BECKETT, Samuel. Collected Shorter Plays.

London & Boston: Faber and Faber, 1984. First edition. .pp. 316. Publisher’s green cloth, titled in gilt to spine, in the original pictorial dust jacket. A fine bright copy.

An excellent first edition of one of the most important collected dramatic works of the twentieth century, bringing together Samuel Beckett’s shorter theatrical, radio and television plays in a single authoritative volume. Included are such landmark works as Krapp’s Last Tape, All That Fall, Embers, Footfalls, Come and Go, Play, Catastrophe, Ohio Impromptu and What Where, texts that collectively transformed post-war theatre and secured Beckett’s position as one of the defining literary voices of the modern age.

The collection charts the evolution of Beckett’s increasingly distilled dramatic style, where silence, repetition, memory and existential uncertainty become central structural devices. Several plays first appeared separately in fragile pamphlet or acting editions, making this collected issue especially desirable for both scholars and collectors of modern literature and Irish drama.

A handsome example in notably fresh condition, retaining the striking geometric dust jacket design issued by Faber. Increasingly difficult to locate in collectible state.

Samuel Beckett (1906–1989), Nobel Prize winner for Literature in 1969, remains one of the most influential Irish writers of the twentieth century. His dramatic works continue to shape modern theatre, performance studies and contemporary literature worldwide.

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