Search Results: Drama & Plays from Downtown Brown Books, ABAA

New York: The Dial Press, 1963. First Edition. Trade paperback. Good. Four short plays, set in Ireland. With an afterword by Bradbury. 159 pages. Apollo Editions, A-75, with a $1.95 cover price. First edition (first printing, paperback issue; there was a simultaneous hardcover). A good to very good copy, with the remnants of a label on the upper front cover. Signed by Bradbury on the title page and dated in 1996.

New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. Pamphlet. Fine. An offprint of the publication of this early Carver play in Common Knowledge (vol. 2, no. 3, winter 1993), with an introduction titled "On Carnations" by Edward Albee. Carnations was written in 1962 when Carver was a student at Humboldt State College (now University). It was first published in an edition of 200 copies in 1992, followed by this appearance in a literary journal with the first appearance of Albee's introduction. This is one of 10 copies of the Common Knowledge offprint version, signed and numbered by William Stull, the play's editor. 6 leaves stapled into printed journal covers. One of the smallest limitations of any Carver publication. A fine copy, no. 3 of 10, signed by Stull.

Brownsville, OR: Story Line Press, 1994. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author's verse-play set among enslaved people on a plantation in antebellum South Carolina. Dove also served as the US Poet Laureate. This is one of 224 numbered copies, signed by the author on the title page. 140 pages. First edition (first printing). A fine copy in the publisher's purple and black cloth binding (hardcover). This is no. 33 of 224, signed by Dove.

New York: The Viking Press, 1949. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine/Near fine. One of the great American plays, winner of the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize for best play. First edition (first printing, with no later printings noted). In the correct first printing dust jacket, with no New York Drama Critics Circle award mention. A near fine copy in a very good or better dust jacket with light wear at the edges and a short tear at one flap fold. If you read the Internet, you will find a lot of bogus information about identifying the first edition of this book. But it is not actually hard. DOAS follows the usual conventions for Viking Press Books (with the statement "First published..." on the copyright page and no later printings noted). There is only one correct dust jacket, with a $2.50 price at the top of the front flap. All the stuff about orange boards, broken type on page 11; American Book-Stratford Press on the copyright page; Miller's photo on the back flap of the jacket; and the second S… Read More

[London]: [H. M. Tennent] Printed by Scripts Limited, 1973. Ephemera. Near fine. An early draft of Rattigan's two part play, presented here with the main play, about a marriage (based on Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall), followed by a short work, featuring the same actors, based on Tosca. The second play underwent a number of changes and when the play premiered at the Duchess Theatre in London in 1973, it had become a prelude to the main play. By the time the play went to Broadway, In Praise of Love stood alone. [3], 45, 35, [2], 49, [1] pages. Sheets printed on light green paper bradbound in plain red cardstock covers with a die-cut hole revealing the title. Numbered 12 on the title page. Some old tape stains on the covers. With a typed letter signed from Bernard Gordon, the general manager of H. M. Tennent Ltd. and the Globe Theatre, to the American theater producer Waring Jones. Dated August 14, 1973, about a month before the play opened, Gordon writes that "15 minutes have been cut from the first… Read More

New York: Grove Press, 1978. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. An early Mamet play. First edition (first printing stated). A fine copy in a fine dust jacket but for a bit of tanning along the top edge. Original $8.95 price printed on the flap.

New York: Arthur Cantor / Studio Duplicating Service, 1972. First Edition. Ephemera. Very good. An original script for the Americanized version of a French play, a comedy about a young woman, Suzanne, who talks her way into Gene's small apartment on West 12th Street in New York City. The play ran for five days at the Helen Hayes Theatre, in New York, from April 25 to 29, 1972. Richard Benjamin and Delphine Seyrig were the actors in this Arthur Cantor production directed by Milos Forman. [2], 61, 32 leaves printed on one-side only. Sheets bound with brass screws into a printed vinyl folder stamped with the title and "Studio Duplicating" on the cover. Numbered B18 in ink on the title page and coded "RAW" in pencil, denoting a book from Waring Jones's library, which was handled by Serendipity Books, in Berkeley. With two pages of notes by Jones, a theatrical producer and the grandson of a newspaper magnate in Minnesota.

New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1948. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine/Very good. Illustrated by Pene DuBois (costume sketches). First edition (stated). A near fine copy in a very good dust jacket with light chipping to the top of the spine. Inscribed on the half-title, "For Melba Bennett a friend of Phil's, Jessamyn West." With Bennett's bookplate on the front pastedown. Bennett was the founder of the Palm Springs Historical Society and the Palm Springs Garden Club. She also wrote a book about Robinson Jeffers.

New York: Bantam Books, 1975. First Edition. Mass Market Paperback. Near fine. A mass market paperback original, printing the scripts for three of Bradbury's plays, the title play, Kaleidoscope, and The Foghorn. 111 pages. First edition (first printing, with no indication of later printings). A near fine in wrappers (paperback). Minor cover creasing. Cover price 95 cents. Signed by Bradbury on the title page.

Los Angeles: Comedia Productions, 1960. Ephemera. Very good. A production script for an undetermined production of this musical based on the characters from Steinbeck's Cannery Row. The initial 1955 production was widely panned, but it has been produced in smaller theaters around the US. This version, with Leslie Abbott's Comedia Productions imprint is undated, but may be from the 1960s or 1970s. Abbott (1925-2012) spent most of his career in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he taught at Diablo Valley College and directed more than 150 plays. Why this script has a Los Angeles address, your cataloguer does not know. The script is a photocopy of a much photocopied script, bound with prong fasteners into a blue paper folder. A costume designer has made note on various pages and on the verso (back) of the last leaf, including "Pad Sandee['s] Boobs." Prong binding somewhat rusted. With notes from the bookseller Peter Howard (Serendipity Books in Berkeley) on the first page.

London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1937. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good/Fair. Ten short radio plays. viii, 163 pages. Currey, Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors, p. 171. First edition (first printing). A very good or better hardcover copy in a fair dust jacket, missing 2-1/2 inches at the spine and a corresponding triangle-shaped piece from the back panel. Previous owner's name on the front endpaper, with a 1938 date.

New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1923. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. An early reprint of this collection of plays first published by John W. Luce in 1917. 207 pages. A very good copy in a very good dust jacket with shallow chipping at the spine ends; signed "Dunsany" on the front free endpaper.

New York: Random House, 1959. First Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine/Near Fine. A play based on Faulkner's novel; it lasted less than six weeks on Broadway. 105 pages. First edition (first printing stated). Near fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket.

New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1912. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. An early 20th century ghost story based on the author's successful play, which had 231 performances in the 1000-seat Belasco theater in 1911-1912. This novelization was published a few months after the play ends. It is illustrated with three color plates by John Rae, one of a rather scary clown appearing in a dream and another of a ghostly hand reaching for a character. The play was filmed in 1926 and released in a collection of plays in 1928. "The eponymous elderly bachelor dies and becomes a revenant [ghost] to save his fosterdaughter from an unsuitable marriage."-Clute and Grant, Encyclopedia of Fantasy, p. 102. First edition (first printing). A very good copy (mild spine lean), lacking the scarce dust jacket. This copy is signed by the author on the front free endpaper, "Faithfully, David Belasco." Signed copies of this early 20th century fantasy novel are quite uncommon.

[New York]: New Directions Book, 1954. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. The play Thomas had just finished when he died. xiv, 107 pages. First American edition (first printing, with no indication of later printings). A very good copy in a very good dust jacket with a few short tears and minor wear to the spine ends.