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BARNUM, P.T. Jack in the Jungle. A Tale of Land and Sea being Perilous Adventures Among Wild Men and The Capturing of Wild Beasts showing How Menageries Are Made. New York, G.W. Carleton and Co. 1880. [26898]
First Edition, 8vo. Publisher’s decorated green cloth, titles in gilt to spine with blocked design and title in black to the front, beige endpapers. 8 pages of advertisements to rear of text. Contains 5 black and white illustrations, including frontispiece with tissue guard. Some bumping to extremities with a small lean. Toning to pages, a little dust to top edge, extremely good. £125

BLOCH, Robert. Pleasant Dreams - Nightmares. Sauk City, Wisconsin, Arkham House, 1960. [20610]
FIRST EDITION. 2000 copies printed. 8vo. Publisher’s black cloth, near fine. In dustwrapper, designed by Gary Gore, slightly sunned, very light edge wear, near fine. By the author of Psycho. £100

BOOTHBY, Guy. Doctor Nikola. London, Ward, Lock and Co. n.d. [26073]
Early undated edition, in the same format as the first. 8vo. Near fine in publisher’s fabulous blue cloth binding with gilt tiles to spine and front board and twin onlaid paper labels (the spine label being somewhat chipped to the edges) depicting the fiendish doctor himself accompanied by the ubiquitous black cat (whose name I believe was Appolyon). Created by Boothby as a kind of Anti-Holmes, Nikola was a master of disguise and possessed of phenomenal intelligence. He was also (rather pleasingly) most unwilling to commit murder, sparing Hatteras (his most frequent adversary) on a number of occasions and sending Mrs.Hatteras diamonds and best wishes on the occasion of their marriage. This copy is slightly scuffed to the extremities and bears an ink owner’s name to the pastedown and ffep. Nevertheless shows dramatically well. £60

BOOTHBY, Guy. Dr. Nikola’s Experiment. London, Hodder and Stoughton. 1899 [26921]
First Edition. 8vo. Publisher’s decorated bottle green cloth, titled in gilt and decorated in blue, white and black in typical late Victorian ‘shocker’ mannner; in this case a panicky Oriental chappie being pursued by what appears to be a Music Hall Bolshevik. Some slight wear and rubbing to extremties, notable softening to the head of the spine.Page edges untrimmed, a very elegant copy. Another installment in the career of the enigmatic Dr.Nikola; master mesmerist and breeder of demonic feline henchmen. £85

Nikola The Anti-HeroBOOTHBY, Guy. Farewell Nikola. (Author of Dr. Nikola etc.) London, Ward, Lock & Co. Ltd. 1901. [24396]
FIRST EDITION, 8vo. Publisher’s dark blue cloth. Brilliant colour illustration to the front board depicting the haunting face of Dr. Nikola and his cat, as interpreted by the artist Stanley L.Wood. Owner’s name in ink to the front free endpaper with small W.H. Smith stamp alongside it. 4 pages of advertisements to the rear of the text (paper uncut to the fore-edge side). All edges untrimmed. 8 beautiful illustrations by Harold Piffard, including frontispiece with tissue-guard. Some bumping to the spine and corners with a small area of knocks to the back. Good pages with slight intermittent foxing, mainly to the beginning and end of the text and page edges. An interesting and attractive book, very good. £75
A host of detective masterminds and gentleman adventurers followed in the the footsteps of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. Guy Boothby’s series, one of the more successful, was gritty and atmospheric; Victorian crime with a dark edge.

BRERETON, Captain F.S. The Great Airship. London, Blackie and Son Ltd. 1914 [26897]
First Edition. 8vo. Publisher’s decorated blue cloth embellished with scenes of dirigible shenanigans. Slightly rubbed, nevertheless splendid. Page edges tinted an unusaul and striking shiny bottle green with grey endpapers, internally clean. Illustrated throughout with a largely incomprehensible yet suitably dramatic variety of colour plates. Inspired by the might and fiendish ingenuity of a German Zeppelin glimpsed overhead, our hero Joe is driven to build a superior object and with it to cross vast tracts of aerial space. Obviously one has to chuck in a number of fiendish obstacles and some Kaiserian treachery leading to a quantity of chaps getting a facer (I have no idea but it sounds unpleasant), and a few acts of derring-do to spice it all up. Captain Brereton (apparently self-titled) is later found under the name of Lt.Col Brereton, presumably having promoted himself for services on the field of literature. £100

