2.5.1 MOLLOY
Samuel Beckett, 1955 SAMUEL BECKETT | MOLLOY | a novel | translated from the French | by Patrick Bowles | in collaboration with the Author | COLLECTION MERLIN | THE OLYMPIA PRESS | 8 rue de Nesle, Paris, 6e Collation: 248 pp. [1]-716, 88, 94. 18.0 x 12.8 cm, all edges trimmed. Printed on white wove paper. Contents: pp. [1,2] blank. p. [3] molloyř. p. [4] ALL RIGHTS RESERVED IN ALL COUNTRIES | BY THE OLYMPIA PRESS, PARIS | AND GROVE PRESS, NEW YORK. p. [5] title, as above, reverse blank. pp. [7]-241 text. p. [242] blank. p. [243] PRINTED MARCH 1955 BY |IMPRIMERIE MAZARINE | PARIS | Printed in France | [rule] | Dépôt légal : 1er trimestre 1955. pp. [244-248] blank. Binding: Plain white wrappers trimmed flush with body of book, under thick paper dustjacket with abstract design in black, blue and yellow running over back and spine to front. Front cover: [in black within interconnected yellow panels:] molloy | THE OLYMPIA PRESS | by | samuel beckett. Spine blank. Printed at top centre of inside back flap is FRS 1.200. Back cover has PRINTED IN FRANCE in black in top left hand corner.
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Notes: (1) Mr. Andrew Walker examined the late Alan Clodd’s copy of this edition of Molloy when in the possession of Maggs Bros., the London bookseller. He writes: At the top of the inside flap of the rear of the dustwrapper appears: SPECIAL PRINTING FOR SALE | IN THE U.K. & COMMONWEALTH [price blocked out with felt-tip pen]. With the aid of a magnifying glass and a bright light I could just about make out the letter-press impression as 12/6ř The final leaf and final printed leaf of the novel’s text are cut short with the signature 9 on the latter sliced half way through. In the compiler’s copy the same leaves are cut short, but the signature is intact. Federman & Fletcher, Samuel Beckett. His Works and His Critics. An Essay in Bibliography, Berkeley, Los Angeles & London: University of California Press, 1970, entry no. 374, mention copies overstamped FRANCE FEATURES, and [5] FRANCE FEATURES | 15, NEW ROW, ST. MARTIN’S LANE, | LONDON, W.C.2. This is not present on Clodd’s copy. Mr. Walker elaborates: There is no marking on the cover, titlepage or anywhere else to show involvement of France Features per se. As for Alan Clodd’s point about separate editions for France and the UK as quoted by Federman & Fletcher, this is supported by the fact that the printing on the inside flap of the rear of the dustwrapper begins on the line where the other copy has no more than FRS 1.200. The French pricing and sterling pricing, &c., were clearly separate exercises on previously unmarked dws. (2) I am indebted to M. Hans-Peter Litscher of Paris for informing me that the cover design for Molloy, although unsigned, was actually the work of the artist Shinkichi Tajiri, who was also responsible for designing the wrappers of Henry Miller’s Quiet Days in Clichy (6.6). It appears that Tajiri was not aware of this fact until M. Litscher sent him a colour Xerox of Molloy‘s wrappers in February, 2000. He then recalled doing a collage for Girodias, who used it without informing the artist. (3) The tradition of an Olympia Press edition of Molloy in paper boards seems to have started with advertisements in similarly bound editions of The Ginger Man (5.7.2), I Hear Voices (5.60.1) and Watt (5.95.1). In fact, it doesn’t appear that such an edition was actually published; there is no copy in any library catalogue, and there is no entry for it in Federman & Fletcher, the standard bibliographical source for Beckett. Copy used: