Drunken Boat. A Translation of Arthur Rimbaud's Poem Le Bateau ivre. Edited with an introduction by James Knowlson and Felix Leakey. BECKETT, Samuel.

First edition, out of series from a limitation of 100 copies signed by Beckett and specially bound; there were also 200 unsigned copies. Beckett's translation of Rimbaud's poem appears here for the first time, though it was written more than 40 years earlier. He undertook the translation at the suggestion of Edward Titus, the editor of This Quarter, a French literary magazine, but it was never published. Beckett's translation is printed in parallel with Rimbaud's original in French, and the edition includes a facsimile of Beckett's charred fair copy of the typescript, which narrowly survived a house-fire. Folio. Double-page facsimile of Beckett's original typescript; text in French and English, line numbers and footnotes printed in blue. Original brown cloth, front cover lettered in blue, blue pictorial endpapers. Corners just bumped, touch of foxing to top edge. A near-fine copy.