Beckett, Samuel.

8vo, first edition, one of 300 copies, this one out of series, presentation copy inscribed by the author to harold hobson ("for | Harold Hobson | from | Samuel Beckett | October 1955"), original red wrappers lettered in black, slightly faded at spine, extremities slightly creased

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first edition of the author's first separately published work. Beckett penned this witty and learned poem about Descartes within the space of a few hours on 15 June 1930. Only that afternoon Tom MacGreevy had suggested he enter a poetry contest, sponsored by Richard Aldington and Nancy Cunard, for which poems of fewer than 100 lines on the subject of Time were eligible. The deadline for entries was at midnight. Beckett won the prize of ten pounds, and the poem was published later that summer.

The theatre critic Sir Harold Hobson (1904-1992) was one of Beckett's most loyal supporters, and a fellow cricket enthusiast. His untiring campaign on behalf of Waiting for Godot helped to make it a commercial success in Britain: "...Go and see Waiting for Godot...At the worst you will discover a curiosity, a four-leaved clover, a black tulip; at the best something that will securely lodge in a corner of your mind for as long as you live..." (Hobson in The Sunday Times, 7 August 1955).