First Appearance of Buchan’s The Thirty-Nine Steps.BUCHAN, John. Blackwood’s Magazine, Featuring The Thirty Nine Steps. London, William Blackwood and Sons. July-September 1915. [26587]
First issue. 3 Volumes. Large 8vo. Bound in original publisher’s illusttrated tan paper wraps. Some softening to the head and tails of spines, the merest trifle of rubbing to the extremities and the addition of Mr.Buchan’s true name (in ink within brackets) over the pseudonym “H. de V.” on the front wrapper of the first volume are the only matters that could mar what is an otherwise fine set. The first appearance of Buchan’s most famous and popular story, rare enough in book form, hardly ever seen in dustwrapper and virtually unobtainable in the original magazine form. After gaining the public eye in magazine form, Blackwood’s published the first book edition. It clearly struck deep chords with the reading public of a Europe riven by war, because it sold twenty-five thousand copies in less time than it takes to fill a pipe whilst on the run across the Scottish highlands pursued by dastardly agents of a foreign power. Richard Hannay was quite simply, everything that Britons should be and a personification at the time of everything they very much needed to be. Books and men are both fragile however, The Thirty-Nine steps was very much the book of a specific generation, and its rarity is perhaps testament to the fact that it died with them. This particular copy is from the library of Eric Quayle, and is protected by a tailor-made burgundy leather spined clamshell box. Eric Quayle (1921- 2001) was a highly respected and renowned author (and authority) writing on many different aspects of book collecting and bibliography. Amongst other achievements he produced the standard bibliography of the works of R.M.Ballantyne, The Collector’s Book series covering everything from Detective Fiction to Boy’s Stories, in later years he also [produced volumes of little known children’s stories, including a volume of Cornish folktales. Throughout his life he was a great collector of books and ammassed a large number of works, all of which seem to have contained his bookplate and a tiny, pencil notation detailing either where and when it was purchased, or some other important detail Mr. Quayle considered relevant. His collection came up for auction at Bonhams in March and April 2004 and attracted a great deal of interest from collectors and dealers alike, Mr. Quayle may have gone, but the books that he spent his lifetime preserving and describing are still circulating, and will do so for a very long time. £2,500
Blanchard A32, Howard Haycraft/Ellery Queen, Howard Haycraft; Murder For Pleasure. Listed in The Observer’s All-Time 100 Best Novels [2003].

BUCHAN, John. The Blanket of the Dark London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1931 [26857]
FIRST EDITION. 8vo. Publisher’s green cloth in pictorial jacket. Trivial wear, appears unopened. A lovely fine copy. Treacherous historical adventure novel set in the dark days of Tudor England. £275
Blanchard A91

BUCHAN, John. Castle Gay. ( A Dickson McCunn story) London, Hodder & Stoughton. 1930. [26279]
FIRST EDITION, with SIGNED loose letter. 8vo. Publisher’s dark green cloth, some bumping to spine, corners showing the unmistakeable evidence of being found attractive to the rodentine palate which has affected both book cloth and wrapper though not severely to their detriment. Some foxing, to endpapers and edges, a little dusty on the top. Wrapper has some closed tears and creasing to the top edge of the rear panel. Unfaded and only lightly soiled, a respectable copy with a laid in letter in Buchan’s trademark scrawl from Elsfield Manor, written on the 11th of January 1933 and mentioning a young lady, a time and a railway station with some reference to the weather. Undoubtedly a code and almost certainly requiring the immeditae attention of the Gorbals Die-Hards. £495

BUCHAN, John. The Courts of the Morning. A Richard Hannay novel. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1929 [26858]
FIRST EDITION. 8vo. Publisher’s green cloth in pictorial jacket. Some trivial wear to wrapper, moderate egdespotting. A bright and attractive copy. A dramatic series of adventures which take place against the backdrop of a small South American Republic that has fallen under the spell of a ruthless Dictator. The fifth novel to feature Buchan’s most enduring character, the adventurous government agent (Sir) Richard Hannay. In this episode, attention shifts to Sandy Arbuthnot, Hannay’s old ally who previously appeared in the 'The Thirty Nine Steps' and 'Greenmantle'.
£395
Blanchard. See also Haining; Crime Fiction p193-4.

