Clearwater Books

DANNIE ABSE. Three Questor Plays. Scorpion Press, Lowestoft 1967. First edition, this copy signed by the author. 135pp. Covers a little spotted and flecked in places and very slightly bumped at some extremities. Quite a good, bright copy in dust-marked and slightly frayed dust wrapper. Name of former owner. Comprises House of Cowards, Gone and In the Cage. £15

EDWARD ALBEE. A Delicate Balance. A play. Jonathan Cape, London 1968. First UK edition. 170pp. A fine copy in slightly marked and faded, price-clipped dust wrapper. Albee's Pulitzer Prize winning play (his first of three winners), first performed at the Martin Back theatre in New York on September 12 1966 starring Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn. £15

MAXWELL ANDERSON. The Eve of St Mark. A play. The Bodley Head, London 1943. First English edition. 8vo. 108pp. A very good copy in dust wrapper. £10

WILLIAM ARCHIBALD. The Innocents. A New Play Based on The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. With drawings by the author. Coward-McCann, Inc., New York 1950. First edition. 8vo. x, 144pp. With a frontispiece drawing and two further black and white drawings introducing each act. Top edge lightly dust soiled, and the free endpapers very slightly toned and marked. A very good copy in dust wrapper, nicked with a small area of loss from the head of the rear panel-spine panel, and with several further tiny slivers of edge- or enclosed loss, a touch of chafing to the natural folds, and a little toning to the rear panel. The author’s uncommon first play, which opened on Broadway in 1950 and was memorably filmed by Jack Clayton in 1961 (Archibald co-wrote the screenplay with Truman Capote, winning an Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay for his efforts). £50

ALAN AYCKBOURN. Joking Apart, Just Between Ourselves and Ten Times Table. Three Plays. Chatto & Windus, London 1979. First edition. 8vo. 216pp. Former owner gift inscription inked to the front free endpaper, else a fine copy in fractionally rubbed and dust soiled dust wrapper, with a single tiny sliver of triangular loss from the head of the front panel. A three-page preface by the author precedes the first of his ‘winter plays’, all penned in December for the January performances at the Scarborough Theatre (where all but four of his plays premiered). £20

SEBASTIAN BARRY. Boss Grady’s Boys. A play. Raven Arts Press, Dublin 1989. First edition – a paperback original. Slim 8vo. 61pp. Glossy card wrappers. The wrappers lifting a fraction, else in fine state. The author’s second play, first performed at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin in August 1988. £25

CLIFFORD BAX. Old King Cole. A play. Daniel "Plays for a People's Theatre" series, London 1921. First edition. Stiff card covers, slightly bumped and chafed at some extremities. A very crisp copy, complete with the fragile printed flimsy brown-paper jacket, which is slightly chipped. £30

JAMES K.BAXTER. Collected Plays. Edited by Howard McNaughton. Oxford University Press, Auckland 1982. First edition (printed in New Zealand). 336pp. In virtually fine state with dust wrapper, fractionally rubbed at one or two extremities and with a single tiny area of loss. Sixteen plays. £20

SAMUEL BECKETT. All That Fall. A Play for Radio. Faber, London 1957. First edition. Slim 8vo. 37pp. Plain card wrappers with an integral dust wrapper featuring a design by Peter Snow (not issued in casebound format). A touch of light spotting and toning to the wrapper. Very good. Former owner name neatly inked to the front free endpaper. Beckett’s first radio play, originally broadcast on the BBC Third Programme on 13 January 1957. £25

SAMUEL BECKETT. Three Occasional Pieces. Faber, London 1982. First edition. Slim 8vo. 32pp stapled into card wrappers (not issued in the UK in casebound format). Wrappers lightly toned, rubbed, marked and creased, and with a small area of staining to the fore edge. A nice bright copy of these three short dramatic pieces: A Piece of Monologue, Rockaby, and Ohio Impromptu, all originally performed in the US between 1980-81, with the latter two produced on commission to commemorate the author’s 75th birthday. £15

ALAN BENNETT. Forty Years On. A play. Faber 1969. First edition – the uncommon casebound issue. Slim 8vo. 78pp. Some rubbing to the cloth at the head of the upper and lower boards, and a former owner name neatly inked to the head of the front free endpaper.  A very good copy in very slightly rubbed and dust soiled dust wrapper. The author’s first book (bar his contributions to Beyond the Fringe), and his first West End production. It features a play-within-a-play which includes a satire of T.E.Lawrence, here ‘Tee Hee Lawrence’, ("Clad in the magnificent white silk robes of an Arab prince…he hoped to pass unnoticed through London. Alas he was mistaken”).  £125

