H. G. WELLS FIRST EDITIONS AT
ASH RARE BOOKS
43 HURON ROAD
LONDON SW17 8RE
UNITED KINGDOM

London : T. Fisher Unwin, 1909. First edition. A young woman rejects surburban conventions for science, socialism, suffragettes and living in sin – and Wells fictionalises his relationship with his mistress Amber Reeves (1887-1981), who gave birth to his daughter later in 1909. Macmillan flatly declined to publish the book and Canon Lambert railed “I would just as soon send a daughter of mine to a house infected with diphtheria or typhoid fever as put that book into her hands”.
Crown 8vo (20cm). 352pp. Original brown cloth, ruled in blind and blocked and lettered in gilt on upper cover, lettered across spine in gilt; very minor wear at head and tail; mild tanning of endpapers; a few slight marks, but a very good copy. With the contemporary bookplate of the mathematician Philip Worsley Wood (1880-1959), designed by P. Boddy and dated 1909.

£75

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London : Thomas Nelson & Sons, (1910). First edition : the first issue with the advertisement for John Masefield’s “Trepanned” – a quirky title subsequently discarded before publication. “What could be more human or more humorous than Mr Polly as haberdasher’s apprentice, haberdasher incendiary, and tramp” (Montrose Standard, 13th May 1910) – “He hated Foxbourne, he hated Foxbourne High Street, he hated his shop and his wife and his neighbours – every blessed neighbour – and with indescribable bitterness he hated himself”. High comedy in the drapery trade – Wells wouldn’t quite concede that this was his best book, but “certainly it is his happiest book, and the one he cares for the most”.
Crown 8vo (20cm). 374,[x]pp. Colour frontispiece. Original cloth; light spotting of edges, but a very good copy with the notoriously frail white enamel title-panel barely showing signs of wear at all; an excellent copy of this fragile and difficult book. Hammond A6.

£200

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London : Hutchinson & Co. (Publishers), [1932]. First edition : in the primary binding in black cloth, with the pictorial endpapers. “I am a liar in a world of lies” – a much under-rated late Wells novel – a Jungian exploration of the psychological impact of the Great War, the principal character based at least in part on Ford Madox Ford. Dedicated to Wells’ current mistress, Odette Keun.
Post 8vo (21cm). 408 + 40pp advertisements dated January 1933. Original black cloth, lettered in gilt; a very good, bright, clean, and sound copy in the original Youngman Carter dust-jacket, lightly sunned at spine but with just minor wear and a few slight nicks and creases.

£100

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London : Secker & Warburg, 1940. First edition. An uncommon late Wells – as a World War develops he advances a grim choice between revolution and destruction – “I mean exactly what I say, the disastrous extinction of mankind”. He proposes a “way to a world realisation of collective unity”, via scientifically planned and directed socialism, the rule of law, and total freedom of speech. “The book is full of things that bite and sting ... He is at any rate thoroughly alive. And towards the end he rejoices ... ‘The world has never been so awake’”(Aberdeen Press, 1st January 1940).
Post 8vo (21cm). (192)pp. Original grey cloth, ruled and lettered in red; top edge red; some marks and spots of discolouration to cloth; mild tanning of endpapers, but a good copy in the seldom seen original dust-jacket by William Kermode (1895-1957) – the jacket with some light repair and restoration to edges. Contemporary (January 1940) ownership inscription of A. L. Weyers.

SOLD