Man and Superman. A Comedy and a Philosophy. London: Archibald and Constable & Co., 1903. First Edition. Pp xxxvii, 244, with adverts to rear. Publisher’s pale green boards, title in gilt to spine. Covers lightly faded, contents pages in fine bright condition.

Presentation copy, Inscribed by Shaw on the half-title page:

“For the Collection of Mr Harold Ashton. An Authentic first edition. G. Bernard Shaw”

George Bernard Shaw began writing Man and Superman in 1901 and determined to write a play that would encapsulate the new century’s intellectual inheritance. Described as the first great twentieth-century English play, in it Shaw explores the role of the artist, the function of women in society, and his theory of Creative Evolution.