ALAN BENNETT. The Habit of Art. A play. Faber, London 2009. The paperback issue of the first edition, which was issued simultaneously with the casebound edition. This copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. xv, 88pp. Glossy card wrappers. A tiny hint of chafing to several corner tips, else a fine copy. An eleven-page introduction by the author precedes his two act play centred on a fictional meeting between W. H. Auden and Benjamin Britten. £30

ROBERT BOLT. Flowering Cherry. A play in two acts. William Heinemann Ltd., London 1958. First edition of the author’s first book, issued two years before his career-making A Man for All Seasons. This copy signed by the author on the front free endpaper. 8vo. 96pp. Photographic frontispiece of Celia Johnson and Ralph Richardson, the stars of the original November 1957 production at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. A strip of quite light partial browning to the free endpapers, else a fine copy in pictorial dust wrapper, marred only by a small area of loss from the head of the rear panel. £95

WITTER BYNNER. Tiger. A play. D.J.Rider, London 1914. First UK edition of the author's second book. Slim 8vo. 48pp. Paper-covered boards. Some fox-spotting to the endpapers, preliminary leaves and occasional leaf margins. An exceedingly crisp copy in the scarce dust wrapper, lightly tanned, rubbed and dust soiled. Neat inked inscription of former owner to the front free endpaper. Most uncommon. A one act play by the noted American poet and scholar. £50

EDWARD BOND. The Woman. Scenes from War and Freedom. A play. Eyre Methuen, London 1979. First edition – the uncommon casebound issue. Slim 8vo. 142pp. A touch of very light spotting to the top edge and a former owner name inked to the tip of the front free endpaper. A virtually fine copy in very good dust wrapper, with a hint of chafing to the upper edge. A play set in a fantasy Trojan War, based on Euripides’ Trojan Women, and first performed at the National Theatre (Olivier Stage) in August 1978, with the author serving as director. £25

RAY BRADBURY. The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit and Other Plays for Today, Tomorrow, and Beyond Tomorrow. With an introduction by the author. Hart-Davis / MacGibbon, London 1973. First UK edition. 161pp. Tiny stain to top edge with the faintest hint of spotting to endpapers. In virtually fine state with very good dust wrapper. Three plays, The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit, The Veldt and To the Chicago Abyss, the first plays Bradbury wrote for his own Pandemonium Theatre Company. The title play is an adaptation of Bradbury's 1957 short story The Magic White Suit originally published in the Saturday Evening Post. £20

RUPERT BROOKE. Lithuania. A Play in One Act. With a preface by John Drinkwater. Sidgwick & Jackson, London 1935. The first English edition (overall the third edition, following editions printed in Chicago in 1915 and Cincinnati in 1922). Slim 8vo. 38pp. Card wrappers (issued simultaneously with a casebound edition). The wrappers lightly tanned and dust soiled and with some quite light fox-spotting throughout. Quite a nice bright example, of which 2,000 copies were printed (presumably 1,000 hard-cover and 1,000 soft-cover). Keynes 40. £30

THE BROTHER ČAPEK (i.e. Josef and Karel Čapek). ‘And so ad infinitum’ (The Life of the Insects). An Entomological Review, in Three Acts a Prologue and an Epilogue. Translated from the Czech by Paul Selver. Freely adapted for the English Stage by Nigel Playfair and Clifford Bax. Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, London 1923. The first English edition. Slim 8vo. 69pp. Lettered card wrappers, very lightly faded at several edges and with a tiny trace of chipping to the spine ends. A very good of the first English translation of the most famous of the four Čapek Brothers stage plays. It premiered in 1922 at the National Theatre in Brno, Czechoslovakia entitled Pictures from the Insects’ Life and was followed by successful American (1922) and British (1923) productions. £75

AUSTIN CLARKE. The Impuritans. A play. The Dolmen Press, ‘Dolmen Editions’ series, Dublin 1973. First edition, limited to 350 copies. Tall slim 8vo. 29pp. Plain card wrappers with an integral dust wrapper (not issued in casebound format). The title page printed in black and red. A touch of light soiling and fading to the wrapper, and the price printed to the base of the front flap has been inked-out. A very good copy of the author’s one act play, freely adapted from Nathanial Hawthorne’s short story Goodman Brown. £30

