ASH RARE BOOKS
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UNITED KINGDOM

London : Henry G. Bohn, 1845. “Sixth edition”. Ainsworth's best-selling tale of Lady Jane Grey, the nine-day queen, and the historical events at the Tudor court of 1553-1554 – notable especially for the close collaboration between the author and his artist, George Cruikshank (1792-1878), who together made numerous visits to the Tower to get the physical details absolutely correct. First published in instalments in 1840 – “Many would have backed Ainsworth's talent against Dickens's in 1840” (John Sutherland).
Medium 8vo (230 x 142mm). xvi,(440)pp. Forty etched plates and fifty-eight wood-engravings by or after Cruikshank. Bound in an attractive Victorian half blue calf; red label; marbled sides; some mild rubbing and wear; some minor spotting and creasing; shallow fringe of discolouration to the earlier plates, but a handsome copy still. Armorial bookplate and ownership stamp of the Reverend William Borlase (1806-1888), Vicar of Zennor, Cornwall.

SOLD

London : William Collins Sons & Co. (The Crime Club), (1980). First edition. Signed by Catherine Aird on the title-page. The ninth Inspector Sloan mystery. Motiveless murder at the flower show.
Post 8vo (21cm). 202,[ii]pp. Original red boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; slight marks on lower edge, but a very good copy in the original Colin Thomas dust-jacket – price-clipped and just slightly nicked at one corner.

£50

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London : Bodley Head, (1967). First edition. The further adventures of the anti-hero of “The Light of Day” (filmed as “Topkapi”) – the “interpreter, chauffeur, waiter, pimp, pornographer, and guide” in search of a valid passport in Athens.
Post 8vo (21cm). 210,[ii]pp. Original khaki boards, ruled and lettered in gilt; a touch bruised; a hint of sunning at tips; a few edge-spots; a good copy in the dust-jacket – the jacket a little rubbed and worn at extremities, with a few short nicks.

SOLD

London : Hodder & Stoughton, (1950). First edition. “But, madam, you have a husband who asks many questions – why, I do not know. You have a husband who suddenly says ‘Bang!’ A husband who speaks of knives, and poisoned coffee and of bombs. A husband who makes me very, very nervous”. The fourth in the delightful Dagobert and Jane Brown series – “Those meeting the Browns for the first time have a treat in store. Here they are detecting with wit on the Riviera” (Aberdeen Press, 28th October 1950).
Crown 8vo (20cm). (254),[ii]pp. Original maroon cloth, ruled, blocked and lettered in white; some spotting of edges, but otherwise a very good copy in the pictorial dust-jacket – the jacket with one small chip and a couple of minor flaws, but also very good.

SOLD

London : Victor Gollancz, 1963. First edition. Tubby Roger St. John Micheldene pursues the wife of a Danish philologist through American academe – “Kingsley Amis is, indeed, very good at destroying other people’s snobberies and promoting his own. One Fat Englishman is a better, funnier novel than anything Amis has done since Lucky Jim” (Daily Herald, 14th November 1963).
Post 8vo (21cm). 192pp. Original red boards, lettered in gilt; mild tanning of endpapers; edges somewhat spotted, but otherwise a very good copy in the dust-jacket – the jacket very good indeed, fresh and unworn.

SOLD

London : Jonathan Cape, (1968). First edition. Amis takes precise aim at the idle and very rich, with some body-blows too at the new breed of television personalities – “What I like most about him, however, is his ability to pick off a character with a single sentence rather like a sniper wiping out an enemy with a single bullet” (Michael Billington in the Birmingham Daily Post, 14th December 1968).
Crown 8vo (20cm). (256)pp. Original blue boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; top edge orange; a very good, bright, clean and sound copy in the George Coral dust-jacket – the jacket with the merest hint of rubbing, but also very good. bright and fresh.

SOLD

London : Jonathan Cape, (1973). First edition. How Mr Hakim died – Amis in sparkling form with a book both a coming-of-age novel and a genuine murder mystery.
Post 8vo (21cm). 224pp. Original green boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; top edge pale green; a very good copy in a very lightly used and just faintly sunned dust-jacket.

SOLD

London : Hutchinson, (1986). First edition. His Booker Prize winning novel – people with a past decline into old age – “the most outrageously funny Amis novel for many years as well as the most overtly serious” – “It stands comparison with any English novel of the century” (Martin Amis).
Demy 8vo (23cm). [x],294pp. Original tan boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; a very good copy in the Alastair Taylor dust-jacket – the jacket with just a faint hint of creasing, but also very good.

SOLD

London : W. Collins Sons & Co., (1925). First edition. A prologue and twelve short stories in Arlen’s best vein – his last great success – London’s “charming people” and their “follies, misadventures, and galanteries”. Includes “The Ace of Cads”, “The Battle of Berkeley Square”, “The Ghoul of Golders Green”, etc. “Whatever he writes is a sheer delight to the student of style” (Edinburgh Evening News, 12th June 1925).
Crown 8vo (20cm). (viii),(320),[vi],[2]pp. Original black cloth, ruled in gilt and blind and lettered in gilt; mild rubbing; some spotting, mainly of edges; a very good copy in the original Edmund Dulac dust-jacket – a striking butterfly design, intermixed with Arlen’s initials in black and gold – the jacket worn, torn, chipped, creased and much repaired, but essentially complete and striking still.

SOLD

London : William Heinemann, (1933). First edition. International Aircraft and Airways Inc. collapses in 1987 after fifty years of oligarchy in guarding and upholding peace (by war and tyranny if necessary) – a “Pax Aeronautica” tale, providing an interesting contrast and a rather less optimistic vision than that of H. G. Wells’s “The Shape of Things to Come”, which was published in the same year. “Truthfully, I am not certain of Mr. Arlen’s conclusions. At any rate, he has given us a story the tremendous drive of which shatters all criticism, leaving only an excited admiration ... a splendid story splendidly told” (Richard King in “The Tatler”, 1st February 1933).
Crown 8vo (21cm). [4],xx,(380)pp. Original black cloth, lettered in gilt; a few very minor marks and spots; top edge a touch dusty, but a very good, bright, clean and sound copy in the dust-jacket – the jacket with some mild edge-wear, but also very good.

£50

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London : Faber & Faber, (1969). First edition. A late collection of thirty-six poems, etc., including “Bird Language”, “The Song of the Devil”, the “Eight Songs from Mother Courage” sequence, etc. “A major poet wonderfully articulate at his slippered unease” (Keith Brace, Birmingham Daily Post, 4th October 1969).
Demy 8vo (23cm). 124,[iv]pp. Original black cloth, lettered in gilt; slight mark to upper cover, but otherwise a very good clean and sound copy in the dust-jacket - the jacket just slightly tanned at spine and with a few small marks, but very good and unworn.

£40

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London : John Murray (Publishers), (1982). First edition. From the grand to the curious, if not from the bizarre to the preposterous – some of the many architectural projects proposed – but rejected and never built – over a period of four hundred years. An extraordinary, richly illustrated and highly entertaining survey of London as it might have been. Signed on the title-page by the co-author, Ralph Hyde.
Post 4to (27cm). (224)pp. Illustrations throughout. Original boards; a very good copy indeed in the dust-jacket – the jacket also very good barring a single tiny nick.

£25

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London : B. T. Batsford, (1950). First edition. A delightful evocation of mid-twentieth-century London – eighty-four atmospheric photographs of the essential scenes, chosen from various sources, captioned and introduced by the publisher, Harry Batsford.
Foolscap 4to (23cm). [72pp]. Photographs throughout. Original cloth-backed boards, ruled and lettered in black; a few edge spots, but a very good copy in the handsome dust-jacket – a design by Brian Cook (Sir Brian Caldwell Cook Batsford) – the jacket with some minor wear and a handful of spots, but also very good.

£50

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London : Hodder & Stoughton, (1958). First edition. Avant garde art critic found murdered in the Westminster Art Gallery – suspects with motives abound: safe-robbing old lag; talented art student; neurotic friend (and his psychiatrist); egotistical eye-surgeon, etc. The Wintringhams investigate.
Crown 8vo (20cm). 191,[i]pp. Original blue boards, ruled, blocked and lettered in gilt; a few faint edge-spots; mild tanning of endpapers, but a very good, bright and sound copy in the dust-jacket – a design by K. M. – the jacket with a few faint marks and a short tear on the rear panel, but also very good.

SOLD

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, (1970). First edition. The third and final volume of Bennett’s masterly analysis of supply and demand in the early English book trade, continuing the story from the death of Elizabeth I to the outbreak of the Civil War. An account of the total output of the press, irrespective of quality – “the nature of the subject matter and the demand it set out to meet”. With chapters on inception; patronage; regulation; piracy; translation; literacy; variety (religion, law, education, medicine, information, arithmetic and science, geography and travel, history, news, literature); printers, booksellers and readers.
Demy 8vo (23cm). [2],xiv,(54),[ii]pp. Original boards; a few edge-spots, but a very good copy in a price-clipped and just slightly nicked dust-jacket – also very good. Occasional pencil marks and notes (in my hand). Bookseller’s label of Henry Sotheran Ltd. on front paste-down.

£25

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London & Edinburgh : T. N. Foulis, (1916). First edition. Benson’s perennially popular fictional studies of the anthropology of Mayfair society – “The Compleat Snobs”; “Aunt Georgie” and his passion for embroidery; the gossips; “The Sea-Green Incorruptible”; “The Grizzly Kittens”, incapable of growing old gracefully; social climbers – both vertical and horizontal, etc.
Post 8vo (22cm). (236),[iv]pp. Eight delightful plates by George Wolfe Plank (1883-1965). Original green cloth, lettered in gilt; top edge gilt; lightly rubbed and slightly worn; one corner a little bruised; a touch shaken; some spotting and browning to edges and outer leaves, but a good and still presentable copy of an attractive production.

SOLD

London : Constable & Co., (1941). First edition. Emmeline Pocock, daughter of the warden of All Saints, tries to see out the war in her sound-proof room – disturbances from the university town – tangled love drama, the eccentric provost, the sensational reports of Mr Jericho, the volcanic Lady Caroline Paltry, the melancholic Lord FitzCricket, poltergeists, etc.
Crown 8vo (20cm). [xii],(194),[ii]pp. Three plates by the author. Original magenta cloth, lettered across spine in silver; slight touch of wear at foot; some spotting, mainly of endpapers and edges, but a very good copy in the original Berners dust-jacket – lightly worn and very slightly tanned, with some minor chipping at extremities (not affecting design or lettering), but also very good.

£50

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London : Chatto & Windus, 1892. Second edition : a revised and slightly expanded version of the original 1888 publication. Besant’s entertaining and richly illustrated account of life and society (principally in London) in 1837 – the year of the accession of Queen Victoria and in Besant’s view the year in which all that we think of as nineteenth-century really began.
Post 8vo (20cm). (xvi),244 + 32pp advertisements dated 1897. Numerous plates and illustrations. Original decorative cloth; a few small marks and spots; endpapers lightly cracked; a little shaken and slack, but a good and still bright copy. With the 1899 ownership inscription of C. K. Grenside – Charles Knowlys Grenside (1812-1902), a Wimbledon barrister.

SOLD

London : Edward Stanford, 1887. Third edition. An attractive guide, first published in 1879 and containing a general description of the county, detailed itineraries of forty-four suggested excursions, mainly by rail and road, but with also a river-trip from London Bridge to Richmond and Kingston. The advertisements, dated for 1889-1890, give a countrywide selection of hotels, restaurants, schools, etc.
Foolscap 8vo (17cm). vi,138,40pp. Two folding maps. Original cloth; lightly rubbed and a touch dulled; one map slightly torn, but overall a very good copy. With the contemporary ownership inscription of H. H. Haddon.

£25

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London : Hammond, Hammond & Co., (1949). First edition. The plane crash-landed in the desert in a raging sandstorm ...” – an Anatole Flique novel, copyrighted in 1948, published in January 1949 and apparently never published in the USA. “A crisp style and originality of handling that lifts it from the conventional American thriller” (Western Morning News, 16th March 1949).
Crown 8vo (20cm). (192)pp. Original blue-green boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; spine slightly sunned through jacket, but a very good and sound copy in the original Stein dust-jacket – a design in black, yellow, green, blue, pink and purple – just a little sunned, very lightly worn at tips, and just slightly nicked.

£40

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New York : Falcon Books, (1952). First edition. His first novel – “Her beauty is fabulous, her passion insatiable” – Mabel deals with the suave rogue, the happy clown, the romantic hero and the virile lover. Falcon No. 23.
Crown 8vo (19cm). [iv],7-128,[ii]pp. Photo illustrations of “professional models”. Original pictorial stapled wrappers – Mabel smokes and smoulders; a couple of tiny nicks and a few spots, but a very good copy indeed. No copy located in any major library worldwide.

£50

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New York : Magazine Productions, (1953). First edition. “A suspense-packed novel of the guys, the dames, the joints, the creeps who surround our army camps and prey on our soldiers”. No. 130 in the Rainbow Book series.
Crown 8vo (20cm). [iv],7-130pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers – lady in black distracts two soldiers from a shooting gallery; some minor wear and creasing; some water damage to lower wrapper; staples rusting; a few marks and spots; text a little tanned, but a good copy of an uncommon title. No copy located in any major library worldwide.

£25

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London : Sinclair-Stevenson, (1993). First edition. Signed by William Boyd on the title-page. “His name is Salvador Carriscant and thus begins Kay Fischer’s journey into the past of this beguiling and seductive older man who claims to be her father” – “Achingly memorable” (The Times).
Medium 8vo (25cm). [viii],(324),[iv]pp. Original black boards, lettered in gilt; just a hint of bruising; text lightly tanned, but overall a very good copy in the Robin Rout dust-jacket – also very good.

£50

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London : Bloomsbury, (2006). First edition. Signed by William Boyd on the title-page. “In 1939 Eva is a beautiful 28-year-old living in Paris. As war breaks out she is recruited for the British Secret Service ... she learns to become the perfect spy”.
Medium 8vo (25cm). [viii],(326),[ii]pp. Original black boards, blocked and lettered in metallic red; marker ribbon; a very good copy in the dust-jacket – the jacket equally very good. With the contemporary “signed first edition” wrap-around band of the booksellers Topping & Co.

£50

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London : Viking, (2018). First edition. Signed by William Boyd on the title-page. “Moving from Edinburgh in 1894 to the far-flung Andaman Islands in 1906, and smoothly landing in various European cities in between, Boyd’s affecting novel follows a young Scotsman’s ardent pursuit of a woman and its treacherous consequences”.
Medium 8vo (25cm). [viii],(372),[ii],[2]pp. Original maroon boards, lettered in gilt; a touch of bruising, but a very good copy in a similarly very good if infuriating dust-jacket, the design incorporating completely fake wear and tear, as well as photographic foxing.

£50

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London : Faber & Faber, (1968). First edition. An extensive selection of letters from Rugby, Italy, Cambridge, Grantchester, Lulworth, Germany, Canada, the South Seas, army camps and the Aegean – charting the whole of Brooke’s short life.
Medium 8vo (25cm). (xvi),(710),[ii]pp. Plates. Portraits. Original light blue cloth, blocked in brown and ruled and lettered in gilt; top edge yellow; a very good copy in the original light blue, white and black dust-jacket – also very good.

£40

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London : Jonathan Cape, (1986). First edition. “Blanche Vernon is one of those discreet, smart women one sees in restaurants alone ...” — “Miss Brookner writes exquisitely: her moulding of every sentence is a delight ... her impeccable evocations of mood — wet, lonely London summers are her forte — her small flares of wisdom and understanding, and her many moments of utter cleverness” (The Observer).
Post 8vo (21cm). (192)pp. Original blue boards, blocked and lettered on spine in gilt; text faintly tanned, as usual, but otherwise very good indeed in the dust-jacket – just faintly creased, but also very good.

£25

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London : Chatto & Windus, 1955. First edition. A comedy of manners on the world of publishing, writing, literary prizes, etc. – set in New York, London and Paris. “Here’s tremendous fun, with a lot of sense. Although about authors and publishers, it talks shop only in the widest sense, and anyone who can read will enjoy John Brophy’s digs at the pseudo-intellectual no-story novel, in which category ‘The Nimble Rabbit’ resoundingly does not fall” (The Sketch, 19th October 1955).
Post 8vo (21cm). (280)pp. Original green boards, lettered in gilt; a very good, clean and sound copy in the attractive Val Biro dust-jacket – a pictorial design in grey-green, pink and black – just very slightly nicked, but also very good.

