Beckett, Samuel.

8vo (242 x 148mm.), first edition, one of 100 copies signed by the author, this one out of series, reserved for Thomas Earp, original red wrappers lettered in black, original white wrap-around band loosely inserted ("This poem was awarded the £10 prize for the best poem on time in the competition judged by Richard Aldington and Nancy Cunard at the hours press..."), with Nancy Cunard's original flyer inserted (advertising the poetry competition), preserved in black cloth chemise and matching slipcase, minor edge wear to wrappers, otherwise fine

Federman & Fletcher 5

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First edition of the author's first separately published work. The twenty-four year old Beckett penned this witty and learned poem about Descartes within the space of a few hours in 15 June 1930. Only that afternoon Tom MacGreevy had suggested he enter a poetry contest, sponsorted 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. In a letter to Nancy Cunard of 26 January 1959, Beckett recalled how he had written the "first half before dinner, had a guzzle of salad and Chambertin at the Cochon de Lait, went back to the Ecole and finished it about three in the morning. Then walked down to the rue Guénégaud and put it in your box. That's how it was and them were the days" (quoted by James Knowlson, Damned to Fame. The Life of Samuel Beckett, 1996, p.112). Beckett won the prize of ten pounds, and the poem was published later that summer.