AUSTIN CLARKE. Liberty Lane. A Ballad Play of Dublin in Two Acts. With a brief note and a prologue by the author, and a wood-engraved frontispiece by Tate Adams. The Dolmen Press, ‘Dolmen Editions’ series, Dublin 1978. First edition, limited to 500 copies. Tall slim 8vo. 48pp. The title page printed in black and red. In fine state with very good dust wrapper, lightly toned at the spine panel and at the margins of the front and rear panels. The author’s last work, published posthumously four years after his death: a verse-drama set in ninetieth century Dublin, peppered with contemporary Dublin slang and retelling the traditional tale of Zozimus (i.e. Michael Moran, the noted Dublin street-rhymer). £30

J.P.DONLEAVY. Fairy Tales of New York. A play. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth 1961. First edition. A paperback original. Card wrappers, slightly dusty. £10

THEODORE DREISER. Plays of the Natural and the Supernatural. Dodd Mead, New York 1922. First edition. Cloth-backed boards, slightly bumped and rubbed at tips of corners and a little marked and dusty in places. £20

JOHN EVELYN. The Tragedy of Faust. A play. The Favil Press Ltd., London 1959. First edition, limited to 250 numbered copies (this being #59). This copy additionally inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper and dated the year of publication. Slim 8vo. 32pp. A fine copy in lightly rubbed and dust soiled dust wrapper, with two tiny snags. A two-page preface precedes a five act re-working of Goethe. £20

WILLIAM FAULKNER.  Requiem for a Nun. A play. Adapted for the stage by Ruth Ford and with photographs by Tony Armstrong Jones. Random House, New York 1959. First edition of Ruth Ford’s stage adaption of Faulkner’s novel. 8vo. 105pp. Covers triflingly tanned at some edges and bumped at the corner tips. Quite a good, bright copy in slightly rubbed and tanned dust wrapper, clipped and re-priced. £30

JAMES ELROY FLECKER. Don Juan. A Play in Three Acts. William Heinemann, London 1926. Second edition, limited to 380 numbered copies on hand made paper, this being #85. 8vo. 159pp. Buckram. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. With a tissue-protected portrait frontispiece and a seven-page preface by Hellé Flecker, the author’s wife. Just a shade of browning and spotting to endpapers. Very good indeed in the uncommon dust wrapper, tanned and a little chipped, with the publisher’s red spine panel lettering really quite faded. This limited issue was preceded by the trade edition, published a year earlier. £50

MICHAEL FRAYN. Clouds. A play. Eyre Methuen, London 1977. First edition – the uncommon casebound issue. Small 8vo. 84pp. A small cross inked to the head of the rear free endpaper, else a fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper. The author’s fourth play. £35

CHRISTOPHER FRY. Curtmantle. A play. Oxford University Press, London 1961. First edition – a presentation copy, fondly inscribed by the author to poet Richard Church. Slim 8vo. 99pp. A light speckling of spotting to the top edge, else a fine copy in lightly tanned, marked and spotted dust wrapper. Fry’s first historical play, dealing with the reign of Henry II and Thomas Becket. £50

JOHN GALSWORTHY. Three Plays. (The Eldest Son; The Little Dream; Justice). Duckworth, London 1912. The first collected edition. Small 8vo. 111pp + 19pp publisher's catalogue bound in at rear. Top edge dust marked and endpapers lightly browned. A virtually fine copy. £7.50 

JOHN GALSWORTHY. A Bit o’ Love. A Play in Three Acts. Duckworth & Co., London 1915. First edition. 8vo. 84pp. Some partial browning to the free endpapers. Very good indeed in the uncommon dust wrapper, which is just fractionally rubbed and marked. A three act play, originally performed at the Kingsway Theatre, London in May 1915. £10

JOHN GALSWORTHY. The Roof. A Play in Seven Scenes. Duckworth, London 1929. First edition. 8vo. 129pp. Edges spotted, and with just a trace of further spotting to several preliminary and concluding leaves. A very good copy in dust wrapper, with two tiny edge-nicks. A seven scene play, originally performed at The Vaudeville Theatre, London in November 1929. £10

WILLIAM GERHARDI. Perfectly Scandalous; Or “The Immorality Lady”. A comedy in three acts. Ernest Benn Ltd., ‘The Yellow Books’ series, London 1927. First edition, limited to 315 copies signed by the author. 8vo. 156pp. Cloth with a paper spine label. Cloth and top edge lightly dust soiled, and with a little light partial browning to endpapers and pastedowns. A very good copy in dust wrapper, tanned at the spine panel and a little dust soiled and edgeworn with one or two tiny slivers of loss. £35

