First edition to appear in the UK of Samuel Beckett's masterpiece
BECKETT, Samuel (author and translator). Waiting for Godot, a tragicomedy in two acts. London: Faber and Faber Limited. 1956.
8vo. Publisher's maize-yellow coloured cloth, lettered in red to spine, in photographic dustwrapper with a scene from the play to upper panel and a photographic portrait of Beckett to lower one; pp. [viii], 9-94, complete with tipped-in Publisher's Note following the title-page regarding the deletions required by the Lord Chamberlain; externally near fine with extremely faint foxing to foreedge of book block with upper edge toned, internally fresh minus offsetting from pastedown, rubbbing to spine ends and forecorners and with small nicking to head and heel of dust jacket; otherwise very good copy.
First UK edition
Waiting for Godot was first published in French, as "En attendant Godot", by Les Editions De Minuit in Paris in 1952, three months before the play's debut performance. It was published in English, translated by the author, in the U.S., in 1954, by Grove Press, New York. The first production in English, directed by Peter Hall, was staged at the Arts Theatre Club in London in August 1966.
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