SOLD

London : Allen Lane, (2012). First edition. “In this scintillating book, Jerry Brotton argues that far from being scientific objects, maps of the world are unavoidably partial and subjective, intimately bound up with the systems of power, authority and creativity of particular times and places”.
Royal 8vo (25cm). (xviii),(514),[x]pp. Fifty-six colour illustrations on plates. Figures in text. Original boards; a couple of slight marks, but a very good copy in a just lightly used dust-jacket.

£20

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London : Smith, Elder & Co., 1878. First edition. Two long poems, Browning in elegiac mode following the death of Annie Egerton Smith at La Saisiaz in 1977.
Foolscap 8vo (18cm). [viii],(202),[ii]pp. Original blue-green cloth; ruled in black on upper cover and in blind on lower cover; ruled and lettered across spine in gilt; grey endpapers; just a hint of rubbing; light spotting of prelims and edges, but a very good and bright copy. Ownership inscription of Anita Honor, dated St. Valentine’s Day 1885.

SOLD

London : Smith, Elder & Co., 1887. First edition. The major work of Browning’s later years – literary and historical dialogues with Bernard de Mandeville, Daniel Bartoli, Christopher Smart, George Bubb Dodington, Francis Furini, Gerard de Lairesse, and Charles Avison.
Foolscap 8vo (18cm). [viii],268,[iv]pp. Original red-brown cloth, ruled in black on upper cover, and in blind on lower cover; ruled and lettered across spine in gilt; grey endpapers; some very minor rubbing to extremities, occasional slight spotting, but a very good, bright and largely unopened copy.

£40

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London : Collins Crime (HarperCollins), (1997). First edition. Signed by Gwendoline Butler on the title-page. Coffin’s wife is missing – an unidentifiable corpse is found beside her handbag after a terrorist explosion in London’s Second City.
Demy 8vo (23cm). (220),[iv]pp. Original blue boards, blocked and lettered in silver; very good in the original Mark Hamilton dust-jacket – a photographic design with the principal lettering in blue and white – also very good.

£40

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London : Anthony Blond, (1963). First edition. “A birdie of a book” from the late lamented Paddy Campbell. “May be read with enjoyment (as I have just proved) even by people who don’t know a mashie from a mashed potato” (The Sphere, 13th July 1963).
Crown 8vo (19cm). (144)pp. Illustrations by Quentin Blake. Original green boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; a very good copy in the original pictorial Quentin Blake dust-jacket – also very good.

£50

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London : Ralph Stokes for the Gaywood Press, [ca.1952]. First edition. “I was a construction gang foreman, not a private eye or a cop. I’ll admit that my one taste of hoodlums some weeks ago had whetted my appetite for the detecting racket” – Ace Capelli was a house name used variously by Betty Williams (Dail Ambler), Geoffrey Pardoe, Stephen Frances (Hank Janson) and Norman Lazenby. Although over thirty Capelli titles are known, only fourteen or so are represented in major collections.
Crown 8vo (19cm). [iv],9-132pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers in a sprightly design by Leonard Potts (1902-1978); a little chipped at extremities; covers a little marked; some creasing; staples rusted; text lightly tanned, but a reasonable copy of a scarce and fragile item. No copy located in any major library worldwide.

£50

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London : Ralph Stokes for the Gaywood Press, [ca.1952]. First edition. “There were seven names on the list from the commissioner, and one name on that list would have paid a million dollars to get hold of it. That name handled the new drug racket that was sweeping the town and threatening the whole of the States” – Ace Capelli was a house name used variously by Geoffrey Pardoe, Stephen Frances (Hank Janson) and Norman Lazenby. Although over thirty Capelli titles are known, only fourteen or so are represented in major collections.
Crown 8vo (19cm). [iv],9-(116)pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers – blonde in need of a prayer; some light wear and creasing; spine and part of rear wrapper lightly discoloured; small puncture, without loss, to cover and first few leaves; staples rusted; text lightly tanned, but a good and serviceable copy of an uncommon title. No copy located in any major library worldwide.

£50

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London : Ralph Stokes for Gaywood Press, [ca.1953]. First edition. “Both wore black overcoats, and black fedoras with snap brims. They looked like two black crows. On the table were two battered briefcases. Rio’s case held the barrel and the magazine, while Frank’s held the butt end of a Thompson sub-machine-gun” – campaigning newspaperman brutally shot down. Ace Capelli was a house name used variously by Geoffrey Pardoe, Stephen Frances (Hank Janson) and Norman Lazenby. Although over thirty Capelli titles are known, only fourteen or so are represented in major collections.
Crown 8vo (19cm). [iv],9-132pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers; some minor wear and creasing; parts of rear wrapper a little nicked and soiled; staples rusted; some spotting of prelims and edges, but a good and serviceable copy. No copy located in any major library worldwide.

£50

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London : Arthur Gray (Books), [1934]. First edition under this title. “When I first saw the yacht she was lying at anchor in Rushcutter’s Bay, Sydney Harbour” – a sharebroker yearns to return to the South Seas. Shanghaied on the yacht of the beautiful Virginia Mortimer, he is offered a thousand pounds to pilot the yacht on a secret mission. Originally published as “Paradise Island” in 1927, giving rise to a legal case concerning a contemporary book of the same title.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 254,[ii]pp. Original blue cloth, lettered in black; a few faint marks; edges and prelims a little spotted, but otherwise a very good copy in the striking original dust-jacket – unsigned but by H. W. Perl (1897-1952) – a little rubbed, nicked and slightly soiled, but still very good. Just a single copy (British Library) located in the major UK libraries.

SOLD

London & Edinburgh : W. & R. Chambers, 1912. A delightfully illustrated edition of Chambers’ engaging exploration of the byways of Edinburgh history. First published in 1825 and extensively revised in 1868, shortly before his death, the present edition adds an introduction by his grandson, Charles Edward Stuart Chambers (1859-1936) – also a publisher, further notes, and some delightful coloured illustrations by the Scottish artist James Riddel (1857-1928). “A famous book in sumptuous new raiment ... a fund of unfailing entertainment to the mind, and a joy to the eye” (Manchester City News, 1912).
Post 4to (27cm). (xxiv),(378),[ii]pp. Double-page map. Thirty coloured plates by Riddel. Numerous black-and-white illustrations in text. Original pictorial blue cloth gilt over bevelled boards; top edge gilt; some mild rubbing and slight wear at extremities; a handful of internal marks, but a good copy of a handsome production. Neat contemporary ownership inscription.

£40

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London : B. T. Batsford, [1920]. First edition. “This very handsome quarto, which contains a wealth of information, very difficult to acquire, reproduces a series of illustrations even more difficult to get possession of. The subject is divided into eight sections, which include street topography, pleasure resorts, clubs, coffee houses and taverns ... great houses and public buildings, churches, and so on. Its pictures alone are a delight, not least the wonderful photographs of the interiors, and such buildings as remain” (The Graphic, 12th November 1921).
Crown 4to (26cm). (viii),(272),[ii]pp. Frontispiece and numerous plates, giving 191 images in total, many from contemporary sources. Original cloth gilt; lightly rubbed and just a touch bruised; a few slight spots, but still a very good copy.

£50

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[London] : At the Chiswick Press, for Constable & Co. and Houghton Mifflin, 1926. First edition : limited to 1,025 copies. The artist John Crowther was commissioned either side of 1880 by Sir Charles Chadwyck-Healey to make water-colours of London buildings under threat from redevelopment – Beresford Chancellor describes a selection of sixty of them in a circular tour – Chelsea (where Crowther was living in 1881), Westminster, Whitehall, the Strand, the Borough, and home via Stockwell, Vauxhall and Battersea.
Crown 4to (27cm). (xiv),(132),[ii]pp. Sixty plates, many in colour. Original buckram, lettered in gilt; top edge gilt; lightly worn, a little bruised and slightly dulled; a few slight marks; front endpaper replaced; a few leaves roughly opened, but a reasonable copy of an attractive production.

£40

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London : Jonathan Cape, (1930). First edition. A diligently researched history of this area of London – with much on Bedford Square, Charlotte Street, Rathbone Place and Fitzrovia as well as the Tottenham Court Road. An appendix of known local trade cards is provided by Sir Ambrose Heal.
Demy 8vo. [iv],(300)pp. Colour frontispiece. Plates, one double-page. Two double-page maps. Original cloth; endpapers lightly tanned; one plate a little proud; two leaves a little tanned from the presence of a publisher’s promotional card, but still overall a very good copy, bright and sound in the dust-jacket – the jacket just lightly worn and slightly splashed.

SOLD

London : Robert Hale, (1954). First edition. Staff writers for a monthly crime magazine investigate the strange disappearance of an unknown showgirl in small town America.
Crown 8vo (20cm). Original black boards, blocked and lettered in red; some spotting of endpapers and edges; text a little tanned, but a very good and sound copy in the original dust-jacket by John Pollack (1918-1985) – the jacket with light wear, a few marks and short nicks, with some spotting and creasing to flaps, but also very good. Small bookseller’s label of a Cape Town bookshop and contemporary ownership inscription of A. D. Webb.

£25

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London : Robert Hale, (1955). First edition. “The world is made up of smart guys who get rich and suckers who stay poor” – Harry Griffin decides to hijack an aircraft and steal a collection of industrial diamonds.
Crown 8vo (20cm). 250,[ii]pp. Original black boards, blocked and lettered in red; front endpaper tanned, but otherwise a very good copy in the John Pollack dust-jacket – the jacket with a small mark and a short tear at head, and a few slight marks to the rear panel, but with only minimal wear and also very good.

£40

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London : Robert Hale, (1962). First edition. “Sitting, facing me in the clients’ chair was a lovely-looking Chinese girl, her hands folded rather primly in her lap ... she looked peaceful and not even surprised. From the small bloodstain over her left breast, I guessed she had been shot quickly and expertly ... she had been dead for some hours”. Cracking Hadley Chase novel, filmed in German in 1964 by Manfred R. Köhler as “Ein Sarg aus Hongkong”, with Heinz Drache, Elga Andersen, Greta Chi, etc.
Post 8vo (21cm). 186,[vi]pp. Original black boards, blocked and lettered in red and silver; faint residue marks to boards; a few faint spots to front free endpaper, but a very good copy in the Val Biro dust-jacket – the jacket lightly worn and a little sunned, with a couple of nicks, a short tear, and a crease to the front flap, but complete and attractive still.

£40

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London : Robert Hale, (1965). First edition. “Robert Henry Carey was a spy who had defected to Russia and when the news leaked out that he had changed sides again an intensive and ruthless manhunt was on. From the glamour and nerve-shattering noise of Paris the hunt switches to the violent and scorched wastelands of Senegal”.
Post 8vo (21cm). (192)pp. Original black boards, blocked in red and lettered in silver; some spotting to edges, but otherwise a very good copy in the Barbara Walton dust-jacket – the jacket with some creasing and slight damage to rear panel and rear flap, but otherwise also very good.

£25

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London : Robert Hale, (1966). First edition. “On a dark, lonely quai of Paris’s 4th arrondissement, a woman is found suffering from amnesia, with the initials of the top Chinese atomic scientist tattooed on her buttock” – the second Mark Girland spy thriller. “Hadley Chase once again proves himself master of the thriller” (Bristol Evening Post, 29th September 1966).
Post 8vo (21cm). (190),[ii]pp. Original black boards, lettered in gilt; just a hint of bruising, but a very good and sound copy in the Barbara Walton dust-jacket – the jacket with some very minor wear and a few marks to rear panel, but also very good.

£40

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London : Collins, 1944. First edition. An early Cheyney “dark” novel of counter-espionage – the all-wise Quayle, Shaun O’Mara, Ricky Kerr – “The women, of course, dress superbly, move like angels, are as beautiful as diamonds and, with one notable exception, behave abominably”.
Crown 8vo (20cm). (192)pp. Original sand cloth, lettered in green; a touch bruised; a few edge-spots, but a very good and sound copy in the original atmospheric pictorial dust-jacket – ruby-lipped brunette in green stares us down – lightly used, with a few short nicks, but also very good.

£25

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London : Collins, 1945. First edition. Lemmy Caution is now attached to U. S. Army Intelligence in Paris – “We watch him track an enemy agent, first across Paris, then through the glades of Surrey. The scene is rich with dames, james, babies, mommas and frails; and this guy or bozo Confucius does not fail to inspire” (Elizabeth Bowen in The Tatler, 12th December 1945).
Crown 8vo (20cm). 192pp. Original sand cloth, lettered in green; just a hint of bruising, but a very good and sound copy in the pictorial dust-jacket – the jacket with a few faint marks, but only minimal wear, and also very good.

£50

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London : Collins, 1946. First edition. Rene Berg, ex-Chicago gunman, awakens in a German concentration camp. His greatest moment awaits. “Quite the best book of his career ... the story of a Chicago gunman of Prohibition days, turned patriot and intelligence man ... Even Mr. Cheyney’s style, usually as staccato as a sawn-off machine-gun in action, has been considerably smoothened, without any noticeable loss of pace. It is as if he now used a silencer” (The Sphere, 23rd March 1946).
Crown 8vo (20cm). 192pp. Original sand cloth, lettered in green; some spotting to edges and endpapers, but a very good copy in the dust-jacket – lightly worn, and with a couple of minor scuffs and a little dustiness to the lower panel.

£25

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Henfield : Poynings Press, (1946). First edition. Lemmy Caution comes to London in pursuit of Esmeralda Vandellin, but needs help from Scotland Yard.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 122pp. Original maroon boards, lettered in yellow; boards rubbed, chipped and worn, but a serviceable copy in the striking dust-jacket by Reina Mary Sington (Reina Bull) (1924-2000) – the jacket worn, chipped and missing an inch at the head of the rear panel, but a welcome survival.

£25

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London : Collins, 1947. First edition. A new private detective in Caryl Wylde O’Hara – and the story of Leonora Ivory, Alexis Ricaud and his heroin-addicted wife, Esmeralda, etc. “A perfect case, probably the most perfect case that Mr. Cheyney, with as good an eye for a pretty plot as for a pretty woman, has ever devised”. Set mainly in London, with excursions to Maidenhead, the Sussex coast and Torquay.
Crown 8vo (20cm). (192)pp. Original sand cloth, lettered in green; a very good copy in the original pictorial Winslade dust-jacket – frightened brunette in long white gown and gloves – complete if a little worn, torn and creased, with some taped repairs.

£20

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London : by Mark Baskett ... and by the Assigns of Robert Baskett, 1766. A long and complex act expressing a determination to get a firm grip on the maintenance of the City, with provisions for proper record-keeping; the employment of non-freemen on necessary works; the publishing of contracts; the exclusion of common councilmen from contracting; the designation of streets to be paved; powers for regulating signage; a time-limit of one hour on wagons standing in the streets; barring barrows from foot pavements; the names of streets to be properly displayed, with (for the first time) “every house, shop, or warehouse ... to be marked or numbered”; rules on water-pipes and pavements; the watering of streets; footways to be cleaned daily; lamps and their placing and maintenance; much on the collection of and payment of rates; tolls and turnpikes, etc.
Foolscap folio (32cm). [ii],455-(504)pp. Black letter. Disbound. A few minor marks and faint creases, but in very good condition.

£50

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London : Enitharmon Press, 1974. First edition : [one of 230 copies (of 500) in hardback]. A collection of thirty poems, printed at the Daedalus Press. Includes “Children of Islington”, “The Day Hardy Died”, “Learning by Heart”, etc.
Foolscap 4to (22cm). (46),[ii]pp. Original red-pink cloth, lettered in gilt; very good in the original Daniel Samuels dust-jacket – a striking design in white, pink and black – just lightly marked on lower panel, but also very good. Halliwell 39.

£20

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London : Reality Press, (1975). First edition. A presentation copy, inscribed “Best wishes” and initialled on the title-page by the author, the influential political activist Arthur Clegg. Loosely inserted is an accompanying signed single-page 1976 autograph letter from Clegg to the recipient, a Mrs Thomas. A long poem, illustrated by Jan Flavell.
Foolscap 4to (22cm). (20)pp. Original stapled wrappers – a design in black and white by Jan Flavell; lightly tanned at edges, but otherwise a very good copy. No copy of this edition located in any major library worldwide.

