THE SCARCE CASEBOUND EDITION

Stoppard, Tom ~ Leopoldstadt

Faber and Faber, London : 2020

The First UK Printing published by Faber and Faber, London in 2020. 8vo., dark brown publisher's boards, lettered in gilt to spine with publisher's device to foot; together in the black and white photographic wrapper (unclipped, '£14.99' to front flap); The BOOK appears unread and is in near Fine condition with one tiny bump to the head of spine; The WRAPPER is in Fine condition and is protected in a removable archival Mylar cover. First UK edition, with full number line 1-10. Set in Vienna over the period of some fifty years, Stoppard's critically-acclaimed play follows Herman Merz, a manufacturer and baptised Jew, his wife and Catholic Gretl, and his family as Austria passes through war, revolution, impoverishment, and annexation by Nazi Germany. Reportedly taking the playwright almost a year to compose, Stoppard later claimed that the story was extremely "personal to me, but I made it about a Viennese family so that it wouldn't seem to be about me." Stoppard was born in Zlín in Czechoslovakia, and though he left the country with his parents on the day the Nazis invaded, all four of his grandparents died in the Holocaust. The play was first performed at the Wyndham's Theatre in London in January 2020, though performances were halted a few months later due to the Covid 19 pandemic. Stoppard later claimed in a BBC Radio 4 interview that 'Leopoldstadt' may be his final play. Increasingly scarce as the casebound edition. (Warner A20 a).

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Near Fine
JACKET: Fine