This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/21/2022
SHAW, George Bernard (1856–1950). Plays: Pleasant and Unpleasant. London: Grant Richards, 1898. 2 volumes, 8vo. Photogravure frontispiece in Volume I. Original publisher’s green cloth gilt, top edges gilt, others uncut (spines gently toned, hinges slightly cracked but tight, else fine); morocco–backed slipcase gilt. Provenance: Alfred A. Knopf (bookplate designed by Rockwell Kent), see Roberts, Rockwell Kent: The Art of the Bookplate, p. 47). FIRST EDITION. A handsome set of the Irish playwrights plays. Shaw called these first plays “unpleasant” because “their dramatic power is used to force the spectator to face unpleasant facts”. They were followed with four “pleasant” plays in an effort to find the producers and audiences that his comedies had offended.