£40

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London : Victor Gollancz, 1957. First edition. A father and three daughters – “A normal part of life may not be a thing to dispense with”. “This great author has made blood-relationship and its attendant psychological maladies her subject. Grim would be the result were it not for Miss Compton-Burnett’s exquisite humour, and the breath-taking twists and turns of each household drama” (The Tatler, 28th August 1957).
Crown 8vo (20cm). (208)pp. Original maroon boards, lettered in gilt; a couple of spots, but a very good and bright copy in the original Gollancz yellow dust-jacket, printed in magenta and black – just lightly tanned, lightly marked and slightly worn at tips.

£20

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London : Orion, (2004). First British edition. Signed by Michael Connelly on the title-page. The killer called The Poet returns – Harry Bosch and Rachel Walling in league and at odds with the FBI.
Medium 8vo (25cm). [viii],(406),[ii]pp. Original black boards, blocked and lettered in metallic lilac; just a hint of bruising, but a very good copy in the dust-jacket – the jacket also just faintly bruised, but otherwise very good.

£25

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London : Orion Books, (2007). First British edition. Signed by Michael Connelly on the title-page. Hieronymus Bosch once more, the thirteenth in the series – physicist murdered, deadly radioactive chemicals missing – “The best crime fiction uses the extreme nature of death to explore the fragile realities of life, and Connelly is writing the best detective fiction out there” (Spectator).
Medium 8vo (25cm). [vi],(262),[iv]pp. Original black boards; an excellent copy in a pristine dust-jacket.

£25

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New York : Little, Brown & Co., (2011). First edition. Harry Bosch is on the Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP) – DNA from a 1989 rape and murder makes no sense at all – and then there’s political conspiracy and dark history.
Medium 8vo (25cm). [vi],388,[ii],[2],[ii]pp. Original orange boards, lettered in silver; the tiniest suggestion of a bruise at foot, but a bright, clean and excellent copy in a similar dust-jacket.

£20

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London : Herbert Jenkins, [1944]. First edition. The suicide of gambling man Colonel Trevor brings Inspector Jimmy Brigg to a suburban greyhound track – and then, just as an outsider wins, a man falls dead. A nicely observed murder mystery from the veteran crime-writer.
Crown 8vo (20cm). 188pp. Original orange cloth, ruled, blocked and lettered in black; a number of edge spots, but otherwise a very good and bright copy in the striking dust-jacket – the jacket with just very minor wear and a little spotting on verso, but also very good.

£50

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London : Walter Edwards (Publishers), 1946. First British edition. Gossip columnist dead in Manhattan. Originally published in New York earlier in 1946.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 126,[ii]pp. Original stapled wrappers in an attached dust-jacket in a striking design by Sinclair; a very good, sharp and clean copy. Just three copies of this edition (British Library, National Library of Scotland, Ohio State) located in major libraries worldwide.

£25

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London : English Heritage, 1995. First edition. An evocative survey of architectural treasures across the Greater London area at risk from disuse and disrepair.
Crown 4to (25cm). 82,[ii]pp. Illustrations throughout. Original wrappers; very slightly bowed, but a very good copy. No copy located in any major library worldwide.

£20

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London : Camden Publishing Co., [ca.1920]. First published as “La Mariée de Fontenay-aux-Roses” in 1872 and here translated into English by “Bree Narran” – the Australian author-publisher William Nicholas Willis (1858-1922).
Crown 8vo (19cm). (160)pp. Original pictorial wrappers; light rubbing and minor wear; lower wrapper slightly marked and scuffed; earlier portion of text lightly tanned, but a good copy of an uncommon title. Just three copies located in major libraries worldwide – none in the UK.

SOLD

New York : E. P. Dutton & Co., 1954. First edition. Attached to the front pastedown is an envelope addressed to Louis Untermeyer – containing a single-page 1963 typed letter (signed with forename), on her own purple-headed notepaper, from Babette Deutsch to Untermeyer – concerning the selection of poems for an anthology. A carbon copy of Untermeyer’s earlier letter to Deutsch is also enclosed. A collection of thirty-two poems, including “Fountain and Unicorn”, “Homage to Paul Klee”, “Ballade for Braque”, “Letter to Wallace Stevens”, etc.
Post 8vo (21cm). (60)pp. Original dark pink cloth, blocked in blind and lettered in gilt; spine titling a little dulled; some spotting of edges, but a very good copy in the original red and white dust-jacket – lightly marked and rubbed, with some minor wear at head and a couple of tiny nicks.

SOLD

London : Chapman & Hall, 1865. First edition. “To be taken immediately” – a tale in eight chapters – the first, sixth and last by Dickens – “may take rank with his most delightful and felicitous masterpieces. The character of Doctor Marigold ... is a creation as complete and as perfectly inimitable in its way as any one among the most famous of the other creations of our novelist” (The London Sun, 6th December 1865).
Royal 8vo (25cm). 48pp. With the advertising slip for the just-published “Our Mutual Friend”. Original blue wrappers, ruled and lettered in black; lightly worn and a little creased; the rear wrapper a little chipped and missing a corner; corners creased internally, but a good and bright copy of a fragile production.

£50

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London : Gemini, 1957-1958. First edition. All five issues of the original run of this Oxford and Cambridge literary periodical, before it merged with “Dialogue” to last for a further six issues. Includes contributions from W. H. Auden (his poem “Island Cemetery”), Bernard Bergonzi, Malcolm Bradbury, Alan Brownjohn, Geoffrey Hill (two poems), Harold Hobson, Ted Hughes (four poems), Elizabeth Jennings, Jenny Joseph, Peter Levi, C. Day Lewis, Dom Moraes, Sylvia Plath (two poems and a story), Andrew Sinclair, Stevie Smith (two poems and an essay), Stephen Spender, and many more.
Five issues. Crown 4to (24cm). 68,[iv]; (112); 97,[iii]; 80; 84pp. Bound, complete with the original wrappers, including designs by Ben Nash and David Smith, in a stout binder’s buckram, lettered in gilt; a few faint marks and spots, but a very good run, sturdily bound.

SOLD

London : T. V. Boardman & Co., (1944). First British edition. Murder in the world of supper clubs, gaming houses, night clubs and exclusive dance bands – the author also wrote lyrics for Jerome Kern. Originally published in the USA in 1941.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 126,[ii]pp. Original wrappers; a little worn and somewhat creased; slightly chipped; some internal spots and creases; a serviceable copy of an uncommon early Boardman title. Just two copies (Bodleian and British Library) located in the major UK libraries. TVB Books [19].

£20

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London : Scion, (1951). First edition. “Right then Marcelle was doing a good job of intoxicating me, sitting there in a Bikini that wouldn’t have made a moth’s hors d’oeuvre, singing a smoochy ditty in a voice that would have been a swell contralto if there hadn’t been so much gin in it”. Murder and mayhem in New Orleans.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 112pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers – a design by John Pollack; some wear; wrappers a little creased and fingered; some internal marks, creases and spots, but a reasonable copy. Just a single copy (Bodleian) located in major libraries worldwide.

£50

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London : Faber & Faber, 1960. First edition. The fourth and the final instalment of the Alexandria Quartet – Darley returns to an Alexandria at war. “As well as being a rounding-off and, in many ways, an explanation of the previous three books, ‘Clea’ is also a work on its own ... different, perhaps less subtle but, on the whole more moving” (The Sphere, 6th February 1960). One of the most memorable and extraordinary performances in twentieth-century fiction.
Demy 8vo (21cm). (288)pp. Original tangerine cloth, blocked in green and lettered in gilt; light spotting of edges and endpapers, but otherwise a very good copy in the dust-jacket – the jacket very lightly marked, with a handful of nicks and short repaired tears, but complete and attractive still.

£50

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London : Faber & Faber, (1949). First edition. Although the first part of this book was published by Frederick John Melville (1882-1940) in 1916, it was never completed and “since that date there have been considerable developments in all processes used for printing postage stamps ... while this book is, therefore, broadly based on Melville’s earlier work it covers a much wider field”. A printer’s absorbing, highly detailed, and fully illustrated technical account, covering design, papermaking, the Perkins process, intaglio plates, lithography, letterpress, embossing, rotary photogravure, perforating, ink and gum, etc.
Demy 8vo (23cm). 246pp. Plates. Illustrations. Diagrams. Original cloth; endpapers a little tanned; edges spotted, but otherwise a very good, bright and sound copy in a price-clipped but very lightly used dust-jacket.

SOLD

London : Sampson Low, Marston & Co., [1934]. First edition : limited to 1,000 copies – this copy not n umbered. An alphabetical listing of subjects and their significance, from the abacus and air castles to wrestling and writing, together with both Chinese and Japanese chronological tables, listings of Chinese, Buddhist and Japanese subjects and people, a glossary, etc.
Crown 4to (26cm). (xiv),(726)pp. Original yellow cloth, lettered in gilt; just a touch bruised, but a very good copy of an attractive production.

SOLD

London : Hutchinson, (2001). First edition. Signed by Sebastian Faulks on the title-page. The ending of the Eisenhower years, the Kennedy campaign, Washington 1959 – a novel to the jazz rhythms of Miles Davis and John Coltrane. “Both tense and affecting ... At the end one releases the breath one has unconsciously been holding ... a modern epic” (Anita Brookner).
Medium 8vo (25cm). [vi],(342),[iv]pp. Original green boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; just a hint of bruising, but otherwise very good in the Robert Harding dust-jacket – the jacket with some minimal bruising, but also very good.

£40

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London : Gaywood Press, [1950]. First edition. Finn was a prize-winning short story writer before being tempted by the pulp publishers Gaywood to produce some sex-and-space science fiction potboilers for their new series. The present tale sees the world decimated by the “Sickness”, a mutant new race of supermen, etc., and (perhaps against the odds) is a thoroughly competent example of the British sci-fi of the period. Finn is also remembered for his football books and his childhood autobiography “Grief Forgotten : The Tale of an East End Jewish Boyhood”.
Crown 8vo (18cm). 123,[v]pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers in a lurid design by Leroi; a little worn and creased, with some slight nicking to spine, but a good copy of a scarce and fragile production. Stamp of Goodwins Librarie’s [sic] Exchange of Lincoln on half-title. Just two copies located in major UK libraries.

£50

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London : Hamilton & Co. (Stafford), [1946]. First edition. One of just two known issues of this short-lived science fiction magazine – three stories – Firth’s “The Lords of Zorm” and “Laughter of the Gods”, the latter written under his “Earl Ellison” pseudonym, and “The Timeless Dimension” by “Rice Ackman”, almost certainly another Firth pseudonym.
Crown 4to (25cm). (48)pp. Frontispiece. Original pictorial stapled wrappers – an extraordinary design by H. W. Perl; somewhat rubbed, worn and creased, with a couple of minor repairs to spine; staples rusted; title-page a touch dusty; text lightly tanned, with a few tiny nicks, but a reasonable copy of a scarce and fragile publication. Just two copies (Bodleian and Liverpool) located in major UK libraries.

£40

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London : Hamilton & Co. (Stafford), [1948?]. First edition. A charming tale which opens in Petticoat Lane on a Sunday morning and the prettiest girl in the market is serving jellied eels. Firth here using the name of his daughter, Sheila Ann Firth (1945-2018), as one of his many pseudonyms. Also includes an additional story – “Her Next-Door Rival”, by Eve Calvert.
Crown 8vo (18cm). 32pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers – a design by “Brab” – Oliver Gilmore Brabbins (1912-1973); a little marked and worn; staples rusted and paper damaged; a reasonable copy of a scarce item. No copy located in any major library worldwide.

£20

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London : Phoenix Press, (1940). [Second edition]. Young Robbo Millingford is troubled – “the call of the Flesh was sounding loudly in his ears, and he only hoped that when he answered it, the response would not be inspired by Folly”. First published by Modern Fiction in 1929.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 159,[i]pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers; slightly chipped at foot; a few nicks, creases and a couple of short tears; a few internal spots and creases, but a good copy of an uncommon title. No copy of this edition (and only one copy of the earlier edition) located in major libraries worldwide.

£40

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New York : Atlantic Monthly Press, (1990). First edition. Signed by Richard Ford on the title-page. His highly acclaimed fourth novel – on the edge of the Great Plains and “coming out into the world as it is and not as we had hoped, but as it resolutely is”.
Crown 4to (24cm). [x],(178),[ii],[2]pp. Original grey cloth, lettered in metallic pink; top edge very slightly spotted, but otherwise a very good copy in the Marc Cohen dust-jacket – fresh, bright and unflawed.

SOLD

London : The Harvill Press, (1997). First British edition. Signed and dated (4th September 1997) by Richard Ford on the title-page. Three stories of men and women at the essential moments of truth – “One of the glories of modern American writing” (Jonathan Raban).
Crown 8vo (20cm). [x],(256),[vi]pp. Original black boards, ruled, blocked and lettered in gilt; a very good copy in the dust-jacket, also very good.

£40

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London : Macmillan & Co., 1940. First edition. “This pamphlet is propaganda. I believe that if the Nazis won they would destroy our civilisation ...”. In the Macmillan War Pamphlets series.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 32pp. Original orange stapled wrappers, printed in blue; staples very lightly rusted; lower wrapper very faintly creased, but otherwise a very good copy. Kirkpatrick A23.

£20

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London : for the Bibliographical Society, 1949. A reprint of the original 1945 edition. A collection of essays, including F. S. Ferguson, on English Books before 1640; F. C. Francis, The Bibliographical Society; a Sketch of the First Fifty Years; E. P. Goldschmidt, The Study of Early Bookbinding; W. W. Greg, Bibliography – A Retrospect; W. A. Jackson, America; Michael Sadleir, The Development During the Last Fifty Years of Bibliographical Study of Books of the Nineteenth Century; Victor Scholderer, Early Printed Books; Harold Williams, The Eighteenth Century; F. P. Wilson: Shakespeare and the ‘New Bibliography’, etc. With a list of the Society's publications, 1892-1942.
Demy 4to (29cm). (viii),(216)pp. Original holland-backed boards; top edge gilt; a few faint marks; slight rubbing to corners, but a very good copy. From the collection of the late B. C. Bloomfield, former President of the Bibliographical Society.

£30

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Amherst : Friends of the Amherst College Library, 1991. First edition : one of 3,000 copies. An autobiographical essay originally compiled for John Gallishaw in the early 1920s. With an introduction by William H. Pritchard.
Crown 8vo (19cm). (16)pp. Frontispiece portrait. Original pale cream card wrappers; very good indeed in the pale green dust-jacket, lettered on upper panel in black.

£25

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London : Chatto & Windus, 1924. First edition. Sketches of travel through Italy to Messina and Sicily, via Bolzano, Verona, Padua, Bologna, Ravenna, Rimini, Naples, Capri, etc., with mention of Norman Douglas, etc. “A rich tapestry, woven with fine language in a design of poetry, fancy, and fantasy. We enjoy every glowing strand of it” (Clarion, 7th November 1924).
Crown 8vo (19cm). (xvi),(320),[iv]pp. Original black cloth, with white paper label printed in red on spine; very faint spotting of edges, but a very good copy in the original yellow dust-jacket, printed in red – just very slightly marked.

£40

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London : Faber & Faber, (1971). First edition. “Golding at his playful, ironic and mysterious best” The title story set in ancient Egypt, together with “Clonk Clonk” from a primitive matriarchal society, and “Envoy Extraordinary” from Imperial Rome.
Post 8vo (21cm). 178,[ii]pp. Original pale green boards, lettered in gilt; a very good, clean and sound copy in the dust-jacket — the jacket with just a hint of rubbing to tips and with a couple of tiny marks and a nick to the rear panel, but also very good.

£50

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London : Cassell & Co., 1888. First separate edition. Originally published in 1745 as part of “A Collection of Voyages and Travels”, this engaging account of early eighteenth-century London purports to have been written by a Portuguese traveller. In his introduction, Professor Henry Morley (1822-1894) dismisses that notion – “he writes of London altogether like one to the City born”. But Morley is equally persuaded that the account is not by Daniel Defoe, as has been plausibly claimed – “the clearness of detail upon London commerce, may strengthen the general impression that the description comes rather from a shrewd, clear-headed, and successful merchant than from a man of letters”. In Cassell’s “National Library” series.
Demy 16mo (15cm). 192pp. Original decorative cloth, lettered in gilt and black; spine sunned and slightly string-marked, but otherwise a good, clean and sound copy.

SOLD

London : Hogarth Press, 1952. First edition. His final novel. A middle-aged London couple have evenings apart – satisfactory until a younger woman appears. “Mr. Green is a law unto himself – in ideas, treatment and style. His gifts are indisputedly immense ... a remarkable achievement” (Birmingham Weekly Mercury, 25th May 1952).
Crown 8vo (20cm). [iv],(252)pp. Original turquoise cloth, lettered in gilt; small spot on lower edge, but a very good copy in the Lynton Lamb dust-jacket – a little worn and just slightly chipped at extremities.

SOLD

London : Bodley Head, (1971). First edition. An illuminating segment of autobiography, taking Greene’s life past his first encounter with espionage and up to his first genuine success with the publication of “Stamboul Train” in 1932 — complete with the changes in the text made off the cuff from a telephone box to ward off a threatened libel action from J. B. Priestley. “I have tried, however unsuccessfully, to live again the follies and sentimentalities and exaggerations of the distant time, and to feel them, as I felt them then, without irony”.
Post 8vo (21cm). [2],(216),[vi]pp. Original green cloth, lettered in gilt; top edge grey; a very good bright clean and sound copy in the Michael Harvey dust-jacket — the jacket just a touch tanned and with some minuscule wear to the extremities, but also very good.

£50

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London : Bodley Head, (1982). First British edition. Quixote reinvented for a twentieth-century tour of Spain – faith, communism and catholicism. “A powerful late work ... a mixture of entertainment and deep human awareness” (Malcolm Bradbury) – “Graham Greene’s best, most absorbing, adept and effortless novel” (The Spectator).
Post 8vo (21cm). (222),[iv]pp. Original green cloth, lettered in gilt; a very good, clean and bright copy in the Michael Harvey dust-jacket – the jacket just very slightly creased at foot, but otherwise very good indeed.

SOLD

London : Bodley Head, (1970). First edition. A collection of thirteen stories featuring London detectives from the 1891-1914 period – by Clifford Ashdown, Guy Boothby, Ernest Bramah, William le Queux, Arthur Morrison, Baroness Orczy, Max Pemberton, etc. Selected and introduced by Sir Hugh Greene.
Demy 8vo (23cm). (352)pp. Original cloth; a touch bowed, but a very good copy in a price-clipped and lightly creased dust-jacket.

£20

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London : Bodley Head, (1973). First edition. A collection of thirteen stories from before the Great War – crime in the shires – by M. McD. Bodkin, Ernest Bramah, Dick Donovan, J. S. Fletcher, Jacques Futrelle, Fergus Hume, Arthur Morrison, Victor L. Whitechurch, etc. Selected and introduced by Sir Hugh Greene.
Demy 8vo (23cm). (318),[ii]pp. Original boards; a few faint edge spots, but a very good copy in a slightly nicked dust-jacket.

£20

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London : Scion Distributors, [1954]. First edition. The half-title has been excised by the publishers and the Scion Distributors imprint pasted over the earlier Scion Ltd. on both title-page and final leaf – presumably a reflection of Scion’s internal wrangles and legal difficulties at that time. Strangely dressed stranger comes calling on a cold and wet February night on the outskirts of London – and sits down with a dictionary. Although the first two Volsted Gridban novels had been written by E. C. Tubb, subsequent Scion titles under this name all seem to have been written by the indefatigable John Russell Fearn.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 126pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers in a design by Ron Turner; light wear; some creasing; lower wrapper a little marked; a few minor marks, but otherwise a very good copy. Just two copies (Bodleian and Liverpool) located in the major UK libraries.

£25

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London : Modern Fiction (London), [1951]. First edition. “I’m surprised you didn’t join the police force,” she said. I’d squatted on that springy, tubular metal chair she’d indicated. “I was always bottom of my class. But that ain’t low enough for the I.Q. the dicks insist on. And I couldn’t match up to their high standard of dishonesty and corruption”. Rich private eye for kicks Don Danby takes on an insurance case.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 128pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers; some light wear and slight creasing; a few marks to rear wrapper; staples rusted, but generally a very good copy of a scarce title. Just a single copy (British Library) located in major libraries worldwide.

£50

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London : Modern Fiction (London), [1952]. First edition. “If a guy is a private eye, which is the other word for private detective or inquiry agent, he oughta keep his hands off his lady clients, if any. Tonio Folari didn’t do that” – and Maria Speratta is quick to teach him a lesson. “You just can’t leave off, once you start. You go hurrying, thirsty. You lose sleep. You miss your love-date. But you get forgiven when you say: ‘I’ve been reading Crooked Coffins’. Yes, folks – this book does that to you – and everybody”.
Crown 8vo (18cm). 128pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers – a stylish design by Leonard Potts; spine chipped in places; wrappers rubbed, nicked and creased; rear wrapper and final few leaves a little torn, without loss; staples rusted; some light spotting and browning, but a serviceable copy of an uncommon title. An enthusiastic “yes” inscribed on half-title. Just a single copy (British Library) located in major libraries worldwide.

£50

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London : Modern Fiction (London), [1952]. First edition. “They say that the Devil was in cahoots with Uncle Sam at the time when Pittsburg got built. I’d not know, but I’m not denying that the gory, upleaping flames of the great blast furnaces, and writhing, unearthly-yellow glows of the steel ovens look mighty like it”. Well-off private eye Don Danby has a body fall on him soon after he arrives.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 128pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers in a striking design of green-eyed redhead above a shoot-out; spine a little chipped; wrappers rubbed and a little creased; but a good and serviceable copy of an uncommon title. Just a single copy (British Library) located in major libraries worldwide.

£40

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London : Modern Fiction (London), [1952]. First edition. Man hits an abandoned parked car on his way to Chicago – it’s riddled with bullets and a dead blonde falls out. Then a spray gun is planted in his car.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 110,[ii]pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers – a typical Leonard Potts design; slightly chipped; wrappers a little worn and frayed; a few minor internal flaws, but a good and serviceable copy. Just a single copy (British Library) located in major libraries worldwide.

£40

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London : Modern Fiction (London), [1953]. First edition. Con-men, pimps, gamblers, gun-men and their women gather in a bar in San Francisco and talk of an escape from Alcatraz. The “Griff” house-name was used by at least half a dozen authors, but the present title is attributed to William Simpson Newton.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 126,[ii]pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers – a design by Leonard Potts – redhead, fat man, man in a hat starts shooting; some minor wear; front wrapper creased; with some slight creasing elsewhere; text a little tanned in places, but otherwise a nice copy. Just a single copy (British Library) located in major libraries worldwide.

£50

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London : Tinsley Brothers, 1867. First edition. A collection of stories, poems and occasional pieces by the gifted members of the Savage Club, assembled to afford some charitable relief to the young widow of one of their former members. Contributors include E. L. Blanchard, Andrew Halliday himself, W. S. Gilbert, Tom Hood, Arthur Locker, J. R. Planché, Clement W. Scott, Arthur Sketchley with one of his Mrs Brown stories, G. L. M. Strauss, Walter Thornbury, Artemus Ward, etc. With illustrations by a string of well-known artists, including Frederick Barnard, George Cruikshank, Gustave Doré, George Du Maurier, W. S. Gilbert, Ernest Griset, Arthur Boyd Houghton, Harrison Weir, etc. – engraved apparently free of charge by some of the best engravers in London.
Post 8vo (21cm). (344)pp. Plates. Illustrations. Head and tailpieces. Music, etc. Original red decorative cloth, heavily worked in gilt and blind, over bevelled boards; all edges gilt; spine a little worn and dulled, some marks to boards; slight spotting of prelims; a little shaken and slack; one leaf a little loose, but a good copy of an attractive and interesting production. Small ownership stamp of J. W. Clark.

£40

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London : Tinsley Brothers, 1869. First edition. Stories, poems and occasional pieces by the gifted members of the Savage Club, assembled to finance their charitable work. Contributors include Dion Boucicault, George Manville Fenn, George Grossmith, Andrew Halliday himself, Arthur Locker, John Oxenford, J. R. Planché, George Augustus Sala, Walter Thornbury, etc. With illustrations by Frederick Barnard, George Cruikshank, Gustave Doré, Gordon Thompson, Harrison Weir and many others, all engraved by the Dalziel Brothers.
Crown 8vo (20cm). 352pp. Additional decorative title (dated 1868). Plates and decorations. Music, etc. Original red cloth decorated in gilt and blind; spine a touch darkened and slightly nicked at head; some minor wear and a few slight marks, but a good and sound copy. With the contemporary armorial bookplate of Holroyd Chaplin (1840-1917), a well-to-do solicitor educated at Tonbridge School and London University.

£40

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Cheadle : Carcanet Press, (1973). First edition. Signed by Michael Hamburger on the title-page. A collection of over 100 poems.
Demy 8vo (23cm). 160pp. Original red cloth, blocked and lettered in gilt; top edge red; very good indeed in the original pale grey, red and white dust-jacket – faintly marked and price-clipped, but otherwise very good.

SOLD

New York : Lawrence E. Spivak, (1947). First edition. A collection of six short stories (including four featuring the Continental Op) previously unpublished in book form, edited and introduced by Ellery Queen. Jonathan Press Mystery J29.
Foolscap 4to (20cm). 127,[i]pp. Original pictorial wrappers – a design by George Salter in green, red, yellow, etc.; very slightly rubbed; faint crease to upper wrapper; text just a little tanned, but a very good copy of a fragile production. Stoddard 16.

£50

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Stoke-on-Trent : City Museum & Art Gallery, (1990). First edition. A detailed and invaluable reference guide incorporating the available facts relating to over 600 master potters and over 300 earthenware and china businesses which flourished in the southernmost and busiest of the six towns of the Potteries – businesses, principals, works, products and reference notes. Volume 14 in the Stoke “Ceramic History” series.
Pott folio (30cm). viii,236pp. Maps. Illustrations. Original pictorial wrappers; a very good copy.

£30

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London : Scion, (1951). First edition. The crash of a spaceship on a Pacific island releases monster Zimmos – “the entire novel is a disaster” (Harbottle & Holland A223). The same characters appear in “Interstellar Espionage” by “Astron del Martia” (presumably the same author) published by Gaywood the following year
Crown 8vo (19cm). 112pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers – an iconic design by Ron Turner; chipped at head and tail; wrappers rubbed, chipped and a little creased; substantial chip to foot of front wrapper; rear wrapper a little marked; staples rusting; text a little tanned, with some spotting and creasing in places; old inked price on title-page, but a serviceable copy of a cult classic.

£40

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London : Cecil Palmer, (1924). First edition. Illustrated essays on various London topics – Doggett’s Coat and Badge; Door-Knockers; Statues; Keystones; Water-Gates; Ely Place and Hatton Garden; Belgravia; the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street; the City Liberties; the City Wards, etc. A sequel to the author’s “Queer Things about London. Strange Nooks and Corners” (1923).
Crown 8vo (20cm). (xvi),256pp. Illustrations by the author. Original pictorial cloth; spine lightly sunned; a few faint marks and edge-spots; endpapers lightly tanned, but a good and sound copy.

£20

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London : J. M. Dent & Sons, (1933). First edition. Written to mark the centenary of Britain’s decision to abolish slavery – a history and an examination of systems of slavery and semi-slavery post 1833, focussing on the aftermath of slavery and the continued existence of over five million slaves at the time of writing. With much on Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Dr. Lushington, Lord John Russell and William Wilberforce, and on slavery in South Africa, China, the Congo, the French Colonies, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Mauritius, the Portuguese Colonies, Sierra Leone and Zanzibar. A copy with an interesting provenance, presented by the Secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society in 1956 to the late Barry Cambray Bloomfield (1931-2002) for his work in cataloguing the Society’s library.
Crown 8vo (19cm). xvi,(288)pp. Two portraits (Buxton and Wilberforce). Original green cloth, lettered in gilt; top edge green; a little sunned; a few slight spots, but a good and sound copy in the dust-jacket – the jacket a little tanned, a touch dusty, with a single small chip at head, but otherwise in good order.

SOLD

London : Hamish Hamilton, (1957). First edition. A fragile widow, an ex-army chauffeur, love, obsession, and repudiation. “On his day there is no more subtle novelist writing than L. P. Hartley, and few as satisfying. In The Hireling he is very much on his day ... a triumph of the novelist’s art” (Daily News, 10th July 1957). Memorably filmed in 1973, with Robert Shaw, Sarah Miles, etc.
Crown 8vo (20cm). [iv],(248),[iv]pp. Original green boards, blocked and lettered in silver; just a hint of bruising, but a very good copy in the Patricia Davey dust-jacket – just faintly tanned, with a couple of slight marks, but also very good.

£50

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London : Oxford University Press, 1960. First edition. “Wood-engraving is a laborious way to illustrate books. Joan Hassall may need a week, or even longer, to engrave a single illustration”. An attractively produced sequence of nearly 200 of her engravings, thoughtfully introduced by Ruari McLean (1917-2006), with a bibliography of books illustrated to 1958.
Foolscap 4to (20cm). (120)pp. Illustrated throughout. Original cloth gilt; mild tanning and spotting of endpapers and edges; a few faint internal spots, and a few pencil ticks, but otherwise a very good copy in the dust-jacket – the jacket good, if a touch tanned, lightly worn and slightly nicked, with some spotting.

SOLD

London : Fact, (1938). First edition. Hemingway with eye-witness reportage of the Spanish Civil War – the saving of Madrid; the Aragon Front; Teruel; Franco advancing; final despatches. Published as No. 16 in the “Fact Monograph a Month” series. There would appear to be no equivalent American edition.
Crown 8vo (19cm). (3)-97,[i]pp. Maps. Original wrappers – a design in orange, black and white; a few very minor signs of age and use, but a very good, sound and clean copy.

SOLD

Leiden & Boston : Brill, (2018). First edition. The first attempt fully to analyse the books and other printed materials entered for publication in the Stationers’ Register to 1640, but which no longer survive. The author’s estimate of the sheer extent of loss – perhaps 20,000 pieces of printing in all – books, ballads, news-books, broadsides, religious tracts, almanacs, plays, verse, music, etc., are dealt with in turn – perhaps skews our entire understanding of the period. With an extensive and useful bibliography. In the “Library of the Written Word” series.
Medium 8vo (25cm). [xii],224,[viii]pp. Figures and graphs, some coloured. Original yellow cloth, lettered in blue; a very good copy indeed in the dust-jacket – the jacket equally very good.

£40

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London : André Deutsch, (1978). First edition. A fine collection, including the Lachrimae sonnet sequence.
Demy 8vo (23cm). 48pp. Original green boards, lettered in gilt; a touch bruised; slight spine crease, but a very good copy in the dust-jacket – also very good.

£40

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London : Sinclair-Stevenson, (1991). First edition. Signed by Susan Hill on the title-page. “Thomas Cavendish, a distinguished cleric and don in his mid-fifties, lives with his spinster sister and collection of exotic birds. His life is celibate and irreproachable. He is the obvious man to be offered the mastership of this [Cambridge] college. But, walking by the river, Thomas sees a young girl in white standing on the bridge” – “As light as a feather but as powerful as flight” (The Observer).
Demy 8vo (23cm). [viii],(276),[iv]pp. Original blue boards, blocked and lettered in cream; a very good copy in the Robert Mason dust-jacket, also very good.

£25

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[London] : British Gas, (1991). First edition. A well-illustrated survey of the work of Eric Fraser (1902-1983), designed to accompany the 1991-1993 touring exhibition. Loosely inserted are the flyer for the exhibition, with additional information, and a related press-cutting.
Foolscap 4to (21cm). 36pp. Illustrations throughout, many in colour. Original pictorial wrappers – a Fraser design printed in maroon and grey on white; very good.

SOLD

London : Gordon Fraser, 1981. First edition. A richly illustrated study of the painter, illustrator and draughtsman Arthur Boyd Houghton (1836-1875), with notes on his work in public collections, a list of his work in books and magazines, etc.
Oblong demy 4to (24 x 26cm). (144)pp. Illustrations throughout. Original cloth-backed patterned boards; very faint spotting of top edge, but a very good copy in a slightly sunned dust-jacket.

£20

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London : Jonathan Cape, (1971). First British edition. “A cross between Hans Christian Andersen and Franz Kafka” — twenty of the famous New York underground performer’s miniature stories and fables, including “The Zebra Storyteller”, “The Santa Claus Murderer”, “Bullfinch and Goblin”, “The Hidden Ballroom at Versailles”, etc.
Demy 8vo (23cm). [vi],(88),[ii]pp. Original quarter tan cloth, marbled boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; a touch bumped at foot; mild spotting of edges; very faint crease to opening leaves, but a good copy in the splendid Bill Botten dust-jacket — the jacket likewise a little bumped, with a few small indentations and a crease to the front flap, but complete and with only very minor wear.

