A19

Tom Stoppard – The Hard Problem

A19 a. UK Edition

1a. First Edition Hardback

Faber and Faber. Published 5th February 2015. Hardback. White endpapers, half-title, title, [v], 75 pages numbered 3-77, 3 blanks. Pages 197mm x 123mm. Grey paper covered boards; down spine in silver: ‘TOM STOPPARD  THE HARD PROBLEM  (ff logo)’.

Dustjacket. 455mm x 204mm. Front: purple with an image of a woman’s face and a baby formed from typeface characters; on the centre left in pink ‘(ff logo) | PLAYS’, in white ‘Tom Stoppard’, and in pink ‘The Hard Problem’. ISBN 978-0-571-32292-3. Price on front flap £14.99.

1b. First Edition Paperback

Faber and Faber. Published 5th February 2015. Paperback. Half-title, title, [v], 75 pages numbered 3-77, 3 blanks. Pages 198mm x 122mm. Front: purple with an image of a woman’s face and a baby formed from typeface characters; on the centre left in pink ‘(ff logo) | PLAYS’, in white ‘Tom Stoppard’, and in pink ‘The Hard Problem’. ISBN 978-0-571-32293-0. Price on back cover £9.99.

2. Limited Edition

Faber and Faber. Published 5th February 2015. Hardback. Reseda green endpapers, [i] limitation page, half-title, title, [v], 75 pages numbered 3-77, 2 blanks. Pages 197mm x 125mm. Fallow paper covered boards quarter bound in fern green cloth; down spine in gilt on black rectangles: ‘TOM STOPPARD  THE HARD PROBLEM’. ISBN 978-0-571-32295-4. Issued with a slipcase and no dustjacket.

Slipcase. Fern green cloth with no text on spine.

Note 1: This edition was limited to 105 copies of which 100 were numbered 1-100 and offered for sale. 5 copies were numbered i-v and reserved for the author.

Note 2: The MW collection includes a binder’s copy which is signed on the limitation page by Tom Stoppard but is unnumbered.

Note 3: The book consists of three gatherings: the limitation page to page 18, page 19 to page 50 and page 51 to the final blank. The MW collection has copy numbered 70/100 which has a major binding error in that the third gathering is a repeat of pages 19-50, with pages 51 to 75 and the final blanks missing.

See photos below.

A19 b. USA Edition

1. First Edition

Grove Press. Published September 2015. Paperback. Half-title, title, [v], 74 pages numbered 3-76. Pages 209mm x 135mm. Front: peach with multiple horizontal lines; in the centre the painting “The Virgin & Child” by Raphael; above in black a quote from The Guardian and below in red ‘The Hard Problem | a play | Tom Stoppard’. ISBN 978-0-8021-2446-3. Price on back cover $16.00.

2. Cast Recording

LA Theatre Works. 2 CD set released 2020. A cast recording before a live audience of the LATW 2019 production at the UCLA James Bridges Theater. ISBN 978-1-68266-105-5. Price on back cover $29.95.

See photos below.

Theatrical Performances

UK Premiere: 28th January 2015 at the Dorfman Theatre, London.
USA Premiere: 6th January 2016 at the Wilma Theater, Philadelphia, PA.