. / 16th June 1921". Loraine [1876-1935] was a man of action: actor-manager, soldier, aviator, Fabian & of course, a close friend to Shaw - perhaps best known as an actor he's see most commonly on holiday with the Shaws & Harley Granville-Barker or at Fabian events. Loraine & Shaw shared political affiliations & a passion for theatre: it was Loraine who premiered as the lead in the Man & Superman on Broadway, the production was massively successful & launched Shaw as a force to be reckoned with in the States. A very good or better example in like dustwrapper that has had one tear on the upper spine archivally repaired along with several small chips at the corners. A very nice copy. Custom TBCL embossed cloth slipcase in fine condition. Laurence, Bernard Shaw: A Bibliography, A161.
Seller: TBCL The Book Collector's Library, Montreal, QC, Canada