£40

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London : Hurst & Blackett, 1857. First edition. His first book – a collection of whimsical essays, poems, stories, etc., from the younger Tom Hood – enlivened with his own illustrations.
Post 8vo (21cm). viii,(338) + (24),16pp advertisements. Illustrations. Original blue decorative cloth gilt, by Leighton, Son & Hodge, with their ticket; very slightly rubbed, slight spotting of edges, but a very good and bright copy.

£40

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London : Duckworth & Co., 1902. First edition : the cloth issue. Two short stories and two novellas, all set in South America. “They are, really, studies in anthropology ... descriptive cameos – there is no word wanting, there is no word wasted – he gives us precisely the true impression as none but a master of the craft could give it” (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 30th April 1902).
Crown 8vo (19cm). [viii],182,[ii]pp. Original green cloth, ruled, blocked and lettered in black in Duckworth’s Greenback Library format; just a touch of rubbing; a little spotting of endpapers and edges, but a very good and bright copy. With the contemporary bookplate of Robert Washington Oates (1874-1958), creator of the Gilbert White Museum at Selborne, etc. A small contemporary press portrait of Hudson has been attached to the front free endpaper. Payne 21b.

£50

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London : J. M. Dent & Sons, 1920. First edition : in the primary binding of green cloth. Two Hudson stories, handsomely printed on laid paper. “We knew Mr. Hudson could make beautiful things, but even he has not made anything more beautiful than this story, unless it may be the second story ... They are like a finer lyric” (Review in the Manchester Guardian). “A little crock of gold ... A masterpiece” (The Nation).
Crown 8vo (20cm). [xii],(206),[x]pp. Frontispiece and illustration. Original green cloth, ruled and blocked in blind on upper cover, blocked and lettered across spine in gilt; a very good, fresh and clean copy. Armorial bookplate of Sir John Gilmour of Lundin and Montrave (1876-1940), war hero, politician, and Home Secretary in the 1930s. Payne A39a.

SOLD

London : J. M. Dent & Sons, 1922. First edition. The great naturalist’s final thoughts – on deer, on ears, the wind, ways back to nature, smell, noses, sense of direction, migration, sound, music, art and the unanswered questions.
Demy 8vo (22cm). (xvi),(336)pp. Original green cloth, ruled, blocked and lettered in black and gilt; spine lettering a touch dull; slight spotting of edges and prelims, but otherwise a good and sound copy. Payne A43a.

£25

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London : Faber & Faber, (1977). First edition : with the misprint “soelmn” for “solemn” on p.75. “An Anglican clergyman is abducted by spirits into the other world” – a narrative poem which began as a film scenario.
Demy 8vo (23cm). 200pp. Original black cloth, lettered in orange and gilt; an excellent copy in the Leonard Baskin dust-jacket – price-clipped but otherwise fine.

£50

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London : Faber & Faber, (1986). First edition. A collection of seventeen poems, with striking full-colour illustrations by Leonard Baskin. Includes “Cyclamens in a Bowl”, “Sketch of a Goddess”, “Sunstruck Foxglove”, “Big Poppy”, etc.
Demy 8vo (22cm). (64)pp – including integral endpapers. Coloured illustrations. Original blue boards, ruled and lettered in gilt; a very good copy in a the dust-jacket – the jacket just faintly sunned, but also very good.

£40

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London : Hamilton & Co. (Stafford), [1946]. First edition. Tim Regan’s wife abandons him on the same day that the police are tipped off about his planned bank robbery – five years on he emerges from prison. A rather more literate text than the usual Hamilton fare.
Crown 8vo (18cm). 62,[ii]pp (the final advertisement leaf soliciting manuscripts for pulp publishers Grant Hughes). Original pictorial stapled wrappers – a design by H. W. Perl; spine chipped and frayed; rear cover and edges smoke blackened, with some light associated internal marking; staples rusted; text lightly tanned; a serviceable copy of an uncommon title. Just two copies (Bodleian & Cambridge) located in major libraries worldwide.

£25

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London : Muse Arts, [1946]. First edition. “Soho lost a few teeth in the Blitz and her cheeks are a little sunken but she still speaks with the same authentic accent” – a vibrant portrait of 1940s Soho by a popular journalist – the whirligig of restaurants, clubs and joints, wide boys, spivs, dippers, steamers, and so much else. “There really are two Wardour Streets; one smokes cigars and the other Woodbines”.
Demy 8vo (23cm). 134,[xvi]pp. Double-page maps. Advertisements. Original red cloth, lettered in black; rationed post-war paper a little wrinkled and spotted in places, but a good copy in the James Fitton dust-jacket – the jacket a little worn and slightly creased, with a couple of tiny nick and chips, but rather better than usual.

SOLD

Glasgow : McKenzie Vincent & Co., [ca.1950]. First edition. Murder on the outskirts of St Albans – Scotland Yard is called in.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 96pp. Plan. Original pictorial stapled wrappers; a few slight creases; staples much rusted with attendant discolouration; small sticker removed from rear wrapper; a good copy of an uncommon production. Just a single copy (National Library of Scotland) located in major libraries worldwide.

£20

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London : Faber & Faber, (1977). First edition. A young girl found murdered in East Anglia, but then a second death at the forensic laboratory investigating the case – Commander Dalgleish is called in. “One of the most unusual and puzzling cases of his career”.
Post 8vo (21cm). [vi],(266)pp. Original red boards, ruled and lettered in gilt; a few slight marks; small erasure from foot of title-page, but otherwise a very good copy in the Terry Trott dust-jacket – the jacket very good, clean and unworn.

£50

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London : Faber & Faber, (2001). First edition. Signed by P. D. James on the title-page. Death at an Anglican theological college on a bleak East Anglian coast – Commander Dalgleish looks into it.
Medium 8vo (25cm). [x],(388),[ii]pp. Original brown boards, lettered in cream; a hint of bruising; very faint spine crease; a few edge spots, but otherwise a very good copy in the Pentagram dust-jacket – the jacket very good indeed.

SOLD

London : S. D. Frances, [1950]. First edition. Interesting not least for a fascinating tongue-in-cheek passage at the end of the first chapter where a forward young woman lectures Hank on spanking, perversion, frustration and sublimation.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 128pp. Original pictorial wrappers – a design by Reginald Heade – willowy redhead at her dressing-table looks over her shoulder at a hatted man caught in her hand-mirror; minor wear at tips; staples a little rusted; tiny crease to title-page, but a very good copy. Just a single copy (British Library) located in major libraries worldwide.

£50

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London : S. D. Frances, [1950]. First edition. A nicely observed murder tale that commences with a failed playwright turned theatre-critic – and a party at the house of the successful playwright who has undermined him. The book rattled up thirty-two destruction orders from local magistrates. Later republished under the Roberts & Vinter imprint as “Sentence for Sin” in 1960.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 125,[iii]pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers; a saucy blonde wench in lilac lifts her skirts – a design by Reginald Heade; some very minor creasing and edge-wear; more pronounced diagonal crease to lower wrapper; a few slight spots, but a very good copy – the staples clean and without rust. Stamps of Jones the Bookseller of Clitheroe Market on lower wrapper and verso of title-page. Just a single copy (British Library) located in major libraries worldwide.

£50

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London : New Fiction Press, [1952]. First edition. The first book in the fourth Janson series – Sheila Lang comes back into his life. The subject of twenty-two destruction orders from local magistrates (Holland p.323).
Crown 8vo (18cm). 126,[ii]pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers – a full-lipped Reginald Heade brunette with a candle; some minor rubbing; slight creasing to spine; faint discolouration to rear wrapper; a few slight spots, but a very good copy. Just a single copy (British Library) located in major libraries worldwide.

£50

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London : Top Fiction, [1953]. First edition : in the variant wrapper with the coloured advertisement for the forthcoming “Nyloned Avenger” on the rear panel. The last book of the fourth series and the first under the Top Fiction imprint – with a theme of a high-class call-girl racket being used to ensnare public officials, the book opens with an unusual corruption trial at which no defence is offered. Top Fiction Ltd. was a new company hurriedly formed by Reg Carter after police raids and seizures at the premises of the Janson publishers, printers and distributors in September 1953 (Holland pp.135-136). Later republished under the Roberts & Vinter imprint as “Secret Session” in 1960.
Crown 8vo (18cm). 142,[ii]pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers – a design by Reginald Heade of a brunette in green with pink champagne and a long cigarette holder; slightly rubbed, worn and a little scuffed and chipped; tiny bruise to fore-edge of opening leaves, but a good copy. Just a single copy (British Library) located in major libraries worldwide.

£50

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London : New Fiction Press, [1953]. First edition : the variant with the silhouette advertisement on the lower wrapper, listing fifty-five Janson titles, four still in preparation, and the Anne Shelton “Hank Janson Blues” adverts on both inner wrappers. The final book in Janson’s Persian trilogy – “Mada herself will face the anger and punishment of her just but merciless father”. Evidence adduced at Janson’s trial suggests that the book may have been written in part by Geoffrey Pardoe (1890-1953). The book concludes with a 6pp “Personal Letter” from Janson to his readers on the subject of science fiction and his forthcoming book, “The Unseen Assassin”.
Crown 8vo (18cm). 142,[ii]pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers – a Reginald Heade design of an exotic and bejewelled brunette from the harem; wrappers lightly worn and slightly creased, but overall a very good and sound copy. Just three copies (Bodleian, British Library, and Trinity College, Dublin) traced in major libraries worldwide. Williams & Holland Specials C.

£50

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London : T. V. Boardman & Co., (1949). First British edition : precedes the Boardman hardback of 1950. “One of the best pulp mystery writers ever to walk this misbegotten world” (Robert K. Lewis). Originally published in the USA in 1947 – the author’s first book, introducing Peter Chambers, sybarite, who drinks like a camel but holds his liquor like a revenue agent. Later republished as “Martinis and Murder”.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 160pp. Original pictorial wrappers – the artwork by the unmistakeable Denis McLoughlin; a little rubbed and worn; short splits; a serviceable copy. Just three copies of this edition (Bibliothèque Nationale, British Library, and Trinity College Dublin) located in major libraries worldwide. TVB Books 63.

£20

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London : Chatto & Windus, 1968. First edition. His first novel, winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize – set in London and the South of France – “cold indifference ... tugs at them like a dirty wind”.
Post 8vo (21cm). 222,[ii]pp. Original black boards, lettered in gilt; very good in the dust-jacket, also very good.

£25

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London : Hurst & Blackett, (1968). First edition. A broken engagement, a mysterious death in Austria, a row with a reporter, and terror in an Alpine village. Signed by the author, as “Barbara Kaye”, on the title-page and further inscribed on the front free endpaper with love to Elizabeth – this being the crime writer “Elizabeth Ferrars” (pseudonym of Morna MacTaggart) and signed Marie, i.e. “Marie Muir”- another of Barbara Muir’s pseudonyms – one author playfully addressing the other under their assumed names.
Crown 8vo (20cm). (184)pp. Original red boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; a very good, bright, sound and clean copy in the dust-jacket – the jacket a little rubbed and slightly worn at folds, but complete and attractive still.

£40

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Sydney : Cleveland Publishing Co., [1959]. First edition. “‘I always thought he was the toughest man I’d ever seen’, the fat man said. He beamed at me. ‘The title now goes to you, Mr. Kent’”. No 570 in the “I Hate Crime” series.
Crown 8vo (20cm). [ii],5-(98)pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers; a little rubbed and creased; text slightly tanned and brittle, with a few corner chips; a good copy of an attractive and uncommon title. Bar a Finnish translation, no copy of this individual title located in major libraries worldwide.

£25

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Dublin : Dolmen Press, 1962. First edition. A collection of twenty-five poems, including “Wedding Morning”, “Cover Her Face”, “Tyrant Dying”, “Mirror in February”, etc. “Kinsella stands with Joyce as one of the great innovators in modern Irish literature” (Gerard Smyth, Irish Times, 22nd December 2021).
Post 8vo (22cm). (64)pp. Original grey cloth, lettered in black; faint spotting to top edge, but a very good copy in the dust-jacket – just lightly used, but also very good.

£25

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London : Sotheby Parke Bernet Publications, (1980). First edition. A handsome listing of over 5,600 works by some 1,600 artists – with biographical notes (many of the minor artists being documented for the first time) and at least one example of each artist’s work illustrated.
Demy 4to (29cm). (xxiv),456pp. Colour plates. Numerous illustrations. Original cloth; some spotting of edges, but otherwise a very good copy in the dust-jacket – the jacket also very good.

£25

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London : J. A. Allen & Co., (1984). First edition. The first full-scale study of the Victorian coaching painter, Charles Cooper Henderson, with notes of paintings in public collections, a list of all the known prints made from his work, etc.
Demy 4to (30cm). 122,[ii]pp. Numerous illustrations, over thirty in colour. Original cloth; a very good copy in the dust-jacket – the jacket also very good.

£20

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New York : Red Circle Magazines, (1943). First edition under this title. The well-known cartoonist with his first murder mystery – comic-book artist accompanies a friend to a weekend party with an odd group of people – a secretary who could not type, a reformed gangster, a teetotal tobacco magnate, a libellous reporter, etc. Originally published by Phoenix Press as “Death Paints a Picture” earlier that same year. Red Circle Crime Novel Selection (CNS) 6.
Post 8vo (20cm). 128pp. Pictorial title-page. Original pictorial stapled wrappers; spine a little worn and lightly sunned, with a slight split; wrappers rubbed and creased; text lightly tanned and a little loose; some minor nicks and creases; a serviceable copy. Just three copies located in major libraries. Contemporary ownership inscription of T. Rogers.

£20

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London : Kaye Publications, [1953]. First edition. “Gaspard Luclaire was in the mood for love. His whole being ached for romance – but not the sordid kind ...”. He finds Nicolette at a village fete in North Africa.
Crown 8vo (18cm). [iv],9-132pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers; a little worn, slightly chipped and somewhat creased, with a few short nicks; some spotting of edges, but a good copy. Pencilled ownership inscription. Just three copies (Bodleian, British Library and Trinity College, Dublin) located in major libraries worldwide.

£50

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London : Kaye Publications, [1954]. First edition. The beautiful Renate dreams of escape from her tawdry life on a tropical island. Lorenzo, a handsome visitor, offers her an opportunity.
Crown 8vo (18cm). [iv],9-132pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers; somewhat worn, chipped, and creased; a few internal marks, chips and spots, but a serviceable copy of an uncommon title. Just two copies (British Library, and Trinity College, Dublin) located in major libraries worldwide. The present example has been furnished with a neatly made and lettered home-produced modesty jacket.

£25

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London : William Heinemann, 1892. “Fifth edition” – i.e. the fifth impression of the original 1892 edition of this best-selling memoir of the “prince of spies” or “the champion spy of the century”. Working for the British authorities, Le Caron infiltrated Fenian groups in the United States to the extent that he became Lieutenant-Colonel and acting Adjutant-General of the Irish Republican Army. In later life he required round-the-clock protection from Scotland Yard after testifying against Parnell.
Demy 8vo (22cm). (viii),(312) + (16)pp advertisements. Portraits. Facsimiles. Original green cloth gilt; a few minor signs of age and use; a touch shaken, but a good copy. Contemporary ownership inscription.

SOLD

London : Hodder & Stoughton, (1980). First edition. The last duel with Karla.
Demy 8vo (23cm). (328)pp. Original blue boards, blocked and lettered on spine in gilt; a very good copy in the original dust-jacket – a photographic design by Stephen Cornwell – the jacket just a touch sunned, lightly rubbed, and with a short tear to the upper panel.

£50

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London : William Heinemann, (2005). First British edition. Signed by Donna Leon on the title-page. Death of an illegal immigrant in Venice – Commissario Guido Brunetti finds there is more to it. “Donna Leon has a wonderful feel for the hidden evils that lie below the facade of the magical city, and Brunetti, sturdy family nan and cynic, is an endearing guide to the machinations of Italian society” (The Times).
Demy 8vo (23cm). [viii],276,[iv]pp. Endpaper maps. Original blue boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; a few very faint signs of use, but a very good copy in the Richard Dunkley dust-jacket – also very good.

