BECKETT, Samuel; Ruby COHN (edited and with a foreword by). Disjecta: Miscellaneous Writings and a Dramatic Fragment. London: John Calder. 1983.
8vo. Original red cloth lettered in gilt to spine, in dustwrapper; pp. [3], 6-178; lightly faded to the red pigment on the inner margin of the front panel of wrapper, neat ownership name in ink to upper corner of front free endpaper; a very near fine copy in a near fine wrapper.
A sharp and bright copy of the first edition, first printing of this collection of essays, reviews, letters, and much else, including the wonderfully concentrated critical writings published during the 1920s and 30s, crucial to any study of the later prose, poetry and drama; uncommon in cloth.
The publication of this modestly sized volume marked a watershed in Beckett studies. Meticulously edited by Ruby Cohn, the volume collects together for the first time (and with the author’s blessing, or at least permission; these are after all disjecta membra) the essays, reviews and critical pieces which Beckett published during the 1920s and 30s, including his reviews of friends and fellow poets and the great essay on Joyce’s Work in Progress (Finnegans Wake) Learned, acerbic and funny, these are, along with the early poems, crucial to any study of the later prose and dramatic works. The book also includes the young author’s first attempt at drama, the fragment, Human Wishes, based on the final years of Beckett’s beloved Samuel Johnson, the remarkable, stylised Dialogues with George Duthuit, and a small selection of wonderfully concentrated letters and notes to friends and scholars. The Calder edition, particularly in cloth, is notably hard to find, especially in such sharp, bright condition.
SKU: 2124677