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BECKETT, Samuel.
Murphy.
First edition, first impression, first issue binding with the smooth green cloth and gilt titles, one of no more than 718 copies thus. Beckett's first novel is recognized now as one of the greatest comic novels in the language, but most of the established UK publishing houses refused the book until George Reavey approached Herbert Read, chief reader of literature for Routledge, who published the book in their short-lived series of international fiction. A rarity in dust jacket - we know only of a handful of examples. The book was bound by Webb Son and Co. in three batches: Feb 1938, Nov 1941, and April 1942. The first binding was smooth cloth, as here: according to Federman and Fletcher, wartime shortages may have resulted in later bindings in a coarser cloth. Of the total first printing of 1,500 copies, 782 were reissued as a cheap edition in 1942 in a coarser cloth, with the jacket overstamped.
Octavo. Original green cloth, titles to spine gilt. With the dust jacket. Housed in a black quarter morocco solander box made by The Chelsea Bindery. Top edge very slightly dusty but an exceptional copy in the dust jacket.
