O’CASEY, Sean. Collected Plays. Two volumes. [Signed and inscribed in both volumes bu O’Casey”God may be more than He / is even claimed to be; He may / be but a shout in the street.”]

"BETTER TO LOOK FORWARD IN HOPE THAN BACK IN ANGER"

London: Macmillan, 1950. Second edition. Crown octavo. Pp. (1) vi, 314 (2) vi, 354. Signed and inscribed in both volumes on front endpapers. A very good copy in unpriced clipped dust jackets in glassine wrappers. In modern slipcase. Exceedingly rare inscribed copies. Loosely inserted is a typed letter signed from Bertram Rota to Harold Jones, Brooklyn College Library, dated 14th March, 1960. One page quarto, folded. Anthony Rota offers Jones this signed and inscribed set "it may reasonably be supposed that the inscription in Volume I is a dig at John Osborne, and it is particularly interesting to have this allusion to him from the pen of 'An Angry Young Man' of an earlier generation."
The first volume contains O'Casey's five Irish plays: Juno and the Paycock, The Shadow of a Gunman, The Plough and the Stars, The End of the Beginning. The second volume of collected plays contains: The Silver Tassie, The Star Turns Red and Within the Gates. Certain important revisions to facilitate stage production have been made for this edition.
Both volumes are signed at Devon in 1957 by Sean O'Casey. Volume II is inscribed thus "God may be more than He / is even claimed to be; He may / be but a shout in the street." Volume I is inscribed thus "Better to look forward in / hope / than to look back in anger."