Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Tennessee Williams. THE GLASS MENAGERIE ** Signed First Edition **. Random House, NY, 1945.
Price: US$2400.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: ***** This is the true first edition, first printing (with "FIRST PRINTING" stated on the copyright page). ***** This book is SIGNED by the author (Tennessee Williams) on the front endpage. The author has not inscribed this book to anyone; it is just signed by the author. ***** Signed examples of this title are RARE! ***** The book doen NOT include the dust jacket. It is a nice hardcover in VERY GOOD condition. There is NO other writing, NO bookplates, and NO remainder marks. It is NOT a book club edition and NOT a former library book. ***** OUR GUARANTEE TO YOU: All books are guaranteed to be as described. We believe that no sale is complete until you are happy. Any book is returnable for a full refund (including postage) if you're not 100% satisfied. All books are packaged very carefully and shipped via USPS Mail with Delivery Confirmation. Thank you! Richard Vick, Modern First Editions (Buying and Selling Modern First Editions since 1982).
Seller: Richard Vick, Modern First Editions, Coral Springs, FL, U.S.A.
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. Random House, New York, 1945.
Price: US$3750.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: First Edition, First Printing with the words "FIRST PRINTING" printed on the copyright page. This copy is SIGNED by Tennessee Williams on a laid in signature. A beautiful copy. This ORIGINAL dustjacket is vibrant in color and has the $2.00 printed price present on the front flap. The book is in excellent condition and is bound in the ORIGINAL publisher's cloth. The binding is tight with NO cocking or leaning and the boards are crisp. The pages are exceptionally clean with NO writing, marks or bookplates in the book. Overall, a wonderful copy of this true first edition SIGNED by the author. We buy SIGNED Tennessee Williams First Editions.
Seller: Magnum Opus Rare Books, Missoula, MT, U.S.A.
WILLIAMS, Tennessee. THE GLASS MENAGERIE. Random House, 1945.
Price: US$6250.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: SIGNED First Edition, one of only 5000 first printing copies of this high spot of twentieth century drama. With The Glass Menagerie, Williams set out to create a new kind of "Plastic Theatre," a highly expressionistic language of the stage to replace what he saw as the stale conventions of realism. In theatrical terms, Williams's approach has been called Brechtian: It uses devices meant to create what the German playwright and dramaturge, Bertolt Brecht, (Threepenny Opera, Mother Courage and Her Children), called the "alienation effect." Williams succeeded, thereby revolutionizing American theater. Within two weeks of opening on Broadway in 1945, the play won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play, catapulting Williams to fame. In the words of the citation, the award was offered "To Tennessee Williams for his play 'The Glass Menagerie' and its sensitive understanding of four troubled human beings" (New York Times). 8vo. Original publisher's russet cloth; spine stamped in black and gilt (faint dampstain to lower edges of covers, evidence of bookplate removal to front pastedown); original unclipped dust jacket (few small professional repairs verso, minor watermarks, spine panel gently sunned); morocco backed folding box with hand painted onlays of glass horses by the Dragonfly Bindery, whose unique custom-bound rare book boxes have been auctioned at the world's leading auction houses, notably Christie's. PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED BY WILLIAMS on front free endpaper: "For Lon Tinkle / Tennessee Williams". At the time this book was inscribed, Lon Tinkle was a book editor and critic with the Dallas Morning News. He went on to become an award winning novelist focusing mainly on the Southwest and its history. Tinkle was also very active in the Dallas arts community by founding several art programs including the Margo Jones Theatre, the namesake of Margo Jones (1911 1955) who was the co director of the acclaimed first staging of The Glass Menagerie which proved to be a breakthrough production for both her and Williams. Crandell A1.1.a. A highly collectible copy of this literary and dramatic landmark. Book #Pv1423. $6250. We specialize in Rare Ayn Rand, history, and science.
Seller: PEN ULTIMATE RARE BOOKS, Pine Plains, NY, U.S.A.
Williams, Tennessee. THE GLASS MENAGERIE. Random House, New York, 1945.
