Nouvelles et Textes Pour Rien [Stories and Texts for Nothing] [Signed]

Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit, 1955. First Trade Edition, Limited to 1110 copies of which this is no. 1059. Small octavo (18.5cm); publisher's white wrappers printed in blue and black; 220pp. Moderate shelf wear and dust-soil to wrappers, else a Very Good, internally clean and sound, unopened copy. Signed by Beckett on title page. Compilation of thirteen short stories and prose pieces, including many of Beckett's earliest forays into writing in French. Beckett began these works as early as 1946, writing to the poet George Reavey, "I hope to have a book of short stories ready by the spring (in French). I do not think I shall write very much in English in the future" (No Symbols, p. 81). Nine years passed before the book in question was published. References: No Symbols Where None Intended: A Catalogue of Books, Manuscripts, and Other Material Relating to Samuel Beckett in the Collections of the Humanities Research Center, pp. 81-9 Federman and Fletcher 263.