The Blood Knot

The First USA printing published by The Odyssey Press, New York in 1964. 8vo., publisher's bright orange cloth, embossed with title to upper board, and lettered in gilt along backstrip; together in the unclipped wrapper ($3.00), featuring a photograph from the play; THE BOOK an excellent copy, mild bumping at spine tips and corners of boards; faint offsetting to end-papers and a little scattered spotting to the fore-edge; a near-fine example otherwise, clean and bright; The WRAPPER is in Very Good++ or better condition. A little rubbed to extremities, particularly along the folds and at ends, a couple of small spots to flaps and one or two small nicks/closed tears discretely repaired internally with tape. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. There appears not to have been a UK edition issued at the time of publication of this USA edition. First produced in Johannesburg in 1961 with the playwright in the role of Morris and Zakes Mokae as Zachariah, Fugard's breakthrough play tells the story of two brothers, raised by the same mother, but with different fathers. Their subsequent experiences with one fairer-skinned than the other reflect the racial issues prevalent at the time in 1960s South Africa. In 1964, the play was produced at the Cricket Theatre in New York, launching Fugard's career, and was noted for being the first South African play to be performed with an interracial cast. After the BBC transmitted an adaptation in 1967, the South African government of B. J. Vorster, committed to the system of apartheid, confiscated Fugard's passport. Incredibly scarce as a hardback in such condition. Ashton Rare Books welcomes direct contact.