JOHN GRAY. The Kiss. Translated from the French of Theodore de Banville’s Le Baisder. With a preface and notes by Ian Fletcher. The Tragara Press, Edinburgh 1983. The deluxe issue of the first edition, hand-printed by Alan Anderson at The Tragara Press and limited to 30 numbered copies on Barcham Green ‘Tovil’ paper, from a total edition of 145 (this being #12). Slim 4to. 21pp. Plain card wrappers. A virtually fine copy in the marbled paper dust wrapper, which is nicked and lifting a little at the upper edge (the standard issue did not include this dust wrapper). A very nice copy of this English translation of Theodore de Banville’s short play Le Baisder. (1887), long believed lost until a typescript was unearthed in 1976 among the Lord Chamberlain’s papers, which had recently been deposited in the British Library. £40

DAVID HARE. Peter Gynt. After Henrik Ibsen. A play. Faber, London 2019. First edition. This copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 181pp. Card wrappers (not issued in casebound format). In fine state. Hare’s modern re-telling of Peer Gynt. £25

TONY HARRISON. The Misanthrope. Rex Collings Ltd, London 1975. Second edition, and the first casebound issue, published two years after the first edition which was only issued in paperback format. This copy signed by the author on the title page. Slim 8vo. 62pp. A fine copy in virtually dust wrapper, with a price label affixed over the original printed price at the base of the front flap. A new translation by Tony Harrison, commission by the National Theatre to commemorate the tercentenary of Moliére's death. £75

TONY HARRISON. Phaedra Britannica. A play after Jean Racine. Rex Collings, London 1976. The third edition, with a new twenty-one page introductory essay by the author, and illustrated with seven photographs (which did not appear in previous edition) This copy signed by the author on the title page, and additionally inscribed to Andrew [Speed, Stage Manager of the National Theatre]. 8vo. 54pp. Top edge lightly spotted, else a fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper, with a single tiny area of creasing to the base of the front panel. A new edition of Harrison’s play, an ingenious transposition of Racine's Phaedra to 19th century Raj India. It was originally produced by the National Theatre in September 1975 and is here enhanced with a new lengthy introduction and seven images from that 1975 production. £50

TONY HARRISON. Bow Down. Rex Collings, London 1977. First edition. Tall 8vo. 24pp. Stapled card wrappers, very lightly rubbed and with a touch of toning to the rear wrapper. A very good copy of this ballad for a chorus circle, devised and first performed in the Cottesloe Theatre by members of the National Theatre Company, 5 July 1977, as part of the John Player Centenary Festival. Uncommon. £50

LAURENCE HOUSMAN. The New Hangman. A play in one act. G.P.Putnam's, London & New York 1930. First edition, one of a limited edition of 250 numbered and signed copies. 23pp. Hand-made paper. A very bright copy, just a little faded at spine. Previous owner book ticket to rear pastedown. £20

JACK KIRKLAND. Tobacco Road. A play based on Erskine Caldwell's celebrated novel, with a note by Caldwell. Falcon Press, London 1949. First English edition. 111pp. Binding a little cocked and covers patchily discoloured and a little rubbed at some extremities. Jacket stained and nicked. Former owner name inked to front endpaper. £15

LAURIE LEE. Peasants’ Priest. A Play. Acting Edition for the Festival of the Friends of Canterbury Cathedral. H.J.Goulden Ltd., Canterbury 1947. First edition, reputedly limited to 750 copies. This copy signed by the author on the title page. Slim 8vo. 47pp. Card wrappers, lettered in red. A tiny slit to the base of the spine, and the wrappers very lightly soiled. A very good copy of the author’s third book, a one act verse-play. This ‘acting edition’ is the correct first edition; the play was never reprinted outside of the 2003 collection edition Three Plays. Oliver-Jones B1. £125

FRANK MCGUINNESS. Mutabilitie. A play. Faber, London 1997. First edition. This copy inscribed by the author on the title page: “Dear Andrew. Best Wishes. Thank you for all your support and hard work. Frank McGuinness”; the recipient of the inscription being Andrew Speed, Stage Manager of the National Theatre. 8vo. 101pp. Card wrappers (not issued in casebound format). A tiny crease to the tip of the upper wrapper, else a fine copy. His fifteenth original play, set in Ireland in the sixteenth century, and premiered at the Royal National Theatre in November 1997. £30

LOUIS MACNEICE. Christopher Columbus. A radio play. With a thirteen-page introduction, Some Comments on Radio Drama, by the author. Faber, London 1944. First edition. 8vo. 92pp. Printed on white laid paper. Just a trace of tanning to backstrip else a lovely crisp copy, lacking the dust wrapper. A radio play first performed on the BBC Home Service in October 1942. £10

