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London : Faber & Faber, (1938). First edition. A play in prose and verse – intrigue and conflict between two imaginary neighbouring countries, with pronounced echoes of contemporary politics.
Demy 8vo (23cm). (124),[iv]pp. Original red cloth, lettered down spine in gilt; a few slight spots, but a very good and bright copy in a very lightly rubbed and slightly chipped dust-jacket. Bloomfield A18a.

£50

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Canterbury : H. J. Goulden, 1934. First edition : one of a relatively small number of copies of the “acting” edition produced for the cast and for sale at the original performances of the play at Canterbury Cathedral. Henry II, Queen Eleanor, and the young king, etc. Precedes the regular Macmillan edition.
Crown 8vo (19cm). [4],[ii],52,[ii]pp. Original fawn wrappers, printed on upper wrapper in brown; wrappers a little rubbed; a few spots; ring-mark and crease to lower wrapper, but a good copy of a fragile production.

£20

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London : Fortune Press, [1940]. First edition. A review copy, and so stamped on front free endpaper. Three verse plays: “The Unburied Dead”, dedicated to Gandhi; “Ora Pro Nobis”, dedicated to Richard March; and “Pimp, Skunk and Profiteer”, dedicated to Ezra Pound.
Crown 8vo (20cm). (136)pp. Original green buckram, lettered in gilt; cloth a little dulled and faded; some spotting of edges and prelims, but otherwise a very good copy in the original beige dust-jacket, printed in black, with a striking design on the upper panel – very slightly tanned and with just a hint of wear. Neat contemporary (1941) inscription on front free endpaper. D’Arch Smith 169.

£25

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London : Faber & Faber, (1988). First edition. “An elderly antiquarian bookseller has just died at his home in the country ... a mordant comedy of manners”.
Post 8vo (20cm). [xii],(84)pp. Original wrappers – a design in blue, yellow and black on white – very good.

£25

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Canterbury : H. J. Goulden, 1938. Second edition. Signed by Christopher Hassall on the title-page. A blank verse play featuring Herod, Melchior, Balthazar, Kaspar – and the geographer Strabo – and here presented in the acting edition published for sale at performances of the play in the cathedral as part of the Canterbury Festival. Originally published by Heinemann the previous year.
Crown 8vo (19cm). [vi],(58)pp. Original grey linen wrappers, printed in blue; wrappers lightly tanned and a little spotted, but otherwise a very good copy.

£20

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London : Hamish Hamilton, (1964). First edition. One of the most sensational stage debuts in British theatre history, originally produced at the New Arts Theatre in May 1964, with Madge Ryan, Dudley Suton and Peter Vaughan – Terence Rattigan thought it the best first play he had ever seen.
Crown 8vo (20cm). (x),84,[ii]pp. Original green boards, blocked and lettered in silver; hint of spotting to the endpapers, but a very good, bright and sound copy in the photographic dust-jacket – the jacket with a nick and a small patch of pink discolouration to the lower panel, but also very good.

SOLD

London : Faber & Faber, (1971). First edition : the hardback issue. A play written for television — a rich and powerful industrialist starts to pull apart his crumbling private life. The play was eventually turned into a film for television in 1980, with Alan Bates and Gemma Jones — “Osborne has this time tackled a subject worthy of his talents” (Liverpool Echo, 13th February 1980).
Post 8vo (21cm). 54,[ii]pp. Original grey cloth, lettered in gilt; an indifferent copy — the spine a little mottled with some very faint spotting of edges, but sound and in the dust-jacket — the jacket rubbed, a little soiled, slightly worn in places, and with a couple of short tears.

£20

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London : David Nutt, 1910. First edition. The first publication of three Peacock plays discovered among the manuscripts acquired by the British Museum in 1903 – “The Dilettanti”, “The Circle of Loda” and “The Three Doctors”. Edited and introduced by Peacock’s biographer, Arthur ButtonYoung (1877-1960).
Pott 4to (16cm). [2],(xiv),(158),[ii]pp. Original red cloth, ruled and blocked in blind and lettered in gilt; top edge gilt; lightly rubbed and a little dull; endpapers a little tanned, but a good and partly unopened copy. Contemporary pencilled ownership inscription of H. J. Marshal, with some further pencilled annotation and underlining to the first play, suggestive of it having been used for a production.

