Search Results: Drama from Lux Libri

Firenze: Nella Stamperia di S.A.R. Per i Tartini, e Franchi, 1735. 1st edition. A dictionary of quotations from the works of Plautus and Terence, comic playwrights of Ancient Rome. Arranged alphabetically, with entries in both Latin and Tuscan Italian. xxiii, [1], 311, [1] pages, Errata on p. 311. Decorative wood-cut initials, head- and tailpieces throughout. 12mo. 6 x 4.25 inches. Quarter-vellum and marbled paper boards. Some rubbing and signs of age, but VG+ overall. An exceptionally clean, tight copy of the scarce 1st. OCLC/WorldCat locates just two institutional copies, in Italy and Slovenia.

London: Faber and Faber, (1954.) 1st edition, 1st issue with "Ihad" on p. 7. A comic drama about a wealthy entrepreneur who deceives his eccentric wife by bringing his illegitimate son into the household as a confidential clerk. 134 pages. Blue clothbound hardcover. 8.75 x 5.75. Near Fine in dust wrapper. Clean and securely bound. Protected by a new clear archival cover. Neat owner signature on the front endpaper. Also laid in is a slip noting that he read this book in 1954, along with a few loose pages of his notes about the play.

Herausgegeben von Egon Friedell; mit acht Rollenbildern. (Wien): Wiener Drucke, 1922. 1st edition thus. Selections from the work of Johann Nepomuk Eduard Ambrosius Nestroy (1801-62), Austrian actor, opera singer and playwright. Nicely illustrated by (8) pages of plates depicting characters from theatrical roles. 124 pages, brief bibliography. Small hardcover, 6 by 3.5 inches. Cloth spine, decorative boards with gilt cover border. VG with minor edge wear. Crisp, clean and securely bound. A pleasing little book on "the Austrian Shakespeare."

NY: Macmillan, 1905. 1st edition. Signed by Clyde Fitch on the half-title page with a Christmas greeting in the year of publication. A social drama of marital jealousy. One of the best-known plays by Fitch, a prolific American dramatist who was the foremost Broadway playwright of his era. Brown clothbound hardcover. 200, (4) pp. VG with modest wear, rubbing of the spine label. First blank page neatly excised, but otherwise complete and securely bound. In a new, clear archival jacket.

NY: Bowling Green Press, 1927. Limited 1st edition. No. 654 of 1,240 signed copies. Printed by William Edwin Rudge in Mount Vernon, NY. A comic play on the Shakespeare authorship question. A hit with contemporary audiences, playing to the dismay of Stratfordians and the delight of Baconians. Set at Whitehall and featuring as characters Queen Elizabeth I, Ben Johnson, Francis Bacon, and a somewhat hapless Shakespeare. 59 pp. Slender 8vo in smooth brown cloth. Leather spine label, lettered in gilt. Bookplate of Helene Vinton Brown. Clean and unmarked. Near Fine.

London: Published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf at The Hogarth Press, 1936. 1st trade edition. A Marxist morality play in verse, with the waters of the flood represented by the tides of popular revolt and social change. (Day-Lewis later renounced the communist political views that informed this work.) 59 pp. 8vo hardcover bound in yellow cloth. VG in dustwrapper with light wear, moderate signs of age. Partial offsetting to the endpapers, small label of a Liverpool bookseller.

Paris: Chez Lefèvre, 1835. A one-volume edition of work by French actor and comic playwright Moliere [stage name of Jean Baptiste Poquelin, 1622-1673.] Includes all of his best-known plays, including Le Misanthrope, L'École des Femmes, Tartuffe, Le Malade Imaginaire, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, and Le Sicilien. With notes by various commentators and biographical material on Molière's life. All text is in the original French. Engraved frontispiece portrait of Molière with tissue guard. Dated 1833 in the plate. xxxi, 701 pages. Text printed in double columns. Quarto hardcover. 10 by 6.5 inches. Later binding (probably 20th century) of full olive green cloth with gilt-lettered leather spine label. VG condition. Some foxing to the frontis and title page. Intermittent foxing and browning throughout. Binding is sound and tight. A sturdy, attractive volume.

Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982. A "radical rethinking of the First Folio text, drawing to an unprecedented degree on the so-called 'bad' quarto of 1600." With analysis of the play's historical and literary sources, conflicting critical opinions, shifting theatrical fortunes, etc. 330 pp., with appendices and index. Includes the full text of the play, with scholarly annotations. 8vo clothbound hardcover in dust jacket. Some age-toning of the pages, but Near Fine overall.

Translated from German with an historical introduction by Montrose J. Moses. NY: Duffield and Co., 1910. (First published November 1909.) A sacred drama based on the trial, suffering and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Oberammergau is a village in Bavaria, Germany, where the play has been performed regularly since 1634. lxiii + 218 pages with bibliography. Hardcover with cloth spine and paper-covered boards. Frontispiece illustration of Christ by Anton Lang. Good with moderate wear, faint stain to cover. Sound binding. Clean internally.

Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1929. 1st edition of author's first book. A drama, signed and inscribed by the author in small lettering: "To J.C.H. Bonbright / from his devoted friend / John / May 5, 1929." Recipient was [James Cowles Hart] Bonbright, 1903-1993, American Foreign Service officer; U.S. Vice Consul in Canton, 1929; U.S. Ambassador to Portugal, 1955-58; and Ambassador to Sweden, 1958-61. Small 8vo. Clothbound hardcover with paper spine label. iii, 74 pages. VG. Cloth faded at spine and edges, but otherwise a sound, tight copy. No jacket. Pages 50/51 browned from a laid-in, favorable [New York Times] review by Percy Hutchison. The clipping is now in an archival sleeve.

[Tokyo]: The Hokuseido Press, (1957.) A post-war edition of dramatic work by the noted Japanese novelist and playwright. xviii, 358 pp. 12mo hardcover in color pictorial boards with matching dust jacket. VG in dust jacket with clear archival cover. Sound, tight binding. A nice copy, as shown.

London: J.M. Dent, (1942.) One volume from the New Temple Shakespeare edition of his works. First published in this format in 1935. With title page, half-title, binding, and dust jacket designs by Eric Gill. xi, 127 pp., notes and glossary. Small hardcover. 5.25 x 4.25 inches. Red cloth with gilt lettering and cover vignette, gilt top page edge. VG in Good dust jacket with chipping and general age. Inner flap is price-clipped. Book itself is securely bound and unmarked, apart from a prior owner's initials and signature in the front. Jacket is protected by a new, clear archival cover.