DAVID MAMET. Glengarry Glen Ross. A play. Metheun, London 1984. The card wrapper issue of the first UK edition (which was published simultaneously with the fugitive casebound edition). Slim 8vo. 64pp. Glossy card wrappers. Former owner name inked to the head of the first leaf, and a small retail price sticker affixed to the base of the rear wrapper. A virtually fine copy of the author’s acclaimed Pulitzer Prize winner, which opened at the National Theatre in London in September 1983, relocating to Broadway six-months later. £25

ARTHUR MILLER. Death of a Salesman. Certain private conversations in two acts and a requiem. The Cresset Press, London 1949. The first UK edition, issued the same year as the US edition, and yet considerably more uncommon. 8vo. 133pp. Edges very lightly spotted. Former owner name neatly inked to the front pastedown alongside a small dealer plate, both of which are completely obscured by the wrapper flap. A very light vertical crease impacts the final forty-odd leaves, and with the ghost of some now erased pencilled notations to occasional leaf margins. A very good copy very good dust wrapper, very lightly toned at the spine panel with several slivers of loss from the spine ends and from several corner tips. A very respectable copy of the uncommon UK edition of the keystone of twentieth century US drama. £95

ARTHUR MILLER. After the Fall. A play. Secker & Warburg, London 1965. First UK edition. 8vo. 128pp. Some very light partial toning to the free endpapers, and a very light scattering of spotting to the fore edge. The ghost of a partially erased former dealer’s pencilled pricing to the front free endpaper. A very good copy in slightly rubbed, marked and dust soiled dust wrapper. Miller’s semi-autobiographical play: a thinly veiled personal critique centred on his recent divorce from Marilyn Monroe. £25

EUGENE O’NEILL. Thirst. And Other One Act Plays. The Gorham Press ‘American Dramatists’ series, Boston 1914. First edition of O’Neill’s first book, a collection of five one-act plays. 8vo. 168pp. Cloth-backed boards with paper spine and title labels, the former somewhat darkened. Boards just a little marked and dusty, with some rubbing to the spine ends and several corner tips, and some dust soiling to the top edge. A tiny tear to the head of the contents leaf. A nice crisp copy, lacking the uncommon dust wrapper. 1,000 copies were printed. Contains the title play, followed by The Web, Warnings, Fog and Recklessness. £225

EUGENE O’NEILL. Beyond the Horizon and Gold. Two Plays. Jonathan Cape, London 1924. First UK edition. 8vo. Blue cloth with a tanned and chafed paper spine label. Spine ends rubbed. The backstrip cloth very lightly faded and the cloth just a little dust soiled. A very nice, crisp copy. No dust wrapper. Former owner details inked to the front pastedown. £15

JOE ORTON. Entertaining Mr. Sloane. A Comedy. Hamish Hamilton, London 1964. First edition. 8vo. 84pp. A tiny scattering of spotting to top edge, and a shade of darkening the spotting to endpapers and pastedowns. A virtually fine copy in slightly chafed, nicked and creased dust wrapper with two or three tiny slivers of loss. Former owner name neatly inked to the head of the front pastedown. The author's first book, his second play but the first to be performed (at the New Arts Theatre on 6 May 1964, partially financed by Terrance Rattigan who was one of the plays loudest endorsers, ensuring its survival and transference to the West End even after its three-week resulted in a loss). £150

JOHN OSBORNE AND ANTHONY CREIGHTON. Epitaph for George Dillon. A play in three acts. Faber, London 1958. First edition. 94pp. A tiny hint of spotting to top edge and a small stain for fore-edge, impacting a tiny area of the front endpaper only. A very good copy in dust wrapper, very lightly rubbed at head and base of spine and with some minor scuffing and tape residue marks to wrapper flaps. The second of two plays Osborne wrote with Anthony Creighton, completed in 1954 but not professionally performed until October 1957, a year after the huge success of his break-through Look Back in Anger. £20

HAROLD PINTER. The Collection and The Lover. Methuen & Co. Ltd., London 1963. First edition. Small 8vo. 94pp. A trace of very light toning to the margins of the free endpapers. A virtually fine copy in fair dust wrapper, somewhat chafed, toned and soiled with several tiny slivers of loss from the spine ends and corner tips, and a tiny sticker with three inked numerals to the base of the front panel. Pinter’s plays The Collection and The Lover, followed by his six-page story The Examination which was originally published in 1959 in the review Prospect. £20

