Books

Boston, New York, London: Lamson, Wolffe and Company, 1898. First Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine+. First English Edition, inscribed in an elegant hand by the translator on front fly-leaf: "Compliments of / Howard Thayer Kingsbury / November, 1898." Small 8vo: 241,[1]pp. Publisher's original red cloth lettered and decorated in silver to spine and upper board, with frontispiece portrait (tissue guard still present) of the actor Richard Mansfield in costume. A Near Fine or better, spine slightly faded (though silver remains bright) and darkened page edges. Very scarce, particularly in this condition. Cyrano de Bergerac was first published in France by Charpentier et Fasquelle in 1898 (following its stage production at the Porte Saint-Martin Theater in Paris on December 28, 1897), and first translated into English by Kingsbury for Lamson, Wolffe the same year. Mansfield was the first actor to play Cyrano in the United States in an English translation. The play is based loosely on the…

Cyrano de Bergerac is a play written in 1897 by Edmond Rostand. Although there was a real Cyrano de Bergerac, the play is a fictionalized account of his life and incorporates larger-than-life elements. It explores themes of inner versus outer beauty, love, and heroism.

First editions published by Charpentier et Fasquelle, with date 1897 on title page.