BUCHAN, John. The Free Fishers. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1934 [26860]
FIRST EDITION. 8vo. Publisher’s green cloth in pictorial jacket. A very fine copy; appears unopened. Historical adventure set in bleak Yorkshire; A Minister and Professor of Logic at St Andrews University finds himself entangled in a web of intrigue that threatens the country. His boyhood allegiance to a brotherhood of deep-sea fishermen involves him and his handsome ex-pupil with a beautiful but dangerous woman. A this is a stirring tale of treason and romance from a master story-teller and author of ‘The Thirty-Nine Steps’. £295
Blanchard

BUCHAN, John. The Gap in the Curtain. London, Hodder & Stoughton. 1932 [26581]
FIRST EDITION. 8vo. Publisher’s dark green cloth, some slight bumping, slight smudges to lower front board. A handsome copy titled and decorated in gilt to spine and front board, near fine. Splendid clean and tidy dustwrapper, slightly worn the the extremities and with a little fraying at the head and tail, innocuous fading at spine. A lovely copy, uncommon in a wrapper. A supernatural thriller concerning serial time, in which Professor Moe works out a technique for visualizing the future. £450
Blanchard.

BUCHAN, John. A History of the Great War. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1922. [25045]
SIGNED LIMITED EDITION. 8 volumes, 8vo. A near fine set in publisher’s quarter navy blue buckram with light blue title label to spine, light blue paper boards; edges untrimmed. Illustrated with portraits and maps throughout. Edges very slightly toned. Clean and sound. Limited to 500 signed and numbered copies, this set is unnumbered, hand written as “Presentation Copy”. £350

BUCHAN, John. The House of the Four Winds. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1935 [26865]
FIRST EDITION. 8vo. Publisher’s green cloth in pictorial dustwrapper. Some trivial toniong to spine else a lovely fine copy which appears unopened. The final ‘shocker’ to feature Dickson McCunn, the unlikliest of Buchan’s heroes; a middle-aged owner of a prominent Glasgow grocery firm who has just sold his business and is seeking other activities, who finds himself embroiled in unsought adventure, intrigue and murder.
£295
Blanchard

The First McCunn AdventureBUCHAN, John. Huntingtower. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1922. [25725]
FIRST EDITION. 8vo., pp. 320. Publisher’s mid-blue cloth, titled and ruled in dark blue. Printed map endpapers. Moderate wear to cloth, some soiling, neat name and date to half-title else internally clean. Shows well. The first Dickson McCunn novel. Splendid stuff, stuffed to the gills with white lipped determination, cheeky scots urchins, a keen overview of the world’s contemporary social and political climate, tweed, fruit cake, and that staple of all great adventure; surly, evil, limping foreigners. £85
Blanchard A53

BUCHAN, John. The Island of Sheep. A Richard Hannay Novel. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1936 [26866]
FIRST EDITION. 8vo. Publisher’s green cloth in pictorial dustwrapper. Some trivial wear, otherwise a superb fine copy which appears unopened. Complete with the scarce original advertising wraparound band announcing ‘The New Hannay Novel’. The final novel to feature the adventurous government agent (Sir) Richard Hannay, the author’s most enduring character first introduced in ‘The Thirty Nine Steps’. £495


Blanchard. See also Haining; Crime Fiction p193-4.

BUCHAN, John. The Last Secrets. The Final Mysteries of Exploration. London: Nelson 1923 [27241]
FIRST EDITION. Octavo, 303pp. With maps and photographic plates. Publisher’s decorative beige cloth, pictorially printed in colours. A little rubbing to pigment, light general wear, neat ‘award’ inscription to pastedown. A very good copy indeed. Fascinating real-life travels and escapades from a master of adventure fiction, with chapters such as ‘The North and South Poles’, ‘The Mountains of the Moon’, ‘Mount Everest’, ‘The Holy Cities of Islam’ £50
Blanchard [A59]

BUCHAN, John. Mr Standfast London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1919. [26855]
FIRST EDITION. 8vo. Pp 412. Publisher’s clean, bright mid-blue cloth, titled and ruled in dark blue. Minor edge spotting else fine. In gloriously bright pictorial wrapper, trifling rubbing to extremities, with a couple of tiny chips and short tears. Now very scarce in original dustwrapper. An attractive copy of the third Richard Hannay adventure (following The Thirty Nine Steps and Greenmantle), this installment taking place among the highlands of Scotland, Switzerland, possibly the first literary face-off on an underground platform, and finally winding up in the delightful environs of the Western Front for its spy hunting climax. Hannay’s third show also throws in some beastly submarine skullduggery, the war in the air and a spot of love interest in the trim form of Miss Lamington, soon we surmise to become Mrs. Hannay. For a writer of ‘shockers’ Buchan is at times crisp and terse and at others rather sentimental, especially in his depictions of fighting men adrift in the ugliness of war. There’s also lashings of positively rigid upper lips, and that splendid (now rather unfashionable) bit of Late Colonial Zen; the uncluttered conviction that the very least a chap can do when faced with evil is go down swinging. £6,500
Blanchard A46. See also Haining; Crime Fiction p193-4.