£50

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London : Hamish Hamilton, (1946). First edition. The cadet and the stolen postal order – the pursuit of justice for the unimportant – based on a true story and one of the defining plays of the mid-twentieth century, frequently revived, with numerous film, television and radio adaptations. Here inscribed by Rattigan to his secretary Mary, signed with forename (Terry) and dated October 1946. Mary Herring began working for Rattigan shortly before the play opened at the Lyric in May 1946 and was to become his confidante, companion, guardian of his reputation, controller of his finances, and keeper of his secrets for the next seventeen years.
Crown 8vo (20cm). (110),[ii]pp. Original grey cloth, lettered in red; original production flaw to two leaves leaving them proud, but otherwise a very good copy in the dust-jacket – the fragile and brittle post-war jacket a little tanned, with some minor chipping and slight repairs at head and tail.

£250

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Canterbury : H. J. Goulden, 1939. First edition : one of a relatively small number of copies of the “acting” edition produced for the cast and for sale at the original performances of the play at Canterbury Cathedral. Precedes the regular Gollancz edition, which was itself published in an edition of just 2,000 copies. An interesting play, in which Sayers reworks the Faust theme.
Crown 8vo (19cm). [iv],(64)pp. Original buff wrappers, printed on upper wrapper in blue; some minimal wear and browning, a handful of spots, but a very good copy of a fragile production. Gilbert A31a.

£25

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London : Hamish Hamilton, (1962). First edition. Two early Shaffer plays, recently successfully revived. Shy Bob, awkward Doreen (first played by Maggie Smith) and a disastrous date – and the tale of a pompous accountant, eccentric private eye (first played by Kenneth Williams) and a frustrated wife (Maggie Smith again).
Crown 8vo (20cm). (108)pp. Original tan boards, ruled and lettered in silver; a few spots, but a very good copy in the Angus McBean photographic dust-jacket – just slightly edge-worn but also very good.

£50

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London : Faber & Faber, (1960). First edition. Simpson’s finest and best-known play – absurdity, diversions, non-sequiturs, cardless card games, talking weight machines being trained to sing the Hallelujah Chorus, etc. First performed at the Royal Court in December 1959. “I suspect Mr Simpson to be the possessor of the subtlest mind ever devoted by an Englishman to the writing of farce” (Kenneth Tynan).
Post 8vo (21cm). (94),[ii]pp. Original plum cloth, lettered in gilt. A sprinkling of edge spots, but a very good copy in the Angus McBean dust-jacket – just lightly used but also very good.

SOLD

London : Faber & Faber, (1991). First edition : the hardback issue. Stoppard’s radio play, the scenes alternating between the India of 1930 and the England of 1990. Dedicated to Felicity Kendal, who played Flora Crewe in the original BBC Radio 3 broadcast in April 1991.
Post 8vo (21cm). [viii],(86),[ii]pp. Original blue boards, lettered in white; text just faintly tanned, but a very good copy indeed in the Tania Willis dust-jacket – the jacket also very good indeed.

£40

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London : Jonathan Cape, (1962). First edition. Square-bashing with the RAF – the class system examined – and the undermining of a rebel. “A drama of striking power, intensity and conviction” (New York Post).
Post 8vo (21cm). [ii],74,[iv]pp. Original holly green boards, blocked and lettered up spine in silver; top edge red; a very good copy in a lightly worn and slightly creased dust-jacket featuring a scene from the original Royal Court Theatre production. Contemporary (1963) ownership inscription of P. M. Turner on front free endpaper.

£25

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London : Martin Secker & Warburg, 1957. First British edition. Published to coincide with the UK release of the controversial and much-banned Elia Kazan film starring Karl Malden, Carroll Baker and Eli Wallach.
Post 8vo (21cm). 140pp. Plates – stills from the film. Original red boards, lettered down spine in silver; a few faint marks, but a very good copy in the dust-jacket – a touch sunned, very lightly rubbed and just slightly dusty.

£40

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