Zalmen, or The Madness of God.

First edition of Elie Wiesel’s only play. Octavo, original half cloth. Association copy, inscribed by the author and his wife on the half-title page to the director of the play’s American premiere, “For Alan — who saw what we have seen — in friendship: Marion + Elie April 29, 1975.” Alan Schneider directed the American premiere of Zalmen, or The Madness of God, in Marion Wiesel’s English adaptation, at Arena Stage in Washington in 1974, and staged its Broadway production at the Lyceum Theatre in 1976; the inscription falls between the two productions. Schneider was among the foremost American directors of his generation and the great champion of the postwar stage in the United States: he directed the American premiere of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot in 1956 and remained Beckett’s preferred American director, staged the United States premieres of Pinter’s plays from the 1962 off-Broadway double bill of The Dumb Waiter and The Collection through the Broadway premiere of The Birthday Party in 1967, and won the 1963 Tony Award for Best Direction for the original production of Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Near fine in a very good dust jacket with some creasing and wear. A copy uniting the Nobel laureate and the director who brought his play to the American stage.