Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

First edition of Albee’s classic work, a remarkable association copy linking the play to its original Broadway production. Octavo, original cloth, in dust jacket. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the flyleaf in the year of publication to the director of the play’s premiere, Alan Schneider, “For, Alan, who is there when he is necessary—which is just about always. With great affection, Edward Albee December, 1962." The recipient, Alan Schneider, directed the premiere of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which ran at the Billy Rose Theatre on Broadway from October 1962 to May 1964, with an opening cast that included Uta Hagen and Arthur Hill alongside George Grizzard and Melinda Dillon. Schneider was among the foremost American directors of his generation and a crucial conduit through which European avant-garde drama reached the American stage, having directed the American premiere of Beckett's Waiting for Godot in 1956 and gone on to become Beckett's preferred American director. His staging of Albee's play won him the 1963 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play, and his partnership with the playwright proved one of the defining collaborations of the era. Hagen's performance as Martha became one of the celebrated achievements in modern American theater, earning her the Tony Award for Best Actress and helping to establish the play as an immediate landmark of the postwar stage. Near fine in a very good dust jacket. An important association copy.