Stirrings Still. Illustrated with one two-tone lithograph (of Beckett) and eight black-and-white lithographs by Louis Le Brocquy. Paris: Rosset & Calder, 1988. Folio vellum-backed, grey cloth boards, gold stamped with a motif by the Artist ; housed in publisher’s slipcase. A fine bright copy.

One of 200 Numbered Copies Signed by Samuel Beckett & Louis Le Brocquy.

Stirrings Still, Beckett’s last prose text, was published on his 83rd birthday on 13th April 1988. It was composed from three short manuscript fragments in English and French drafted between 1985 and 1987. The final catalyst for publication was the news that Barney Rosset had been dismissed from Grove Press as its chief editor. Beckett sent him the text for Stirrings Still to help him re-establish himself as a publisher.

The Irish artist Louis le Brocquy had been introduced to Beckett by Con Leventhal in 1978. He designed the set and costumes for two productions of Waiting for Godot by the Gate Theatre and executed various portrait studies of Beckett.

A wonderful collaboration between Ireland’s premier artist and greatest playwright.