HAROLD PINTER. Homecoming. A Play in Two Acts. Samuel French, London 1965. The first acting edition. Slim 8vo. 50pp. Stapled lettered wrappers. A sliver of very faint fading to the upper wrapper, alongside a touch of very light marking. Very good indeed. £35

HAROLD PINTER. Landscape. Emanuel Wax for Pendragon Press, 1968. First edition, one of 1,000 numbered copies for sale in the UK (this being #449). Slim 8vo. Textured paper-covered cloth. In fine state, no dust wrapper called for. A super copy of Pinter’s two-hander radio play, which was first broadcast on BBC radio on 25th August 1968 starring Peggy Ashcroft and Eric Porter. £75

HERBERT READ. Lord Byron at the Opera. A play for broadcasting. Philip Ward, North Harrow 1963. First edition, first issue. 22pp. Wrappers, very slightly dusty. £18

PAUL SCOTT contributes his play Pillars of Salt – his first bookform appearance – to the anthology Four Jewish Plays. Edited with a two-page introduction by H.F.Rubinstein. Victor Gollancz Ltd., London 1948. First edition. The publisher’s file copy, with an “archive copy” inkstamp to the base of the title page. 8vo. 303pp. A strip of near-invisible narrow browning to the free endpapers, else a fine copy in dust wrapper, very lightly edgeworn and dust soiled and with a single tiny enclosed snag. Scott’s three act play, written a year after he was demobbed from the army and preceding publication of his first novel by four years, is preceded by a one-page preface by the author, and accompanied here by plays by Emil Bernhard, Hemro and Toni Block. Uncommon, and somewhat more so with the dust wrapper. £75

PETER SHAFFER. Lettice and Lovage. A Comedy in Three Acts. Andre Deutsch Ltd., London 1988. First edition. Slim 8vo. 95pp. A tiny trace of soiling to the top edge, else a fine copy in fine dust wrapper. Shaffer’s delightful satirical comedy, written specifically for Dame Maggie Smith, who played the lead role in both the English and Americans runs of the production. Uncommon in this casebound format (it was issued simultaneously with a paperback edition, the latter being considerably more common). £50

BERNARD SHAW. Saint Joan. A Chronicle Play, in Six Scenes and an Epilogue. Constable, London 1924. First edition. 8vo. 114pp + [ii] publisher's advertisements at the rear. Edges lightly spotted and fly-leaves a little browned. A very bright copy in chipped, chafed, dust-marked and slightly ragged dust wrapper in two parts (cleanly torn at the rear panel-spine panel joint). £65

R.C.SHERRIFF. The White Carnation. A play. William Heinemann Ltd., London 1953. First edition. 8vo. 116pp. A speckling of very light spotting to the top edge. Contemporary former owner name and date neatly inked to the front pastedown (obscured by the wrapper flap). A very good copy in price-clipped, and lightly toned and dust soiled dust wrapper, with a touch of wear to the corner tips, two small enclosed area of loss, and a small area of surface abrasion to the front panel. A nice copy of the author’s uncommon supernatural play, which premiered at the Theatre Royal in Brighton in January 1953 with Ralph Richardson in the lead role. £35

SAM SHEPARD. Seduced. A play. Dramatists Play Service, New York [?1979]. First playscript edition. Card wrappers, just a little creased. Mark to back cover from sticker. £20

ANDREW SINCLAIR. Adventures in the Skin Trade. A play from the unfinished novel by Dylan Thomas. With an introduction by James Roose-Evans. J.M.Dent, London 1967. First edition. 89pp. A hint of spotting to front endpaper and half-title. Binding slightly sprung, else a very crisp and bright copy in quite chafed dust wrapper, unevenly faded at rear panel and with a couple of short closed tears. Former owner gift inscription inked to front endpaper. £10

ALEXANDER SOLZHENITSYN. Candle in the Wind. A play. Translated by Keith Armes, in association with Arthur Hudgins. Bodley Head / Oxford University Press, London 1973. The first English edition. 141pp. A near fine copy in dust wrapper. £15

GERTRUDE STEIN. In Savoy. or Yes He is a Very Young Man. A play of the Resistance in France. The Pushkin Press, LOndon 1946. First edition, printed at the Chiswick Press. 61pp. Card wrappers with French flaps. A very bright copy. neat former owner name inked to front endpaper and dealer sticker affixed to front flap. Laid-in is a short New Yorker review of the initial run penned by Edith Oliver. £30

