Molloy. by BECKETT, Samuel - 1955: A Novel. Translated from the French by Patrick Bowles in collaboration with the Author.

Paris: The Olympia Press,, 1955. Octavo. Original cream unprinted wrappers. With the dust jacket lettered in black. Spine slightly creased, faint toning to edges of covers, a couple of pale marks to edges and front free endpaper, contents fresh. A very good copy in the bright jacket, slightly rubbed, base of panels lightly creased, a few nicks and small chips. First edition in English, first impression, inscribed by the author to Hugo Manning on the title page, "For Hugo Manning, yours cordially, Samuel Beckett Paris March 1972". Manning (1913-1977) was a friend of Beckett's, a fellow writer, and worked as poetry editor for the New Statesman. Manning wrote a number of articles on Beckett's work, including A Man to Remember, published in an issue of the Adam International Review celebrating Beckett in 1970. The two had a long correspondence, including a letter from Beckett to Manning dated 9 June 1967 in which he claimed that he did "not expect to write any more poems, long, short, or indifferent". The majority of their correspondence, dating from 1964 to 1977, is held at the Hugo Manning archives at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center in Texas. First published in French in 1951, Molloy was the first part of "The Trilogy", followed by Malone Dies (1951) and The Unnameable (1953). Inscribed copies of this edition are uncommon, with just two others traced at auction, appearing in 1973 and 2014.