FUGARD, Athol ~ The Blood Knot

FIRST US PRINTING. The Odyssey Press, New York: 1964

8vo., publisher's bright orange cloth, embossed with title to upper board, and lettered in gilt along backstrip; together in the unclipped dustwrapper ($3.00), featuring a photograph from the play; THE BOOK an excellent copy, mild bumping at spine tips and corners of boards; faint offsetting to endleaves and a little scattered spotting to the fore-edge; a near-fine example otherwise, clean and bright; THE WRAPPER very good plus, a little rubbed to extremities, particularly along the folds and at ends, a couple of small spots to flaps and one or two small nicks/closed tears discretely repaired internally with tape. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. First US edition, first printing. First produced in Johannesburg in 1961 with the playwright in the role of Morris and Zakes Mokae as Zachariah, Fugard's breakthrough play tells the story of two brothers, raised by the same mother, but with different fathers. Their subsequent experiences with one fairer-skinned than the other reflect the racial issues prevalent at the time in 1960s South Africa. In 1964, the play was produced at the Cricket Theatre in New York, launching Fugard's career, and was noted for being the first South African play to be performed with an interracial cast. After the BBC transmitted an adaptation in 1967, the South African government of B. J. Vorster, committed to the system of apartheid, confiscated Fugard's passport. "we're tied together, Zach. It's what they call the blood knot...the bond between brothers". Incredibly scarce as a hardback in such condition.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Near Fine
JACKET: Very Good +