TOM STOPPARD. The Real Inspector Hound. A one-act play. Faber, London 1968. First edition – the card wrapper issue, which was published simultaneously with the considerably more uncommon casebound issue. Slim 8vo. 47pp. Card wrappers with French flaps. The wrappers lightly toned. A very good copy of this early Stoppard parody, just his third published play, written between 1961-62 and drawing on his experiences as a Bristol theatre critic. It was first performed at the Criterion Theatre in June 1868 starring Richard Briers and Ronnie Barker. £25

TOM STOPPARD. Jumpers. Faber, London 1972. First edition – the casebound issue. 8vo. 91pp. A narrow strip of light discolouration to head of lower board. A lovely bright copy in dust wrapper, lightly tanned at spine panel with a little miscellaneous staining. £125

TOM STOPPARD. The Coast of Utopia. Complete in three volumes comprising Voyage [and] Shipwreck [and] Salvage. Faber, London 2002. First editions – the paperback issues, which were published simultaneously with the casebound examples. 8vo. 114pp, 106pp and 119pp. A hint of toning to the leaf margins, else all three volumes in fine state. Stoppard’s trilogy debuted at the Olivier Theatre in June 2002 and ran there for six-months. It relocated to Broadway in 2006 where it won a record seven Tony Awards including Best Play. £20

DAVID STOREY. The Changing Room. A play. Jonathan Cape, London 1972. First edition. 8vo. 91pp. A fine copy in lightly marked and chafed dust wrapper. The author’s fifth play, first preformed in a sold-out run at the Royal Court Theatre, London in November 1971 under the direction of Lindsay Anderson before transferring to the Globe a month later (the subsequent Broadway production won the New York Drama Critics' Circle award for Best Play). £20

ARTHUR SYMONS. Tristan and Iseult. A play. Heinemann, London 1917. First edition. Green cloth with a tanned and little rubbed paper spine label. A really bright copy. £20

J.M.SYNGE. The Shadow of the Glen and Riders to the Sea. Plays Elkin Mathews, ‘Vigo Cabinet’ series, London 1905. First edition. Small 8vo. 63pp. Lettered card wrappers, lightly toned and with some creasing to the yapped edges. A two-inch slit to the base of the natural fold of the front wrapper, and the half-title really quite tender. Paperstock lightly toned. A good, bright copy of the author’s first book: two Aran Islands-set one-act plays, both of which came under fire from Irish Nationalists. £125

JOHN M.SYNGE. Deirdre of the Sorrows. A play in three acts. With a preface by W.B.Yeats (who completed the work alongside Synge’s fiancée Molly Allgood after Synge left it incomplete upon his death in 1909). Cuala Press, Dublin 1910. First edition, limited to 250 copies. 8vo. 78pp. Linen-backed boards lettered in black at upper board and with a paper spine label. Text printed in black and red. Boards just a little marked and with a narrow strip of discolouration to head of upper board. Some light partial browning to front endpaper. A very good copy. With the armorial bookplate of Sir Gervase Beckett, 1st Baronet Beckett to front pastedown. The third book issued by the Cuala Press. £300

ERNST TOLLER. Masses and Man. A Fragment of the Social Revolution of the Twentieth Century. A play. Translated from the German of Masse Mensch by Vera Mendel. The Nonesuch Press, London 1923. The first English edition of Toller’s play, originally written in 1919 (and apparently the first English translation of any of his writings). Crown 8vo. x, 58pp. Black and fawn batik boards with a paper spine label (and a spare tipped to the rear pastedown). With four tipped-in photogravures. Boards lightly faded at the backstrip and with just a touch or wear to one or two extremities. A little faint browning to the free endpapers. Many gatherings uncut. A super copy. A two-page introduction (The Author to the Producer, October 1921) and Jürgen Fehlings’ essay, Note on the Production of Masses and Man, bookend Toller’s play, penned during his imprisonment at Niederschönenfeld following his involvement in the establishment of the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republicn. £50

DAVID TURNER. Semi-Detached. A Comedy. Heinemann, Londoon 1962. First edition of the first West End play by the dramatist and Mary Whitehouse-provocateur. 8vo. 121pp. A narrow strip of light partial browning to the free endpapers. Very good in slightly tanned and edgeworn dust wrapper. This copy formerly owned by actress Bridget Turner, with ‘Biddy T’. in pencil to the head of the front free endpaper. Bridget (Biddy) Turner played the roll of ‘Avril Hadfield’ in the original October 1963 production at the Belgrade Theatre Coventry, where she starred alongside Leonard Rossiter and Ian McKellen; all three actors were replaced when the play transferred to London. £30

