Proust

London: Chatto & Windus, 1931. First Edition. Decorative Cloth. Fine/Fine. A superb First Impression (with misprint "hölder" for "holder" on p. 70) of Beckett 's scarce first commercially published book (after Whoroscope, brought out the previous year by Nancy Cunard's Hours Press), one of only 3,000 copies printed. Crown 8vo (185 x 122mm): [6],72pp. Publisher's cream boards, spine lettered and covers extensively decorated in brown stylized dolphin and flowing seaweed pattern, original buff illustrated dust jacket (price-clipped) repeating binding design in blue. End sheets mildly offset, jacket's spine panel barely toned, else virtually pristine (apparently unread). Federman & Fletcher 7. Beckett, age just 24, wrote this critical study of A la recherché du temps perdu in a first floor room overlooking the rue d'Ulm when he was lecteur at the École Normale supérieure in Paris, in the summer of 1930. It was commissioned by Chatto & Windus as the seventh title (of only fourteen) in the beautifully designed Dolphin Books series of brief literary works. (Others in the series were Aldous Huxley's Vulgarity in Literature, Richard Aldington's translation of Alcestis, and Thomas MacGreevy's study of T. S. Eliot.) N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).