SHAW, George Bernard

Cashel Byron's Profession

Chicago: Herbert S. Stone and Company, 1901. Item #06612

Shaw on Prizefighting
A Curious Early American Edition of Cashel Byron’s Profession

SHAW, George Bernard. Cashel Byron’s Profession. Newly Revised with Several Prefaces and an Essay on Prizefighting. Also The Admirable Bashville; or, Constancy Unrewarded… Chicago: Herbert S. Stone and Company, 1901.

Octavo (7 1/2 x 4 3/4 inches; 191 x 121 mm.). xxvi, 376, [1, imprint], [1, blank] pp.

Publisher’s brown cloth, front cover ruled and lettered in black and pictorially decorated with the outline of a prizefighter in white, spine lettered in black, top edge gilt, others uncut. Front free endpaper excised; small library label on front paste-down. Otherwise a very good copy, clean and sound. Chemised in a brown cloth folder, housed in a quarter brown morocco slipcase, spine lettered in gilt.

Originally written in 1882 and later revised, Cashel Byron’s Profession stands apart within George Bernard Shaw’s oeuvre as a rare foray into the world of sport - specifically, professional boxing. The novel is accompanied here by Shaw’s characteristically incisive essay on prizefighting, in which he treats the subject not merely as spectacle, but as a lens through which to examine class, morality, and the economics of entertainment.

Included as well is The Admirable Bashville, Shaw’s blank-verse dramatic adaptation of the same story, offering a fascinating example of the author reworking his own material across genres.

The bold pictorial binding - featuring the silhouette of a prizefighter—aptly reflects the subject matter and lends the volume a distinctive visual appeal among Shaw’s early American editions.

Price: $250.00