KURT VONNEGUT. Happy Birthday, Wanda June. A play. Jonathan Cape, London 1973. First UK edition, issued two years after the US edition. 8vo. 119pp. A small area of staining to the head of the pastedowns. A virtually fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper, with a small area of corresponding marking to the head of the flaps. A super copy of the author’s first play. Both the US and UK editions are uncommon, but this is an especially good example. £150

DEREK WALCOTT. Dream on Monkey Mountain and Other Plays. Jonathan Cape, London 1972. First UK edition, issued two years after the considerably more common US edition. 8vo. 326pp. A small area of light miscellaneous staining to the base of the upper board. A virtually fine copy in slightly rubbed and dust soiled dust wrapper, designed by Bill Botten, with a small area of corresponding internal staining. Former owner name and date inked to the head of the front free endpaper. A one-page foreword by the author precedes What the Twilight Says: An Overture, plus his plays The Sea at Dauphin, Ti-Jean and His Brothers, Malcochon, or The Six in the Rain and Dream on Monkey Mountain. £50

JOHN WEBSTER. Michael Ayrton. The Duchess of Malfi. With illustrations and a dust wrapper design by Michael Ayrton, and introductory essays by George Rylands and Charles Williams. Sylvan Press, London, 1945. The first edition with these Ayrton illustrations, which comprise a title-page design, ten header and tail illustrations plus an additional drawing for the dust wrapper. Tall 8vo. 88pp. Free endpapers very slightly spotted. Contemporary former owner name neatly inked to the head of the front free endpaper. A very good copy, albeit printed on slightly substandard wartime economy paperstock, in price-clipped dust wrapper, just fractionally rubbed at one or two extremities, with a single tiny closed tear and two small areas of internal taped reinforcement. £15

MICHAEL WELLER. Cancer. A comedy. Faber, London 1971. First edition of the author’s first play. Slim 8vo. 95pp. Two small inked numerals to the tip of the front free endpaper, else in fine state with slightly chafed and marked dust wrapper, lightly tanned at the spine panel. £10

CHARLES WILLIAMS. Judgement at Chelmsford. A Pageant Play. Oxford University Press, London 1939. First edition. 93pp. Stapled card wrappers, a little tanned and dusty. Title-page fox-spotted. £35

CHARLES WILLIAMS. Collected Plays. With an introduction by John Heath-Stubbs. Oxford Univrsity Press, London 1963. First edition. 8vo. xiii, 401pp. A fine copy in very good price-clipped dust wrapper, lightly faded at the spine panel and with just a touch of marking and dust soiling. Heath-Stubbs’ nine-page introduction precedes the plays Thomas Cranmer of Canterbury, Judgement at Chelmsford, Seed of Adam, The Death of Good Fortune, The House by the Stable, Grab and Grace; or It’s the Second Step, The House of the Octopus, Terror of Light and The Three Temptations. £20

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS. Battle of Angels. A play. Pharos, Utah, spring 1945. First edition of the author’s first book, which comprises the whole issue of the first and second number (a double issue) of the periodical Pharos. Tall 8vo. 123pp + [iv] advertisements. Red lettered card wrappers, rubbed and a little nicked at the yapped edges. Former owner name inked to the head of the half-title. Faint tape residue marks to the endpaper corners. A very good copy. The full text of the author’s three act play followed by his twelve-page The History of the Play (With Parentheses) which details its composition and disastrous opening in Boston in 1940, and is followed by a brief Note of the ‘Battle of Angels’ by the director, Margaret Webster. Williams subsequently rewrote the play under the title Orpheus Descending but its opening run in 1957 was brief and modestly received (although almost a smash hit in comparison to the original production). £150

JACK B.YEATS. In Sand. A play in four acts, with The Green Wave, a one-act conversation piece. Edited and with a preface by Jack MacGowran (director of the original Abbey Experimental Theatre production) and with a drawing by the author. The Dolmen Press, Dublin 1964. First edition. 8vo. 79pp. Paper-covered boards. Small bump to head of spine. A very good copy in dust wrapper, tanned and a little rubbed and marked. A review copy, with the UK publisher’s review slip laid-in. £35

ANDREW YOUNG. Nicodemus. A Mystery [play]. With music by Imogen Holst. Jonathan Cape, London 1937. First edition, this copy inscribed by the author. Rather fox-spotted. Covers a little bumped at some extremities. Quite a good, bright copy in slightly frayed, marked and dusty dust wrapper. Inscription of former owner. £30