ALICE IN BED: A PLAY IN EIGHT SCENES

New York City, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1993. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1993. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 117 pages. The author's debut play. Now considered a late-modern classic. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Susan Sontag's "Alice In Bed: A Play In Eight Scenes". Her first and only published play. A meditation on what it means to be a woman in the Modern Age. The subject is seen through the historically accurate portrait of its main character, Alice James, the genius-sister of Henry and William James. It was written by the author for the great Italian actress, Adrianna Asti, who commissioned Sontag to write a "challenging and unusual" theatrical role that would require her to be onstage the whole time. Sontag's utterly simple and brilliant solution: Keep her lying in bed onstage for all eight scenes, a dramatic way of capturing the predicament of Alice James, immensely talented but perennially ill, who spent most of her brief life bed-ridden. "Alice In Bed" has been staged by some of the world's greatest directors, including Robert Wilson, the cutting-edge American theatre visionary, and Ivo Van Hove, the innovative Dutch stage director, among others. Sontag's commitment to the theatre was (almost) as passionate as her devotion to films. She directed plays and opera, participated in multi-media theatrical events, wrote and narrated a pioneering documentary on Pina Bausch, the greatest European modern dance choreographer of our time, and adapted such classic plays as Henrik Ibsen's "The Lady From The Sea". An absolute "must-have" title for Susan Sontag collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed and inscribed in black ink-pen on the half-title page by the author: "With best wishes, Susan Sontag". It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. There is no recipient named. This title is a late-modern classic. As far as we know, this is the only such signed and inscribed copy of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. Winner of the MacArthur Genius Grant, the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1977 for "On Photography", the National Book Award in 2000 for "In America", and the Jerusalem Prize in 2001. Shimon Peres, in awarding the Jerusalem Prize, described Sontag as "one of the world's finest writers and greatest minds". One of the most influential and important writer-intellectuals of the 20th century. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER SUSAN SONTAG TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0374102732.