Beckett, Samuel. En attendant Godot [Waiting for Godot]. Les Editions de Minuit, 1952.

Price: US$2000.00 + shipping

Description: Inscribed and initialed by Samuel Beckett on half title page. Some wear, creases and toning overall, lower front hinge starting, in plain custom clamshell case. Later printing of first edition (16th thousand.).

Seller: THE HERMITAGE BOOKSHOP, Denver, CO, U.S.A.

Beckett, Samuel. En attendant Godot. Les Éditions de Minuit, Paris, 1952.

Price: US$2500.00 + shipping

Description: First trade edition (after 35 signed copies on large paper), one of 2,500 copies. 162, [4] pp. 8vo. Beckett's masterpiece, and one of the defining works of the 20th century. 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. Waiting for Godot was the play that secured Beckett's lasting fame. No matter that he'd been publishing since the 1920s or was Joyce's amanuensis. This play, in which "nothing happens," set him on a course that led to the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969. Overall, a very well-preserved copy: these trade editions from Les Éditions de Minuit are delicate in construction and notoriously fragile. Federman & Fletcher 259; En français dans le texte, 395 Original printed wrappers, with author's photograph and blurbs on rear wrapper. A very good plus copy, the pages skillfully opened without damage to the margins, the spine toned and lightly cockled, and with narrow shadow along top edge of front wrapper, paper somewhat toned as usual First trade edition (after 35 signed copies on large paper), one of 2,500 copies.

Seller: James Cummins Bookseller, ABAA, New York, NY, U.S.A.

Beckett, Samuel. En attendant Godot [Waiting for Godot]. Les Editions De Minuit, Paris, 1952.

Price: US$20000.00 + shipping

Condition: Very Good

Description: FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY BECKETT on the title page; one of the most influential works of modern drama. "Voted the most significant English language play of the 20th century in a British Royal National Theatre poll of 800 playwrights, actors, directors and journalists. Beckett's naked play about two tramps waiting for Godot has tapped into our 20th-century public consciousness. It seems to express our deepest fears and our deepest knowledge of ourselves and our predicament" (Norman Berlin). Notably, the first edition of the text provided the public with their first experience of the complete play-Les Editions de Minuit published it three months before the play's debut (in French) in January 1953. "The first production of Beckett's own English translation, directed by Peter Hall, was staged at the Arts Theatre Club in London in August 1955. Kenneth Tynan's and Harold Hobson's reviews made it into an intellectual hit which has since been regarded as having transformed the British stage" (DNB). Paris: Les Editions de Minuit, 1952. Octavo, original wrappers; custom half-leather box. Text in French. Some browning and rubbing to spine. Extremely rare signed.

Seller: Manhattan Rare Book Company, ABAA, ILAB, New York, NY, U.S.A.