THE COLLECTED WORKS OF SAMUEL BECKETT.

First edition, first printings thus. Signed by the author. One of 200 hand-numbered sets, this example is numbered 40. Octavo (21 x 14 cm). Original full black cloth, spines and front panels lettered and ruled in gilt. Issued without dustwrappers. Pale blue marbled endpapers. A very near fine set, presenting as unread, the cloth and gilt sharp, the contents clean throughout. Lightly faded to spines, though notably less than usual, and evenly across the set. Light spatter marks to the upper area of the page-block fore-edges of 'Murphy' and 'Molloy' (not affecting the page surfaces). An uncommonly bright, sharp example of this landmark edition.

Signed by Samuel Beckett in black ink to the limitation page at the front of volume I ('Waiting for Godot'). In 1969, Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature ("for his writing in new forms for the novel and drama in which the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation"). By all accounts, he saw the event as unfortunate, threatening as it did to destroy whatever anonymity he still possessed. He accepted the prize, however, his friend and publisher at Les Éditions Minuit, Jérôme Lindon, collecting the prize in Stockholm on the author's behalf. The prize was a diploma, a medal, and 375,000 kronor, most of which Beckett gave away (a significant portion to the library of his alma mater, Trinity College's library in Dublin). The following year, the author's US publisher, Grove Press, marked the honour with this magnificent sixteen-volume Collected Works, containing all Beckett's prose, poetry and drama, and limited to 200 signed and numbered copies.