A near-fine example.

BECKETT, Samuel ~ Endgame. Signed by Beckett.

First UK printing. Faber and Faber, London: 1958

Thin 8vo., burnt orange cloth, lettered in pale blue to backstrip; in the unclipped photographic dustwrapper (10s 6d); THE BOOK essentially fine, aside from a contemporary ownership name to the front free endpaper; THE WRAPPER also near-fine, just slightly darkened along folds and a little rubbed at head of spine. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. First UK edition, first printing. This copy signed by Beckett to the the large Ex Libris (Dierer Birch) present to the front paste-down. First performed in French at the Royal Court Theatre in London on 3rd April 1957, 'Endgame' was translated into English by Beckett himself, and it was considered by him to be his 'masterpiece'. With themes similar to many of his other works, the absurdist tragi-comedy centres around four characters; Hamm, blind, paralyzed, and unable to stand; his companion Clov, who is unable to sit, and Hamm's parents, both of whom have no legs and live in dustbins. The characters wait, in a post-apocalyptic nightmare, for the titular 'endgame'. Beckett was an avid chess player, and the title is said to have been inspired by the game of chess itself; Hamm acting in the role of King, and Clov his knight, who moves for him. A powerful consideration of mortality and human nature, "the apocalyptic nihilism of Endgame surely reflects its composition in 1957, as the aftermath of the second world war overlapped with the new human brutalism of possible nuclear annihilation." (Mark Lawson, The Guardian). This copy in uncommonly fine condition.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Near Fine
JACKET: Near Fine