£25

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London : Weidenfeld & Nicolson, (2005). First British edition. “Hot cars, gun molls, speakeasies, bank robbers and murder ... set in Oklahoma during the 1930s”.
Medium 8vo (25cm). [vi],312,[ii]pp. Original maroon boards, lettered in silver; a very good copy in the Tim Marrs dust-jacket, also very good.

£20

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London : Weidenfeld & Nicolson, (2009). First British edition. Celebrity bank-robber Jack Foley is out of prison – “a masterpiece of duplicity” (Washington Post).
Medium 8vo (25cm). [vi],262,[iv]pp. Original grey boards, lettered in silver; a very good copy in the Tim Marrs dust-jacket, also very good.

£20

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Stone : Curzon Publishing Co., [1948]. First edition. “A handsome young bachelor comes back to his lonely house at dusk and finds a strange and very lovely girl crooning in his bath. A guest arrives, and the bachelor and his glamorous gatecrasher have to pose as man and wife. Then the fun becomes really lively”. In the “Passion Series”, distributed by Murray & Nichols.
Crown 8vo (18cm). 32pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers; lightly rubbed and very slightly creased; very faint fringe of discolouration to some lower edges, but a good copy of a rare and fragile survival. Just a single copy (British Library) located in major libraries worldwide.

£25

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London : Michael Joseph, (1989). First (British) edition in English of “L’Altrui Mestiere” (1985). Forty-four essays on everything from astronomy to linguistics and zoology, with autobiographical pieces and on the nature of writing. Translated from the Italian by Raymond Rosenthal.
Demy 8vo (23cm). [2],(x),(210),[ii]pp. Original maroon boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; a very good copy in a likewise very good dust-jacket – an infuriating design by Cathy Morley which simulates non-existent tears and repairs.

£20

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London : Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, (1991). First edition. A fine and detailed study of poverty, community and society in the shadow of the gallows in eighteenth-century London.
Medium 8vo (25cm). (xxviii),484pp. Illustrations. Tables. Figures. Maps. Original boards; a very good copy in the dust-jacket.

£25

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London : Quartet Books, (1976). First British edition. The Scottish poet with a torrid tale of a far-right Japanese grouping – with the theft of some antique Japanese swords in London, the British secret services become involved. Rejoiced in by “The Library Journal” as having “too much action in this wild, hilarious, ultimate take-off on the Bond-type novel for one to bother with analysis ... If you can manage to slow down for a second, you may also notice that Macbeth can write”.
Demy 8vo (23cm). [x],242,[iv]pp. Original violet boards, lettered in silver; a very good copy in the Dave Roe pictorial dust-jacket – the jacket flaps lightly tanned, but otherwise also very good.

£20

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London : Literary Press, [ca.1936]. First paperback edition. Macdonald with a London mystery under his Martin Porlock pseudonym. Originally published by Collins in 1932, and soon translated into German and Spanish. “This week I urge on your attention Martin Porlock’s Mystery in Kensington Gore ... Mr. Porlock is simply surging to the front wave of mystery concocters. Speed, surprises and fine sleuthing for your money – he hands you them all!” (Daily Herald, 10th March 1932).
Crown 8vo (18cm). [ii],251,[i],[2]pp – including integral endpapers. Original pictorial wrappers (with flaps); some light rubbing, splitting and wear, but a very good copy of an ephemeral pre-war production. Gift inscription dated Christmas 1940 on title-page. No copy of this edition located in any major library worldwide.

SOLD

London : Jonathan Cape, (1990). First edition. Signed by Ian McEwan on the title-page. “It is 1955 and post-war Berlin is crawling with subterfuge” – a young British technician involved in electronic surveillance encounters a beautiful young German called Maria.
Medium 8vo (25cm). [viii],(232)pp. Original blue boards, blocked and lettered in silver; a very good copy in the Robin Cracknell dust-jacket – the jacket with a faint impression of the author’s signature on the lower panel, but also very good.

£50

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London : Harvill Press, (2003). First British edition. The disappearance of a blameless estate agent in Southern Sweden leads Kurt Wallander to a plot against the newly freed Nelson Mandela. First published as “Den Vita Lenjoninnan” in Stockholm in 1993 and here in the translation by Laurie Thompson first published in the United States in 1998.
Medium 8vo (25cm). [viii],440pp. Maps. Original black boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; a touch bruised; edges very faintly tanned, but a very good copy in the Peter Dyer dust-jacket – the jacket just slightly nicked in a couple of places, but also very good. Waterstone’s sticker on front panel.

£20

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London : William Heinemann, 1907. First edition. A charming and richly illustrated record of summer visits over five years, put together by the gifted water-colour artist Herbert Marshall and his daughter. Boulogne, Amiens, Laôn, Rheims, Soissons, Rouen, Evreux, Lisieux, Bayeux, St. Lô, Coutances, Le Mans, Angers, Tours, Blois, Chartres, Orleans, Bourges, Nevers, Moulins, Limoges, Périgeux, Angoulême, Poitiers, La Rochelle, Bordeaux, Sens, Auxerre, Troyes, Meaux, Senlis, Beauvais, and Paris.
Crown 4to (24cm). x,(282),[ii]pp. Sixty tissue-guarded colour plates by Herbert Marshall. Original yellow cloth, lettered in black and blocked in gilt; some very mild rubbing and wear; some spotting, mainly to prelims and edges, but a good copy of a handsome production.

£40

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London : Faber & Faber, (1983). First British edition. A dedication copy, with the publishers’ compliments slip loosely inserted, and from the collection of Barry and Valerie Bloomfield, the dedicatees. Professor Mendelson had collaborated with Barry Bloomfield on the Auden bibliography. A history and interpretation of the work to 1939.
Foolscap 4to (25cm). (xxiv),(408)pp. Original boards; very good in the dust-jacket – and with some related press-cuttings loosely inserted.

£40

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New York : Farrar, Straus & Giroux, (1999). First edition. A presentation copy, inscribed to “Barry & Val [Bloomfield] – who let this happen” and signed with forename by the author. (Mendelson had earlier collaborated with Barry Bloomfield on Auden’s bibliography). The highly thought-of biography of Auden’s later life.
Crown 4to (24cm). xxii,570pp. Original cloth; a very good copy in a just slightly bruised dust-jacket.

£40

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London : Fortune Press, [1941]. First edition. An early collection of twenty-six poems, including “Poem for Billie Holiday” and poems to fellow poets W. H. Auden, George Barker, G. S. Fraser, etc.
Crown 8vo (20cm). (36)pp. Original red cloth, lettered down spine in gilt; some minor marking and light spotting; a couple of leaves roughly opened; minor insect damage to rear endpaper, but a good copy. Small inscription erased from front free endpaper. D’Arch Smith 392.

£20

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London : Cadenza Press, 1969. First edition : limited to 140 copies. Moore’s first collection of poems since 1950 – twenty-three poems attractively printed (in black and green) by G. A. Beale.
Demy 8vo (22cm). [xii],(28)pp. Original grey wrappers, lettered in black; a touch dusty, but a very good copy.

£25

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London : Modern Fiction (London), [1960]. First edition. “The intimate story of what happened to a young girl who fell for the illusions of security offered by a married man. Her subsequent life as an ‘intimate’ strip-tease girl in Soho, with all its perils, at the mercy of a soulless procurer ... appears at an opportune time, when the whole country is up in arms against the evils of prostitution in our big cities” – i.e. the well-worn formula of salaciousness tarted up as moral outrage. The text is interspersed with advertisements for Modern Fiction’s more usual line of pulp fiction paperbacks by “Ben Sarto”, “Griff”, etc.
Crown 8vo (20cm). (160)pp. Original blue boards, lettered in yellow; endpapers tanned, a few very faint edge-spots, but otherwise a very good copy in the dust-jacket – the jacket with some light rubbing and wear.

SOLD

High Wycombe : Rivendale Press, (2000). First British edition. The turbulent life of Leonard Smithers (1861-1907) – publisher not only to Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley, Ernest Dowson and Arthur Symons, but also to Sir Richard Burton. With appendices on Smithers and the erotic book trade; his rare book catalogues, etc., and a checklist of his publications.
Medium 8vo (24cm). xvi,430,[ii]pp. Portraits. Illustrations. Facsimiles. Original black cloth, blocked and lettered in silver; a couple of faint marks, but a very good copy indeed in an equally very good dust-jacket.

£40

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London : Harvill Secker, (2012). First edition in English of “Gjenferd” (2011). Harry Hole is back in Oslo – but his ghosts are catching up with him. “From the moment he steps off the plane, someone is watching his every move and tracing his every call”. Translated by Don Bartlett.
Medium 8vo (25cm). [vi],452,[vi]pp. Maps. Original grey boards, lettered in black; a few faint signs of use, but a very good copy in the dust-jacket – also very good.

£20

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London : Hodder & Stoughton, (1933). First edition. “The house had once been the home of a rich Austrian banker who had shown the country a clean pair of heels as soon as he felt the first gust of the revolutionary storm blowing across the Rue de la Monnaie. That was early in ’89”
Crown 8vo (19cm). (318),[ii]pp. Pictorial title-page. Original blue cloth lettered in black; some very minor wear to extremities; spine just a touch sunned, but a very good and clean copy.

£50

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London : Gerald Duckworth & Co. / British Broadcasting Corporation, (1985). First edition. The rediscovered texts of George Orwell’s wartime radio broadcasts, transmitted weekly from December 1941 (Pearl Harbor) through to February 1943. Passages originally deleted by the wartime censor have been restored where legible. “The first large-scale unpublished work of Orwell’s to appear since his early death in 1950”. Edited, introduced and extensively annotated by the late W. J. (Bill) West (1942-1999), who discovered the lost original manuscripts.
Medium 8vo (25cm). 248pp. Maps. Original boards; price obliterated from front free endpaper, but a very good copy in the dust-jacket – the jacket just lightly sunned but with negligible wear. Contemporary gift inscription.

£25

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London : Parker Gallery, 1911. First edition : a variant with the Parker Gallery label pasted over the original T. H. Parker imprint. A catalogue of the collection of 287 prints, with extensive descriptive and historical notes, an index of artists and engravers, a general index, etc. – the whole forming an illuminating history of the British navy. With an interesting introduction by the naval historian, Commander Charles Napier Robinson (1849-1936).
Foolscap 4to (22cm). xx,(340)pp. Frontispiece and eighteen plates. Original blue cloth, ruled in blind and lettered in gilt; just a touch rubbed; a few faint marks and some mild occasional spotting, but a bright and sound copy.

£40

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London : Cecil Palmer, (1927). First edition. An anatomist brings thirty years’ experience of physical anthropology to a study of the mental and physical characteristics of early Londoners and their descendants, with perhaps even the evolution of a new head form. With chapters on the Palæolithic and Neolithic; the Beaker Folk; the Coming of the Celt; Caesar and London; London under the Roman; Picts, Scots and Saxons; Saxon London; London and the Danes, etc.
Demy 8vo (23cm). 240pp. Original cloth; some very minor rubbing and a couple of marks, but a very good copy – clean and sound.

£25

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London : Collins, 1951. First edition. A magisterial and copiously illustrated survey of the topographical and social history of the London river-front in the mid-eighteenth century. The area covered runs from Woolwich round to Hampton Court via the City and Westminster.
Royal 4to (32cm). [ii],(228),[ii]pp. Over 250 illustrations, mainly from contemporary sources. Original red buckram, lettered in gilt; top edge red; a little sunned and unevenly faded, but a good, clean and sound copy in worn, chipped, marked and tanned dust-jacket.

£50

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London : Royal Thames Yacht Club, (1978). First edition. A handsomely illustrated history of the Royal Thames Yacht Club, first instituted when the Duke of Cumberland presented a cup in 1775. With much passing reference to the America’s Cup, the Channel Match, the New York Yacht Club, the Royal Yacht Squadron, etc.
Crown 4to (26cm). (192)pp. Colour plates. Numerous illustrations. Original boards; very good in a lightly sunned dust-jacket.

£25

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London : William Heinemann, (1971). First edition. The tenth volume in the series, as the “Dance to the Music of Time” enters its final movement. Austerity in post-war literary London, the eccentric and egotistical X. Trapnel, the rascally Widmerpool, now an M.P., and Pamela Flitton — “probably the vilest, rudest, most odious woman in fiction ... sulky, ill-bred, beautiful”, as Elizabeth Harvey put it in a contemporary review.
Crown 8vo (20cm). [viii],(242),[ii]pp. Original red cloth, blocked in black and lettered in gilt; a touch bruised, with some flecking, mainly to the edges of the cloth; top edge spotted, but a good copy in the Broom Lynne dust-jacket — a design in red, orange, black and white — just a touch darkened at the spine, with some minimal wear and a few spots, but just a single short nick and itself very good.

£50

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London : Victor Gollancz, 1984. First edition. Oliver St. John Latimer, plump economist and spy-catcher, receives a request from the CIA. His rival, David Audley, also becomes involved. “First-class civilised entertainment” (Anthony Lejeune).
Demy 8vo (23cm). (272)pp. Original blue boards, lettered in gilt; just a touch bruised, but a very good copy in just lightly used dust-jacket, but also very good.

£25

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London : Blond & Briggs, (1982). First edition. Raven’s hilarious cricketing reminiscences – cricket at Charterhouse, Cambridge, Bangalore, Kenya, Aden and Corfu – feuds, scandals, intrigues, liaisons, loves, hates, tragedies, comedies, farces – “from the virtuous to the vicious, from the clever and beautiful to the dreamy and debased”.
Demy 8vo (23cm). [viii],(228),[iv]pp. Original blue boards, ruled and lettered in gilt; very good in the Lawrence Toynbee dust-jacket – the jacket a little sunned and with a few spots on flaps, but also very good.

SOLD

Tunbridge Wells : South East Arts, (1991). The second issue of this literary magazine. Features “The Proselyte”, a short story by Simon Raven, followed by a twenty-one page interview with Raven himself. Also includes is Martyn Ford on “The Bibliophiles”; an illuminating twelve-page biographical assessment of the novelist and naturalist Jocelyn Brooke (1908-1966) by David Kennedy, plus new poems from Kennedy (3), Ian Caws (3), Elizabeth James, Matthew Sweeney (6), short stories from John Burnside, Mark Illis, Terry James, Stephen Ormsby, Nicky Singer and Helen Slavin, reviews, etc. Edited by Sean O’Brien and Stephen Plaice.
Post 8vo (20cm). 127,[i]pp. Original wrappers; just a hint of rubbing, but a very good copy.

£20

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London : Phoenix Press, [ca.1940]. [Second edition]. Handsome libertine and remittance man John Galway falls for a South Seas beauty. Originally published by Gramol in about 1930 and here published by Phoenix from their pre-1942 Elephant Road address.
Crown 8vo (19cm). [96]pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers – a design by H. W. Perl; a little worn, soiled, nicked, chipped and creased; a few internal marks and spots, but a good and serviceable copy. No copy of any edition located in any major library worldwide.

£40

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[Leicester] : Beacon Publishing Co., [ca.1948]. First edition. Renin with “the most modern of seductive vampires, who brings mingled glamour, tawdry splendour, and shameful disillusion wherever she goes”.
Crown 8vo (18cm). 112pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers; wrappers creased, with some splits and short tears; staples rusted, but a reasonable copy of a scarce title. No copy located in any major library worldwide.

£25

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[Leicester] : Beacon Publishing Co., [ca.1949]. First edition. “Diana Wilton looked extremely attractive that afternoon sitting on the lounge in the smart sitting-room of her Chelsea flat and smiling across at me through the drifting smoke of her cigarette”. According to his publishers, Paul Rénin “knows women better than they know themselves” – suspicious wife, glamorous widow, famous actress, etc.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 112pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers; some wear to spine; some internal creasing; a reasonable copy of an uncommon title. Exchange stamp of the “Modern Book Stall’s” [sic] of Leicester, Loughborough and Coalville Market, on upper wrapper and final leaf. No copy traced in any major library worldwide.

£40

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London : Phoenix Press, [ca.1950]. [Second edition]. Young Mayfair socialite left penniless. Reported to have originally been published by Modern Fiction in 1948, although no copy of this edition has been traced. Published from Phoenix’s post-1949 Kennington Lane address.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 96pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers; spine chipped at extremities, with the loss of 1.5cm and one letter at foot; a few slight creases; text lightly tanned, but otherwise a good copy of an uncommon title. Just a single copy (British Library) of any edition located in major libraries worldwide.

