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Man and Superman
by Shaw, Bernard
- Used
- very good
- Hardcover
- Signed
- first
- Condition
- Very Good/Very Good
- Seller
-
Avon, Connecticut, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: Dodd, Mead, 1947. First Thus. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. First edition thus illustrated with photographs from the Maurice Evans production. About very good in very good price intact dustwrapper with fade to spine and soiling. A special copy in that the book has been SIGNED by the ENTIRE CAST of the Broadway Play. Also, laid in is an Inscribed Chirtsmas card by Maurice Evans and Alan (?). Rare. Signed by Author.
Synopsis
From the book:My dear Walkley: You once asked me why I did not write a Don Juan play. The levity with which you assumed this frightful responsibility has probably by this time enabled you to forget it; but the day of reckoning has arrived: here is your play! I say your play, because qui facit per alium facit per se. Its profits, like its labor, belong to me: its morals, its manners, its philosophy, its influence on the young, are for you to justify. You were of mature age when you made the suggestion; and you knew your man. It is hardly fifteen years since, as twin pioneers of the New Journalism of that time, we two, cradled in the same new sheets, made an epoch in the criticism of the theatre and the opera house by making it a pretext for a propaganda of our own views of life. So you cannot plead ignorance of the character of the force you set in motion. Yon meant me to epater le bourgeois; and if he protests, I hereby refer him to you as the accountable party. I warn you that if you attempt to repudiate your responsibility, I shall suspect you of finding the play too decorous for your taste. The fifteen years have made me older and graver. In you I can detect no such becoming change. Your levities and audacities are like the loves and comforts prayed for by Desdemona: they increase, even as your days do grow. No mere pioneering journal dares meddle with them now: the stately Times itself is alone sufficiently above suspicion to act as your chaperone; and even the Times must sometimes thank its stars that new plays are not produced every day, since after each such event its gravity is compromised, its platitude turned to epigram, its portentousness to wit, its propriety to elegance, and even its decorum into naughtiness by criticisms which the traditions of the paper do not allow you to sign at the end, but which you take care to sign with the most extravagant flourishes between the lines. I am not sure that this is not a portent of Revolution. In eighteenth century France the end was at hand when men bought the Encyclopedia and found Diderot there. When I buy the Times and find you there, my prophetic ear catches a rattle of twentieth century tumbrils.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Derringer Books
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 005670
- Title
- Man and Superman
- Author
- Shaw, Bernard
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Jacket Condition
- Very Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Thus
- Publisher
- Dodd, Mead
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1947
- Keywords
- Play, Signed By Cast
- Bookseller catalogs
- Modern Literature / First Editions;
Terms of Sale
Derringer Books
All books returnable for full refund within two weeks of delivery.
About the Seller
Derringer Books
Biblio member since 2005
Avon, Connecticut
About Derringer Books
Professional seller of quality first editions in all fields. Visitation by appointment.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Dustwrapper
- Also known as book jacket, dust cover, or dust wrapper, a dust jacket is a protective and decorative cover for a book that is...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Inscribed
- When a book is described as being inscribed, it indicates that a short note written by the author or a previous owner has been...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
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