Samuel. Ohio Impromptu and Catastrophe [unpublished, bound offprint of typescripts].

by BECKETT

£4,000 · Offered by Henry Sotheran Ltd

Two 'Dramaticules', Presented to the Director of their Debut Performances BECKETT, Samuel. Ohio Impromptu and Catastrophe [unpublished, bound offprint of typescripts]. [S.a. (not before 1982).] Bound A4 facsimile of typescript; limp faux-leather wrappers secured with two marginal brass fasteners, upper cover lettered ‘“Ohio Impromptu”| “Catastrophe” | by Samuel Beckett’ in gilt, 1 f. blue paper bound in after Ohio Impromptu ; ff. [1], 4; [1], 5, printed to rectos only; minor wear to edges and corners; some offsetting to blank versos from the ‘sticky’ raised ink-surface characteristic of early xerography, else internally clean throughout; Beckett’s presentation inscription ‘for | Alan, Jean [Schneider] | with love | from Sam’ to first leaf. Facsimile typescripts of two of Beckett’s late plays in a presentation binding, warmly inscribed by the author to Alan Schneider – director of the first productions of both works – and his wife Jean. Ohio Impromptu was written late in 1980 for a 1981 symposium in Columbus, Ohio, to mark the author’s seventy-fifth birthday, produced at the request of Beckett scholar and Associate Professor of English at Ohio State University Stanley Gontarski. The premiere (9 May 1981), a single performance at the Stadium II Theatre, Ohio State, was directed by Schneider, with David Warrilow as the Reader and Rand Mitchell as the Listener. Onstage, both sit at a table, the former reading from a book recounting a story of solitude, loss, and vain consolation.

• Binding: Hardcover

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