£30

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London : Phoenix Press, [ca.1950]. First edition. “The girl in the thin kimono panted the words of fury and defiance as she tore her lips away from the man in whose arms she lay writhing ...”. Published from Phoenix’s post-1949 Kennington Lane address.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 96pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers; some minor wear and faint creasing; text lightly tanned; American price over-printed on upper wrapper, but overall a very good copy. Just a single copy (British Library) located in major libraries worldwide.

£50

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London : Grant Richards, 1912. First edition. A most attractive presentation copy, inscribed, signed and dated (January 1912) by Grant Richards to his eldest son, Gerard Franklin Grant Richards (1901-1916). His first novel and our first introduction to the elegantly raffish ‘Amiable Charles’, here heading south to winter in Monte Carlo and beyond.
Crown 8vo (20cm). (378),[ii]pp. Original blue cloth lettered in gilt; lightly sunned; some slight wear to extremities; corners faintly bruised; a few splash marks; a little shaken and slack; mild spotting and tanning to endpapers, but a reasonable copy with a fine provenance. Later ownership initials of G.G.S. and stamp of the Waterperry Horticultural School.

SOLD

London : T. Werner Laurie, [1907]. First edition. A charming pocket companion – author and reader in search of out-of-the-way fragments of antiquity across London – the things we generally miss – “Some of them will be known to you, others will not be familiar, because, being trifling, they are often overlooked”. Delightfully illustrated with the author’s own photographs.
Crown 16mo (13cm). 14,(ccxx)pp. Thirty-three photographs. Publisher’s decorative full roan, blocked and lettered in gilt; top edge gilt; a few faint signs of age and use, but a very good and bright copy. Contemporary (March 1908) gift inscription to Elizabeth Barbara Allix (1871-1945) from her sister.

SOLD

London : Bush Publications, 1948. First edition. “From the torrid atmosphere of Palm Beach, to the warm Atlantic seaboard, she was known as the PLAYGIRL. This strange being was the cause of many tragedies, and broken hearts”. The first novel published by the firm that went on to become Brown, Watson Ltd.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 128pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers; lightly rubbed and a little worn; lower wrapper damp-stained; staples rusted; a few leaves slightly soiled; uneven tanning of text; a reasonable copy of an uncommon title. No copy located in any major library worldwide.

£40

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Stoke-on-Trent : Archer Press, (1949). First edition. Private-eye Shaun O’Malley’s partner gets killed. Enter Elvira, “a girl with a nice figure, a nasty mind, and a husband too fond of the booze” – but Louisa’s pretty smart too.
Crown 8vo (18cm). 126,[ii]pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers – a lively design by John Pollack (1918-1985); American price sticker on upper wrapper; “Printed in England” stamp on title-page; minor wear at tips; slight vertical crease to upper wrapper; small spot to lower wrapper; half-title browned at foot; slight tear to one leaf, not reaching text, but overall a very good copy. Just two copies (Bodleian and British Library) located in major libraries worldwide.

£50

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Stoke-on-Trent : Archer Press, [1950]. First edition. The beautiful Carole comes calling on private-eye Shaun O’Malley.
Crown 8vo (18cm). 128pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers – brunette at the bar by John Pollack (1918-1985); American price sticker on upper wrapper; “Printed in England” stamp on title-page; wear at tips; neatly repaired short tear to spine and upper wrapper; text a little tanned, but a better than average copy. Just two copies (Bodleian and British Library) located in major libraries worldwide.

£50

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London : Walter Edwards (Publishers), 1946. First British edition. The novella on which the classic 1946 Henry Hathaway film noir starring Lucille Ball, Clifton Webb, William Bendix, etc., was based.
Crown 8vo (19cm). (96)pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers – a design by Griff; a little rubbed; short split at foot; upper wrapper very faintly spotted; light crease and some marking to lower wrapper; a few internal spots; a good copy of an uncommon title. Contemporary dated ownership inscription of G. W. Rollings of Larkwhistle Farm, Brimpton Common, Berkshire.

SOLD

London : His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1925. First edition. A general historical introduction followed by an illustrated borough-by-borough inventory of all the known survivals dating from pre-1714. Covers rather more of London than the title might imply – Battersea, Chelsea, Finsbury, Fulham, Hammersmith, Hampstead, Holborn, Islington, Kensington, Lambeth, Paddington, St. Marylebone, St. Pancras, Stoke Newington, Wandsworth and Westminster. With supplementary material on the early heraldry, a glossary, index, etc.
Demy 4to (28cm). xxiv,194pp. 235 plates. Folding coloured map in pocket. Original decorative cloth; a very good copy.

£50

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London : Frank Cass & Co., (1970). A facsimile reprint of the complete run of all ten issues of the influential quarterly originally published between 1917 and 1920. With contributions from Richard Aldington, T. S. Eliot, Ronald Firbank, Stephen Hudson, Ford Madox Hueffer, Aldous Huxley, Wyndham Lewis, Katherine Mansfield, Wilfred Owen, Ezra Pound, Herbert Read, Dorothy M. Richardson, Isaac Rosenberg, Frank Rutter, Siegfried Sassoon, Walter Sickert, Edith Sitwell, Osbert Sitwell, Sacheverell Sitwell, etc. – as well as illustrations by H. Gaudier-Brzeska, Harold Gilman, Charles Ginner, Nina Hamnett, E. McKnight Kauffer, Wyndham Lewis, John Nash, Paul Nash, C. R. W. Nevinson, Lucien Pissarro, Walter Sickert, Edward Wadsworth, and others. Frank Cass Library of English Little Magazines No. 16, edited by B. C. Bloomfield.
Two volumes. Crown 4to (26cm). Irregular pagination. Illustrations, many full-page. Original cloth; slight marking to foot of boards and light fading to fore-edges, but otherwise very good.

£50

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London : Weidenfeld & Nicolson, (1971). First edition in English of “Un Peu de Soleil dans l’Eau Froide”. Troubled Parisian journalist at the point of despair escapes to the country, where he meets a new and extremely respectable married woman. “A sad love story set in Paris and Limoges, told with brevity, compassion and elegance. Sagan misses nothing” (Daily Mirror, 4th November 1971). “It is when love becomes immoderate that tragedy enters”.
Post 8vo (21cm). [vi],184,[ii]pp. Original dark green boards, lettered in gilt; just slightly bruised; a few edge spots, but a very good copy in the Bruce Pinkard dust-jacket — the jacket good with some minor edge-wear, and three short repaired tears and minor creasing on rear panel. A decent copy of a scarce book.

£40

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London : Modern Fiction, [1948]. First edition. “These ‘spivs’, as they are named, have no identity cards, no ration books, no clothing or other coupons of legal acquisition. They are, in a civic sense, outlaws”. Post-war London memorably evoked as swell-looking “Yorkshire Alice”, popular with thieves and con-men, is knifed to death in a Soho alley. Correspondence from 1947 between Fawcett and his publisher, Edwin Turvey, reveals that the original manuscript was mislaid for a time, but that Fawcett was paid £33 for this “very good Sarto indeed” and Perl probably £5 for the cover.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 128pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers – a redhead in blue by H. W. Perl; slightly chipped and somewhat creased, with a few short nicks and tears; failed tape repair to front wrapper; text lightly tanned, but a reasonable copy of an uncommon title. Just a single copy (British Library) traced in major libraries worldwide.

£50

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London : Hart-Davis, MacGibbon, (1973). First edition. Extracts from the long-lost log-books, discovered in Guernsey along with other letters and documents, and giving a new perspective on this celebrated voyage. Edited, introduced, and with commentary by Leo Heaps.
Super royal 8vo (26cm). 264pp. Numerous illustrations; charts; facsimiles, etc., some in colour. Original imitation leather; very good in very lightly tanned dust-jacket.

£25

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London : Camden Publishing Co., [ca.1930]. An undated reissue of typical Camden Publishing fare, apparently first issued in 1916 and perhaps written, or at least edited, by the Australian author William Nicholas Willis (1858-1922). Dora Stuyvesant, quiet daughter of the leader of the American community in Paris, is introduced to society – somewhat in the shadow of her flamboyant older sister Sybil.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 146,[ii]pp. Original pictorial wrappers – an attractive design by “M.M.”; some minor wear and slight creasing; patch of mild discolouration to rear wrapper and final few leaves, but still a very good copy of an uncommon publication. No copy of this reissue located in any major library worldwide – and just a single copy (British Library) of the 1916 edition.

SOLD

London : Tinsley Brothers, 1874. First edition. Genial rambles and excursions in various parts of the British Isles – with chapters on London after Dark, the Alexandra Palace, The Last Man in London, the Royal Academy, Connemara, Co. Clare, Blarney, Killarney, Scarborough, the Isle of Thanet, Hayling Island, Weston-super-Mare, Goodwood, the Isle of Wight, Sark, etc. Scott was the best-known theatre critic of the period. The startling frontispiece of a flying bat-like journalist is by his brother-in-law, George du Maurier (1834-1896).
Demy 8vo (23cm). xii,(356) + [iv]pp advertisements. Frontispiece and extra pictorial title by Du Maurier. Original decorative cloth over bevelled boards; some very slight wear, a few spots, a little shaken, but a very good copy of a scarce book.

£50

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Richmond : Keepsake Press, (1973). First edition : one of just thirty numbered copies in cloth (of 200) – signed by Peter Scupham. A collection of fifteen poems, with four coloured linocuts by Anthea Lawrence. Includes “Demure”, “As If”, “Languages”, etc. Loosely inserted is the compliments slip of Roy Lewis, the publisher of the Keepsake Press books.
Demy 8vo (23cm). [2],(26)pp. Illustrations. Original plain green cloth by John Brindley; just a touch bruised; mild tanning of endpapers; a very good copy in the Anthea Lawrence dust-jacket, printed in green – the jacket lightly tanned, with a couple of nicks and a single short tear, but also very good.

£50

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London : Alexander Moring, [ca.1956]. [Second edition]. “It’s close to sundown, and way ahead lights are winking up along the sprawling sucker-trap that is the Hellfire Strip, wide open merry-go-round of the good-time dolls and the sugar-daddies ...” – a pacy tale set in Las Vegas. Originally published under Reginald Carter’s earlier Comyns imprint in 1953.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 141,[iii]pp. Original pictorial wrappers – a cheery brunette from Leonard Potts; some very minor wear; two diagonal creases to front wrapper, but otherwise a very good copy. No copy of this edition located in any major library worldwide.

£40

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London : William Tegg & Co., 1851. An attractively bound collected edition of Sheridan, with a perceptive biographical and critical introduction by Leigh Hunt (1784-1859). Includes “The Rivals”, “St. Patrick's Day”, “The Duenna”, “A Trip to Scarborough”, “The School for Scandal”, “The Camp”, “The Critic” and “Pizarro”. First published in this form in 1841.
Medium 8vo (223 x 151mm). (xvi),(154)pp. Bound, without half-title and advertisement leaves, in a pleasant contemporary half calf, richly gilt; marbled sides; sprinkled edges; a little rubbed and very slightly worn; mild spotting of binder's blanks, but internally clean and sound. Contemporary ownership inscription of Charles Woodbridge (1830-1924), a well-to-do Uxbridge solicitor.

£50

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London : Golden Galleon Press, [ca.1960]. A handsome map of the Square Mile of the City of London, with many of the principal buildings shown pictorially. Extends from Chancery Lane across to Aldgate East, north to Barbican and south to the river. The plan is flanked by the arms of the twelve great Livery Companies and at the foot is frieze depicting the Lord Mayor’s Show. The suggested date of about 1960 is reinforced by a reference to the Mermaid Theatre at Puddle Dock, which opened in 1959.
Colour gravure on paper. Printed surface 455 x 690mm (approx. 18” x 27-1/4”). Folding into the original paper cover (23cm). Cover very slightly spotted at foot, but the map in very good and clean state. Just a single copy (Bishopsgate Library) located in major libraries worldwide.

SOLD

London : Chapman & Hall, 1909. First edition. A substantial history of St. Paul’s from the earliest times, with additional material on the organists, the library, Paul’s Cross, the memorials, etc., and extensive quotation from the diary of Robert Green, Dean’s Verger from 1852 to 1900, on life in the nineteenth century cathedral. With illustrations by Louis Weirter.
Demy 8vo (23cm). (xxxii),512pp. Plates. Illustrations. Original pictorial cloth gilt; top edge gilt; just a little bruised at corners; some mild tanning of endpapers and mild spotting of edges, but a very good copy.

£40

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London : Collins, 1954. First edition. “Delaney should never have been there at all, out on the Sydney waterfront in the dark. He should have been with Kathy ...” – the third of the Dennis Delaney detective novels.
Crown 8vo (20cm). 192pp. Original maroon boards, lettered in silver; mild tanning of endpapers, but a very good copy in the stylish John Rose dust-jacket – the jacket with a few slight marks, a few short nicks and slight tears, and some spots to rear flap, but complete and close to very good.

£25

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Glasgow : William MacLellan, (1946). First edition. Inscribed, signed and dated (1981) by John Singer. Thirty-one new short stories – by Mulk Raj Anand, Anna Kavan, Hugo Manning, Hugh MacDiarmid, Henry Miller (Murder in the Suburbs), Elizabeth Taylor (Husbands and Wives), Fred Urquhart, John Waller, etc.
Crown 8vo (19cm). (232)pp. Original blue cloth, lettered on spine in gilt; edges lightly spotted; a few faint marks, but a very good copy in the original blue and white dust-jacket – lightly nicked and chipped.

SOLD

London : Bodley Head, (1971). First edition in English. Six novellas and short stories, together with sixteen poems from the winner of 1970 Nobel Prize, “for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature”. Translated by Michael Glenny. “His new collection, with its stoical, plain, inward beauty, movingly reminds us that Solzhenitsyn seems never to have written a line that was not somehow tinged with hope” (Kirkus Review).
Post 8vo (21cm). (242),[ii]pp. Original blue boards, lettered in gilt; a very good copy, fresh, clean and sound in the Michael Harvey dust-jacket — the jacket lightly sunned, with a hint of tanning and three short nicks, but complete and clean.

£25

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London : John Murray, (1966). First edition. “This is the history of the long frontier of the Euphrates through eight centuries of Roman warfare”. A panoramic survey of the power-sapping travails of Rome on the eastern outskirts of empire – the Seleucid kings, the Parthians, the Armenian wars, etc. – and a message of “the uselessness of war across a frontier whose trade was able to benefit both sides”.
Medium 8vo (23cm). (xii),(460)pp. Plates. Double-page map. Folding map at rear. Bibliography, etc. Original canvas, lettered in gilt; just a touch sunned; a few ninor marks and spots, but a very good copy in the dust-jacket – the jacket price-clipped by the publisher with a revised price over-sticker, and with some very minor marking and wear, but also very good.

£40

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London : Scion, [1950]. First edition. Originally titled “Fool’s Paradise” and the second in the Vargo Statten series. The summer of 1980 has been the hottest in history and Ken is working on increasing the capacity of the Channel Tunnel. Addressing a convention in 1952, Fearn claimed this as his best novel (Harbottle & Holland A125).
Crown 8vo (19cm). 128pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers – an unsigned rocket design by Ron Turner; some very minor wear at tips; a hint of bruising; text a little tanned, but a very good copy. Just two copies (Bodleian and Liverpool) located in major UK libraries.

£40

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London : Scion, [1950]. First edition. Anchored between Mars and Jupiter in the year 2150, the royal space cruiser Starwind awaits a royal event. Queen Maylion of Earth is about to give birth to a future king or queen.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 128pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers in a design attributed to Ron Turner; some wear; some creasing; shallow chips to upper wrapper; staples rusted and discoloured; a few small internal flaws, but a reasonable copy. Aside from a microform at the Bodleian, no copy located in any major UK library.

£25

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London : Scion, (1951). First edition. Scott and Nancy Andrews, chief investigators of the interplanetary deeps, pioneers of both Mars and Venus, now in 1980 encounter an inhospitable Mercury – except that it is covered in diamonds. They bring back a small cinder rock, “not knowing that it is a catalyst which will turn water to gold. It is lost in the sewers of London and earth is threatened” (Harbottle & Holland A132).
Crown 8vo (19cm). 112pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers in a design by Ron Turner; spine lightly worn and a little browned; a few faint signs of age and use, but a very good copy. Only the Bodleian copy located in any major UK library.