Price: US$7500.00 + shipping
Description: Inscribed first edition, first printing of Tennessee Williams' semi-autobiographical memory play, his first stage success. GLASS MENAGERIE was a hit on Broadway, "hailed with joy from end to end" and praised as being composed of "make-believe so real it tears your heart out" (jacket). Its success rocketed Williams into the ranks of Arthur Miller and Eugene O'Neil. It has received several film adaptations, the first of which starred Gertrude Lawrence and Kirk Douglas. Based on an earlier short story "Portrait of a Girl in Glass," Tennessee Williams's GLASS MENAGERIE painfully echoes the events of his young adulthood. The play almost doesn't need the "semi-" qualifier ahead of "autobiographical," from Tom's monotonous job at the shoe factory (Williams began writing in earnest while working at the International Shoe Company factory) to his absent father (Williams' own father was a traveling salesman) and even to the lead character's name (Williams' birth name was Thomas). This copy is inscribed to Elizabeth Anne McMurray, the proprietor of McMurray's Bookstore in Dallas, Texas, and later a judge for the National Book Awards. A lovely and bookish association copy. 7.25'' x 4.75''. Original rust cloth with black spine plate and gilt lettering. Original price-clipped color pictorial dust jacket, designed by Riki Levinson. Black topstain. Fore-edge machine deckle. Black-and-white photographic frontispiece, with three black-and-white photographic plates of the stage production. 124 pages. Inscribed by Williams to front flyleaf "For Elizabeth Anne / McMurray / with sincere appreciation," dated August 1945. Jacket with mild edgewear and light foxing; some sunning to spine. Binding spine ends and corners mildly bumped. A clean, tight copy. Near fine in very good plus dust jacket.
Seller: Type Punch Matrix, Silver Spring, MD, U.S.A.
Price: US$7500.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: "The Glass Menagerie" by Tennessee Williams. Random House, NY. 1945 first American edition, first printing. Signed by the author and 7 performers from 5 productions of the work on front free endpaper, signatures of an additional 5 associated performers loosely inserted, photographic frontispiece and 3 plates, ink ownership inscription of George Freedly to endpaper, original cloth, light rubbing and fading to tips of spine and corners, dust-jacket, spine ends and corners chipped and creased, spine with short internal vertical tear. Williams' first major play with signatures of cast members covering over four decades of different performances. Besides Williams the signature to the endpapers are those of George Gizzard, Jessica Tandy, Bruce Davidson, Amanda Plummer, John Heard, Julie Harris and Rosemary Murphy. The signatures of Kirk Douglas, Jane Wyman, Julie Hayden, Eddie Dowling and Laurette Taylor are those loosely inserted (Hayden, Dowling and Taylor formed part of the first cast) along with a programme for a performance at the Theatre Royal, Brighton in 1948. George Freedly was the Theatre Librarian and the New York Public Library, his inscription includes his address and a note of his reviewing the play for the August 1945 issue of Modern Theatre. Unique copy with wonderful provenance of William's first major play and one of the highlights of his career.
Seller: Neverland Books, waalre, Netherlands
WILLIAMS, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. Random House, New York, 1945.
Price: US$8000.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: First edition. Fine in near fine dust jacket with very slight toning on the spine-lettering, and tiny nicks at the crown. Signed by Tennessee Williams on the front fly. A nicer than usual signed copy of Williams' first major play.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. Random House, New York, 1945.
Price: US$8500.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: First edition, first printing. Signed by Tennessee Williams on the title page. xii, 124pp. Bound in publisher's original brick red cloth with gilt lettering on spine, black border. Near Fine with slight dulling to spine gilt, former owner details to front free endpaper and pages lightly tanned. In a Near Fine unclipped ($2.00) dust jacket with fading to the spine and light edge wear. A lovely copy, signed by the playwright.
Seller: Burnside Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.
WILLIAMS, Tennessee. THE GLASS MENAGERIE. Random House (1945), New York, 1945.
Price: US$9375.00 + shipping
Description: Bound in the publisher's coarse, dark reddish-orange cloth, one of three bindings with no priority established among them. Crandell A1.I.a. Illustrated with a frontispiece photograph from the original production. Only 5000 copies of this high spot of twentieth century drama were published. This copy is INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the author on the front endpaper "To Marshall/ever/Tennessee Williams." Marshall New was one of the directors at the Hippodrome Theatre in Gainesville, Florida, in 1979 when Williams visited a week to see a production of his obscure play TIGER TAILS, which had its world premiere the previous year in Atlanta. Bottom corners of the book frayed with the board exposed a little. The dustwrapper has light chipping along the top and bottom edges but presents quite well. Very Good in a Good or better dustwrapper
Seller: Charles Agvent, est. 1987, ABAA, ILAB, Fleetwood, PA, U.S.A.
Williams, Tennessee. THE GLASS MENAGERIE. NY, Random House,, 1945.
Price: US$15000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 12mo.blue cloth.stated 1st Edition.no D.J.triangular cut on the f.e.p.else very good.SIGNED by Williams and various cast members of the first production.as well as later ones.SIGNED by Jessica Tandy, Julie Haydon, Paul Rudd, George Grizzard, Rip Torn, Larry Kent, Kirk Douglas, as well as a number of others,.we have in stock a complete collection of all of Williams' plays each signed by him and various cast members.including multiple copies of some.inquire.(L1/2)
Seller: NUDEL BOOKS, New York, NY, U.S.A.