[Signed] Proust Beckett, Samuel; [Gussow, Mel] [Fine] [Hardcover]

First American edition. One of 250 copies signed and numbered by Beckett on the limitation page, this being number 76. Publisher's brown cloth-backed white patterned paper-covered boards, with front board and spine lettered in gilt. Near fine, with light toning to spine and upper edges of boards, and just a hint of spotting to rear board. Overall, a beautiful copy, seemingly unread. From the personal library of American theater critic and friend of Beckett, Mel Gussow. Proust, Beckett's second published book, is a dense study of the French author Marcel Proust, which gives insight into Beckett's own burgeoning ideas on writing. Beckett wrote the essay in 1930 as a commission for Chatto & Windus' Dolphin Books series. In all, fourteen titles were published in the series, which only ran from 1930 to 1932. Beckett went on to write classic works like The Trilogy (Molloy; Malone Dies; The Unnamable) (1951-1953), Endgame (1957), and his most celebrated piece, Waiting for Godot (1953). He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969.