£30

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London : Scion, (1951). First edition. It is the year 2060 and a massive meteorite hits Pluto head on, threatening the equilibrium of the solar system – Captain Mark Rapier is sent to investigate. “A desperate race against time and human nature ensues as the crew rebels against the iron discipline of the ship’s captain” (Harbottle & Holland A135).
Crown 8vo (19cm). 128pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers in a typical design by Ron Turner; staples a little rusted; a couple of tiny nicks and faint creases, but overall a very good copy. Just two copies (British Library and Liverpool) located in the major UK libraries.

£25

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London : Scion, (1951). First edition. Married couple return from a maiden voyage to Venus to find the Earth stopped in time – “A well-written and fascinating exploration of the ‘frozen time’ theme, usually confined to short stories” (Harbottle & Holland A159).
Crown 8vo (19cm). 112pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers – a design by Ron Turner; minuscule chipping to spine; a few trifling signs of age and use, but a very good copy. Aside from a microform at the Bodleian, no copy located in any major UK library.

£30

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London : Faber & Faber, (1973). A reprint of the original 1971 edition. Signed by Tom Stoppard on the half-title. A surreal farce – “the dialogue operates like a railway junction with a madman switching over the points” (Irving Wardle in The Times). First performed at the Ambiance Lunch-Hour Theatre Club, “with outstanding success” in 1970, with Prunella Scales and Stephen Moore in the leading parts.
Post 8vo (21cm). (48)pp. Original yellow and white wrappers; a few faint marks, but a very good copy of a fragile production. From the collection of Professor Ira Nadel (1943-2021), Stoppard’s biographer.

SOLD

New York : Grove Press, (1979). First American edition. Stoppard in darkest Africa – a despot not unlike Idi Amin, communist-backed revolution, a mine-owner, a couple of contrasting journalists, etc. “Fleet Street gets a well-aimed kick in the pants” began “The Stage” review of the original 1978 London production, with John Thaw, Diana Rigg, etc.
Post 8vo (22cm). x,(114),[iv]pp. Original black cloth-backed boards, lettered in silver; a very good copy indeed – clean, bright and sound – in an equally very good dust-jacket – a design by Peter Morance. From the collection of Professor Ira Nadel (1943-2021), Stoppard’s biographer.

SOLD

Boston & London : Faber & Faber, (1984). First American edition : the wrappers issue. “I can’t write love ... loving and being loved is unliterary”. A revised version of the original 1982 London publication.
Post 8vo (20cm). (82),[vi]pp. Original patterned wrappers; a touch sunned and a little bowed, but otherwise a very good copy. From the collection of Professor Ira Nadel (1943-2021), author of “Double Act : A Life of Tom Stoppard” in 2002, with his pencilled annotation and underlining in places.

SOLD

London : Faber & Faber, (1997) [but 1998]. The second printing of the original 1997 publication, but the first printing of the final text – there is a fresh introductory note dated January 1998 by Stoppard – “This text is slightly altered in places where I have brought it into line with the performance at the Royal National Theatre”. The life of A. E. Housman, with guest appearances from the bibliographer A. W. Pollard, Walter Pater, John Ruskin, Frank Harris, W. T. Stead, Jerome K. Jerome, and Oscar Wilde – “the most emotionally powerful and enthralling play of his career” (Evening Standard).
Post 8vo (20cm). [x],102pp. Original wrappers; just a hint of sunning, but a very good copy. From the collection of Professor Ira Nadel (1943-2021), author of “Double Act : A Life of Tom Stoppard” in 2002, with his inked underlining in places. Loosely inserted is a ticket for the 2002 American Conservatory Theater production, used as a bookmark.

SOLD

London : Faber & Faber, (2006). First hardback edition. Preceded by a paperback sold at the Royal Court during the play’s opening run, but this version has been revised to bring the text into line with the actual performance, and also includes an important introduction by Stoppard, vital to understanding the intentions of the play. With notes and an explanatory timeline.
Post 8vo (21cm). xxii,[4],118pp. Original black boards, lettered in ivory; a very good, clean and bright copy in the dust-jacket – the jacket sunned at spine, but otherwise also very good. From the collection of Professor Ira Nadel (1943-2021), Stoppard’s biographer.

SOLD

New York : Leisure Library, (1952). First American edition. Three women from the Mid West head for the big city (Chicago) in search of husbands – they find the price is steep. “Nightclubs, cars, bedrooms, undressings, confrontations, beatings, shootings, leerings. An America of the mind” (John Fraser). Originally published by Archer in the UK in 1950.
Foolscap 4to (19cm). 128pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers – an iconic design by Reginald Heade; just a touch of rubbing and wear; a few faint marks and creases; text lightly tanned, but a very good copy. Just a single copy of this edition (Bowling Green State) located in major libraries worldwide.

£40

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London : Harborough Publishing Co., [1953]. First edition. Ambulance chasing and insurance fraud with Molly Pykeron and a Cadillac in Miami.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 128pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers – a redhead unmistakeably by Reginald Heade; somewhat worn and creased; rear wrapper a little spotted; staples rusted, but a serviceable copy. Just two copies (Bodleian and British Library) located in major libraries worldwide.

SOLD

Ringwood : Charles Brown & Son, (1925). Second and best edition : a revised, corrected and expanded version of the original 1924 publication. A most attractive guide in dictionary form, compiled and illustrated by the archaeologist and antiquary Heywood Sumner. With a list of Forest terms, a bibliography, etc.
Crown 8vo. (96),[viii]pp. Double-page map and full-page illustrations by the author. Rebound in a neat contemporary binder’s cloth, retaining the decorative upper panel of the original wrappers; faint spine crease; rear endpaper slightly creased; a few slight edge-spots, but a very good copy.

£25

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London : Picador, (1996). First edition : in the earlier (pre-Booker) dust-jacket. Mourning, fellowship and ritual on the road to Margate – winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction as well as the Booker – and turned into the 2001 film with Michael Caine, Bob Hoskins, etc.
Demy 8vo (23cm). [viii],(296)pp. Original black boards, lettered down and across spine in silver; near fine in dust-jacket.

£25

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New York : Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1928. First edition. “You like men to be in love with you but not to trouble you by telling you” – Tarkington’s popular novel of the evolution of a flapper, “slim, lovely, alluring, modern to her painted fingertips ... will thrill younger readers and startle and amuse their fathers and mothers”.
Crown 8vo (20cm). [x],(254),[ii]pp. Original blue cloth, lettered in black on amber labels; top edge yellow; pictorial endpapers; a very good copy in the stylish dust-jacket – the jacket a little rubbed and darkened, with some shallow chips, nicks and very short tears, but complete and attractive still.

SOLD

Hessle : Marvell Press, (1957). First edition. Inscribed, signed and dated (1963) by Anthony Thwaite. His first full-length collection – forty poems, including “The Plausible Bird”, “The Silent Woman”, “The Conjuror”, etc.
Demy 8vo (23cm). (64)pp. Original blue cloth, lettered in gilt; slight spotting of edges, but a very good copy in the original cream dust-jacket, printed in black and blue – the jacket just slightly sunned, but also very good.

SOLD

London : John Murray, 1917. First edition. An engaging and well-researched life of one Lord Mayor of London – the turbulent and magnificent John Wilkes (1725-1797) – by one of his successors in that office. Duels, the “North Briton”, general warrants, habeas corpus, expulsions from the Commons, the Middlesex elections, the mayoralty and all the rest.
Demy 8vo (23cm). xxxvi,(300)pp. Sixteen plates. Original armorial cloth gilt; some minor wear; a touch dulled; some internal browning and spotting, but a good and sound copy. A 1918 gift inscription is signed by the author’s wife.

£25

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London : Bodley Head, (1990). First edition. A collection of a dozen short stories, including “In Love with Ariadne”, “Honeymoon in Tramore”, “Coffee with Oliver”, etc – “the bewildering complexities of the human condition ... devastating insight, elegiac compassion and densely textured economy”.
Demy 8vo (23cm). (252),[iv]pp. Original blue boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; tiny mark on p.122, but otherwise a very good copy in the dust-jacket – a design featuring a landscape by Paul Camille Guigou – very slightly marked at fore-edges but otherwise very good indeed.

£50

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Alton : Clarion Publishing, [1996]. First edition : one of 249 numbered copies (ex 499) in hardback signed by both author and illustrator. A Trevor short story of marriage in youth and marriage in age, with colour illustrations by Paul Hogarth.
Demy 8vo (22cm). (20)pp. Three illustrations, one double-page. Original terracotta boards, lettered and decorated in black. A very good copy of an attractive production.

£50

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London : Colophon Press, 1997. First edition : one of 200 copies (ex 232) finely printed on mould-made paper, and numbered and signed by William Trevor. “The roomful of important men expectantly await the one whom another has already dubbed the party’s ghost ...” – a Trevor short story.
Royal 8vo (26cm). [ii],26,[ii],[2]pp. Original blue stiff wrappers; paper label; a fine copy.

£50

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London : Phoenix Press, [ca.1946]. First edition. As they arrive in Paris, Madge Bradley rather regrets having become travelling companion to the fat, ugly, flashily-dressed, and intolerably rich widow, Mrs Brent. Published by Phoenix from their mid-1940s Deacon Street address.
Crown 8vo (19cm). [96]pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers – redhead, pink heels, wine and cigarettes – a typical design by H. W. Perl – Hyman Woolf Perlzweig (1897-1952); minor wear; some creasing; staples a touch rusted; text lightly tanned, but a very good copy of a very uncommon title. No copy of any edition located in major libraries worldwide.

£75

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London : Modern Fiction, [1949]. First edition. Pretty secretary Claire Norton, orphaned in the war, sexually harassed from her last job, lands a new position with celebrated author “John Mallory” – who turns out to be a Joan Mallory, with a handsome artist nephew. Passport required for a new world of Biarritz, Cauterets, Pau and the Pyrenees.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 64pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers – an H. W. Perl blonde seemingly inspired by Marlene Dietrich; lightly rubbed; tiny chip at foot; 3cm chip to the slightly dusty rear wrapper, with the loss of a few letters; text lightly tanned, with some faint spotting to the outer leaves; but a good copy of an uncommon title. Just a single copy (British Library) traced in major libraries worldwide.

£50

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London : Phoenix Press, [ca.1950]. First edition. “Doris Devereaux tossed her shingled, blonde head defiantly and there was a look of obstinacy in her deep blue eyes. Doris was a remarkably pretty girl” – and she wanted to go on the stage. Her bachelor uncle and guardian, himself not averse to the company of actresses and chorus girls, raises objections. Published from Phoenix’s post-1949 Kennington Lane address.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 96pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers – an unsigned design by H. W. Perl; lightly rubbed and creased, with a couple of tiny chips; staples rusting; text a little tanned, but a good, solid copy of a scarce book. No copy located in any major library worldwide.

£40

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Cleveland : Kaywin Publishers, (1951). First American edition. June and Lorna share a London flat – Lorna shameless and mercenary, her sister quite the reverse – “sinister side-streets of Soho and the garish glamour of London night clubs”. Originally published by Archer in the UK the previous year. Archer Book 52.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 128pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers – Reginald Heade in top form; spine lightly discoloured in a couple of places; minor creasing to upper wrapper; a touch of rust to the staples, but still a very good copy. Just a single copy (Bowling Green) of this edition located in major libraries worldwide.

£40

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London : Hodder & Stoughton, [1926]. First edition : the first issue, listing just twenty-one titles on the verso of the half-title – and in the primary binding, without the crimson circle and signature device. “Harry the Lancer came into Burton Street Station to show his ‘brief,’ for he was out of Dartmoor only that Monday, having served twenty-one months short of seven years ...”.
Crown 8vo. 308,4pp. Original yellow cloth, ruled, lettered and blocked in black; lightly worn and a little dulled and scuffed; edges and endpapers spotted; somewhat shaken; a serviceable copy. Faint contemporary ownership inscription unusually positioned on lower edge.

£25

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London : Eyre Methuen, (1979). Second edition : a slightly revised version of Watson’s interesting 1971 study of the crime story as the mirror of its times and social attitudes.
Demy 8vo (23cm). 256pp. Illustrations. Original mauve boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; very good in the original Norman Mansbridge dust-jacket – a design in cream, red, yellow, black and white, complete with fake dirt – very good and unworn.

£20

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London : Jonathan Cape, (1962). First edition. Square-bashing with the RAF – the class system examined – and the undermining of a rebel. “A drama of striking power, intensity and conviction” (New York Post).
Post 8vo (21cm). [ii],74,[iv]pp. Original holly green boards, blocked and lettered up spine in silver; top edge red; a very good copy in a lightly worn and slightly creased dust-jacket featuring a scene from the original Royal Court Theatre production. Contemporary (1963) ownership inscription of P. M. Turner on front free endpaper.

£25

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London : Neville Spearman, (1954). First British edition. The dismantling of the American Dream and the rise of fascism – a sharp satire originally published in New York in 1934.
Crown 8vo (20cm). (140)pp. Original red boards, blocked and lettered in white; very good in the original dust-jacket, printed in yellow, red and grey – sunned at spine, lightly nicked and slightly holed and creased on rear panel.

SOLD

London : James Macmillan, [ca.1948]. First edition. Nine stories in various settings, London, Russia, India, Constantinople, etc.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 80pp. Original stapled stiff card wrappers; staples rusting; a few spots, but a very good copy in the attached dust-jacket, with a design from the title story – the jacket lightly rubbed and slightly nicked, but also very good. No copy located in any major library worldwide.

£50

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London : Weidenfeld & Nicolson, (1958). First edition. Wildeblood is best-known for his “Against the Law” (1955) – an account of his imprisonment for homosexuality which led more or less directly to the Wolfenden Report and decriminalisation – but he appears here in much lighter vein with an amusing novel of Soho life – gang warfare interferes with one of the area’s staple industries and Cora and the working girls are obliged to found the National Youth Movement for the Prevention of Hooliganism in Soho (NYMPHS for short).
Crown 8vo (20cm). 192pp. Original turquoise boards, lettered in silver; lightly marked; edges and prelims somewhat spotted; “Supplied for the Public Service” crown stamp on lower edge, but a good copy in the Charles King dust-jacket – the jacket lightly worn, slightly nicked, and a little marked and spotted – but complete and striking still.

£40

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London : Hart-Davis, MacGibbon, (1974). First edition. Murder mystery – a young woman dressed as a schoolgirl found dead in a Hampstead garden, the trail leads to an occult bookshop in Red Lion Square – Saltfleet of Scotland Yard investigates.
Demy 8vo (23cm). [vi],(202)pp. Original blue boards, lettered in silver; a very good copy in the dust-jacket – the jacket also very good.

£20

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London : Ward, Lock & Co., (1945). First edition. “As I see it, Major Pleydell, the exact position is this. When you and your cousins inherited White Ladies, the cost of maintaining the place as your father and his brother had maintained it was less than three thousand a year. To-day it is nearly eight thousand – eight thousand pounds”.
Crown 8vo (20cm). 286,[ii]pp. Original pale blue cloth, lettered across spine in black; a very good, clean and sound copy in the original pictorial Campbell dust-jacket – a little sunned, reinforced in places and lightly edge-worn at foot.

£25

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London : William Heinemann, 1892. First edition. “The Old Maids’ Club was founded by Lillie Dulcimer in her sweet seventeenth year. She had always been precocious, and could analyse her own sensations before she could spell. In fact, she divided her time between making sensations and analysing them ...”. Twenty entertaining tales from the annals of the club, including the very funny “Algebra of Love”, “The Man in the Ironed Mask”, “The Old Young Woman and the New”, “The Mysterious Advertiser”, “The Beautiful Ghoul”, etc. – “Two books for the holiday season, to be read lounging in a hammock, or under the shadow of a cliff, are Mr. Zangwill’s ‘Old Maids’ Club’, and Mr. Grossmith’s ‘Diary of a Nobody’. The former is very droll in places ...” (Cheltenham Looker-On, 20th August 1892). “Worth all the inanities of Jerome K. Jerome and all the thin fun of Barry Pain bundled together” (Glasgow Evening Post, 30th June 1892).
Crown 8vo (20cm). viii,326,[ii] + 16pp advertisements dated March 1892. Forty-four amusing illustrations by F. H. Townsend (1869-1920). Original decorative cloth; some minor wear; spine a touch dulled; cloth slightly bubbled; endpapers lightly tanned; a few spots, but a good copy. Contemporary (1892) ownership inscription of C. A. Newman of Cambridge.

£50

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