SIGNED BY BECKETT--CLARE BOOTHE LUCE'S COPY. Poems in English by Beckett, Samuel - 1961

London: John Calder, 1961. First trade edition, first printing.

1961 PUBLISHED BEFORE HE RECEIVED THE NOBEL PRIZE, BECKETT'S FIRST COLLECTION OF POETRY, SIGNED BY HIM--CLARE BOOTHE LUCE'S COPY, ALSO SIGNED BY HER.

8 1/4 inches tall slim hardcover, publisher's blue cloth binding, gilt title to spine, slate blue dust jacket in mylar cover, signed by Clare Boothe Luce on front flyleaf, and signed by author on title page. Spine mildly askew, light browning of front and back free endpapers, very good in very good dust jacket.

FROM DUST JACKET FLAP: "Samuel Beckett was born in Dublin in 1906, but has lived in Paris since before the war. Although his reputation today is based principally on his post-war novels and plays, he wrote two pre-war novels, a number of short stories and much poetry. The present volume consists of those poems written in the English language which the author is willing to have preserved. It also contains a few poems written in French, translated by Beckett himself, together with the original texts. The publishers hope that one day a bi-lingual edition of the complete French poems will be authorized. Beckett is now universally recognized as one of the finest prose-stylists of the twentieth century, and the true literary successor to James Joyce. This volume shows that he is also a major poet. From the dramatic monologue Whoroscope of 1930 to the strange and beautiful Dieppe poems, each line shows the authority and purity of a great master. With this collection, Beckett takes his rightful place in the mainstream of English poetry." The book also was issued in a limited edition of 100 numbered and signed copies in imitation leather; an American edition was published in 1963. Born in 1906, Beckett won the I969 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his writing, which—in new forms for the novel and drama—in the destitution of modem man acquires its elevation". He died in 1989.

CLARE BOOTHE LUCE (1903-1987) was the first American woman appointed to a major ambassadorial post abroad. A versatile author, she is best known for her 1936 hit play The Women. which had an all-female cast. Her writings extended from drama and screen scenarios to fiction, journalism, and war reportage. She was the wife of Henry Luce, publisher of Time, Life and Fortune.