8vo (Text: 218 x 146 mm; wrappers: 223 x 149 mm). Half-title and title printed on a bifolia; text in 6 signatures. Original printed grey wrappers, wrappers slightly taller than text block, uncut, unbound/unsewed as issued (some minor restoration to spine ends and edges, with loss to first and last letters on spine panel, some minor soiling); morocco folding case. 

FIRST EDITION IN THE RARE ORIGINAL WRAPPERS OF THE WORK WHICH INTRODUCED THE WORD "ROBOT" 

Čapek's play was first performed in 1921 in Prague, and "has since that time been translated and performed throughout the world. The word 'robot' which Josef Čapek coined for the play, based on the Czech word robota, 'forced labor,' has become a part of most modern languages" (Lewis, Utopian Literature, pp. 38-9). The play officially premiered at Prague's National Theater on 25 January 1921 following a short postponement. The first edition of R. U. R. was closely followed by an edited second edition which was published in 1921; it was performed in New York in 1922, and by 1923, it had been translated into 30 languages including English. "Philosophically rich and controversial, R. U. R. was unanimously acknowledged as a masterpiece from its first appearance and has become a classic of technologically dystopian literature" (Luciano Floridi, Philosophy and Computing). Bleiler Science-Fiction: The Early Years 358; Origins of Cyberspace 249.