Beckett, Samuel

Dream of Fair to Middling Women

ISBN: 1559702176
New York, NY: Arcade Publishing/ Riverrun Press, 1993. First American Edition. Hardcover. "Here, more than 60 years after it was written, is Nobel Laureate Samuel Beckett's first novel. Written in a "white heat" in the summer of 1932 at the Hotel Trianon in Paris, when the author was poor and struggling, Dream of Fair to middling Women offers us a rare and revealing portrait of the artist as a young man. Beckett, just twenty-six at the time, to date had published a few poems, including the prize-winning "Whoroscope," a penetrating essay on Proust, and a contribution to the collective study of James Joyce's then Work in Progress, later to become Finnegans Wake." from front flap) The first novel by Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), the canonical Irish-born author, poet & playwright. First rejected as too scandalous by publishers when Beckett was a fledgling writer, then rejected for publication by himself because of its thinly disguised portrayal of acquaintances & his legendarily harsh self-criticism, Dream... was finally published four years after Beckett's death. Edited & with a Foreword by Eoin O'Brien (b. 1939), the acclaimed Irish scientist & literary critic who befriended Beckett; & co-edited by Edith Fournier. We offer here the first American edition, published the year following the first Irish & UK editions (1992). Hardcover in unclipped first-issue dust jacket (with $21.95 price & "05932145" printed at front flap), "First North American Edition 1993" as stated on copyright page, first printing as indicated by number sequence thereon. An early (albeit long-gestating) Beckett classic, highly influenced by his mentor James Joyce & portending some of the characters & themes of his later masterworks, in its penultimately rarest original form. Book in fine condition with a touch of rubbing to front, back covers & spine (gilt lettering, graphics on spine completely bright & intact); very slight wear, fading to edges & corners of same; one tiny affixed fleck & one tiny spot at blank green front cover board; mild spotting to side & lower edges of text block; more significantly & with mild rubbing at upper edge of same. Interior very fine, substantially mint. Dust jacket fine with mild rubbing, faint scratching to front, back covers & spine; a bit of wear & some tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same & flaps; copper-gilt letters of "Samuel/ Beckett" on front cover rubbed with mostly slight loss esp. first "e" & final "t" in "Beckett" (the latter rubbed vertically onto white background). Fine / Fine. [Item #5495]

Price: $50.00