Author: Shaw, Bernard.

Publisher:  Constable & Co., London.

Format: Hardcover folio with dust jacket in quarter cloth and decorated boards, deckled edges, v + 182pp, 40.5 x 28cm. Sixteen tipped-in illustrations of stage settings and sketches by Charles Ricketts (British, 1866–1961).

First illustrated edition limited to 750 copies.

Published in 1924, not long after the canonization of Joan of Arc by the Roman Catholic Church, Saint Joan dramatizes what is known of her life based on the substantial records of her trial. Bernard Shaw (Irish, 1856–1950) studied the transcripts and concluded that those involved in the trial acted in good faith according to their beliefs. He wrote in his preface to the play: “There are no villains in the piece. Crime, like disease, is not interesting: it is something to be done away with by general consent, and that is all (there is) about it. It is what men do at their best, with good intentions, and what normal men and women find that they must and will do in spite of their intentions, that really concerns us.”

“Ralph Smith” ex-libris label on pastedown, creases to edges of some plates and foxing to prelim pages, minor edgewear and discolouration to edges, otherwise very clean inside. Dust jacket has some discolouration, chips and tears to edges but is rarely found with this edition and has been protected with mylar wrapping.