PLAY: AND TWO SHORT PIECES FOR RADIO [with] BREATH, AND OTHER SHORTS [with] WAITING FOR GODOT.

Three volumes. 1. First edition, first printing of 'Play', inscribed by George Devine, director of the first English production, to John Osborne. 2. First edition, first printing of 'Breath, and Other Shorts', the paperback variant simultaneous with the cloth edition (John Osborne's copy). 3. First paperback edition of 'Waiting for Godot' (Helen Dawson, John Osborne's fifth wife's, copy). 1. Original red cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, in the dustwrapper showing Jack Nisberg's photograph of the first production (in German, at the Ulmer Theater, Ulm-Donau). A very good copy, the binding square and firm, the contents clean throughout. The rear endpaper has been removed. In the dustwrapper, variously rubbed, nicked and torn to edges and folds. Not price-clipped (9s 6d to the front flap). 2. Review copy with typed Faber insert, a very near fine copy, the integral dustwrapper a little dusty but remaining bright and sharp, the contents clean and bright throughout. 3. A very good copy, the binding firm, the contents with Helen Dawson's ownership inscription and date ("Aug. 1959") to the half title. Moderate wear to wrappers with a couple of tape repairs to the upper edge of the front panel. An association copy uniting Devine with the two playwrights he was professionally and personally closest to, along with two Beckett volumes from the Osborne household.

'Play, and Two Short Pieces for Radio' is inscribed in blue ink to the front free endpaper by George Devine (who directed the first London production 'Play') to the playwright John Osborne, "To J. O. / with love / G. D. / Aug '64." Devine (1910-66), as an actor, director, theatrical manager and teacher, was at the heart of all that was most innovative in post-war British theatre. In 1954, with Ronald Duncan, Greville Poke and Oscar Lewenstein, he founded the English Stage Company with a mission to present cutting edge theatre by young and experimental dramatists. In 1956, The ESC bought the Royal Court Theatre in Sloane Square as a base, with Devine serving as Artistic Director. The new theatre opened in April 1956 with a play by Angus Wilson. The second and third productions were Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible' – directed by Devine, who also played the character of Governor Danforth – and John Osborne's 'Look Back in Anger', directed by Tony Richardson. A new era of British Theatre had begun. Two years later, in October 1958, the theatre staged the first UK production of Samuel Beckett's 'Endgame' (paired with 'Krapp's Last Tape'). Devine – who became involved with the dispute with the Lord Chamberlain's office over alleged blasphemous content in the play – again directed and acted (as Hamm, with the great Jack MacGowran was Clov). Recalling his first meeting with Beckett at the author's Paris flat during preparations for the production, Devine wrote "We talked, drank whiskey, and decided nothing. In that half hour I felt I was in touch with all the great streams of European thought and literature from Dante onwards. This man seemed to have lived and suffered so that I could see, and he was generous enough to pass it on to me." It was the beginning of both a long working relationship and personal friendship. In his autobiography, 'Almost a Gentleman', John Osborne writes that "Beckett's temperament inspired [Devine] with almost apostolic awe." Beckett and Osborne were, of course, poles apart as writers, but were united by their mutual love and respect for Devine. The trio are materially and touchingly united by this copy Beckett's 'Play', inscribed by Devine "with love" to Osborne. (The volume also includes two short pieces for radio, 'Words and Music' and 'Cascando'.) Devine directed the 1964 first UK production of 'Play' at the Old Vic, for the National Theatre, in April 1964. A chamber work for three figures seated in urns: "characters is not the right word", Gontarski and Ackerley observe, "[t]hey are voices, instruments, or spirits, part of the urns that appear to be swallowing them, only their heads remaining." The following year, Devine died of a heart attack while appearing in Osborne's play, 'A Patriot for Me'. The author's diary for 9 August 1965 reads "Royal Court: Patriot. Sloane Square stifling. Theatre sweltering after matinee. George collapses with heart attack in full gear. Oh, God. Taken to St George's Hospital." A stroke followed and he died on 20 January 1966, aged 55. In a letter to Jacoba van Velde, Beckett wrote "Giacometti dead. George Devine dead, take me off to the Pere Lachaise, jumping all the red lights." Accompanying the copy of 'Play' is John Osborne's copy of Beckett's 'Breath, and Other Shorts' (a review copy), and a well-read copy of the first paperback edition of 'Waiting for Godot' with the ownership inscription of the journalist, and Osborne's fifth wife, Helen Lewis. (Provenance: The Estate of John Osborne. From the author's library at The Hurst, the house he shared with Helen for the final seven years of his life; 'The Faber Companion to Samuel Beckett', edited by C. J. Ackerley and Stanley Gontarski [London: 2006]; Federman and Fletcher 42)