AMS in French, signed “Eugene Ionesco,” thirty-three lined pages, 6.75 x 8.5, affixed page-by-page within a custom-made leatherbound slipcased album. Ionesco’s working manuscript for the 1957 play L’Impromtu pour la Duchesse de Windsor [Improvisation for the Duchess of Windsor]. The humorous postmodern piece is essentially a dialogue about what type of play the characters—including Ionesco himself—should perform for the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. In one instance, the ‘lady of the house’ asks Ionesco not to present (translated) “a sad play, one of those modern dramas like those by Beckett or Sophocles, which might make people cry.” Ionesco replies, “Sometimes, madame, comedies make people cry even more than dramas…the comedies that I write. When I want to write a tragedy I make them laugh, when I write a comedy, I make them cry.” A printed slip laid into the book reads, “With the compliments of the private secretary of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.” In fine condition. This play was performed for the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and ten guests in May 1957. Pre-certified PSA/DNA.
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