BUCHAN, John. A Prince of the Captivity. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1933 [26859]
FIRST EDITION. 8vo. Publisher’s green cloth in pictorial jacket. Some trivial toning to spine of wrapper, appears unopened. A bright and attractive copy. £395
A thrilling novel of intelligence and espionage during the Great War and beyond. From the master story-teller and author of ‘The Thirty-Nine Steps’.

Blanchard

BUCHAN, John. Sick Heart River London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1941. [21468]
FIRST EDITION. 8vo. Publisher’s green cloth in dustwrapper. Light general wear. No inscriptions or price-clipping. Very good indeed. An attractive copy. £150
Late novel from the master of adventure stories; Sir Edward Leithen travels deep into the Canadian Arctic to investigate a man’s mysterious disappearance.
Blanchard A132

BUCHAN, John. The Thirty-Nine [39] Steps, London, William Blackwood and Sons. 1915 [23567]
FIRST EDITION: 8vo. pp. 253 + pp. 2 ads. Publisher’s bright and unfaded blue cloth covered boards with dark blue embossed lettering to spine and upper. Faint wear to extremities, spine slightly cocked. Internally some slight uniform darkening to the page edges. Gold bookseller’s sticker to endpaper.Very good indeed. The famous novel which introduced spy-catcher Richard Hannay. £675
Basis for several movie adaptations; the most notable being the 1935 film by Alfred Hitchcock, which is considered one of the legendary director’s greatest pictures.
Blanchard. See also Haining; Crime Fiction p193-4. Listed in The Observer’s All-Time 100 Best Novels [2003].

BUCHAN, John. The Three Hostages. A New Richard Hannay novel. London: Hodder and Stoughton, [1924] [26580]
FIRST EDITION. 8vo. Pp 320. Publisher’s handsome mid-blue cloth, titled and ruled in dark blue. Minor edge spotting, endleaves slightly browned else fine. An attractive copy of the fourth Richard Hannay novel (following The Thirty Nine Steps, Greenmantle, and Mr Standfast). £200
Blanchard A63. See also Haining; Crime Fiction p193-4.

BUCHAN, John. Witch Wood. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1927 [26861]
FIRST EDITION. 8vo. Publisher’s blue cloth in pictorial dustwrapper. Some trivial wear to wrapper, spine a little toned, moderate egdespotting. A bright, attractive, near fine copy. Set amidst the religious struggles of the 17th century, this is the story of a young minister's return to the town of his birth. There he finds a coven of Satan worshippers and falls deeply in love with one of their victims in a struggle for right and wrong. £475
Blanchard A73

The First TarzanBURROUGHS, Edgar Rice. Tarzan of the Apes. Chicago, A. C. McClurg & Co. 1914. [23004]
FIRST EDITION, First issue. 8vo. Illustrated title page. Publisher’s dark red cloth, gilt titles. Very light general wear, some tanning to edge of text block, light rubbing to extremities. Some dulling to spine. A nice, clean, bright copy of the first of many Tarzan stories clad for the sake of completeness in a splendid facsimile dustwrapper. Scarce. Very good indeed. £2,250

CAMPBELL, Ramsey. [Lovecraft H.P. King, Stephen.] New Tales of The Cthulhu Mythos. Sauk City, Arkham House. 1980 [25062]
First Edition. 8vo. 257pp. Near fine in publisher’s gilt titled black cloth, slightest wrinkling to the base of the spine. Shrouded in a lovely crisp wrapper with possibly the merest hint of browning to the extremities, possibly from over exposure to one of the ancient summoning rituals of Nyarlathotep. Signed to the title page by Mr.Campbell. This edition was limited to 3647 copies and contains the mythos based (though rather derogatory of what is whilst not being gorgeous, nevertheless a most mundane district of London) “Crouch End” by someone called Stephen King whom I believe has written a couple of other stories and shows some promise. £175

CARROLL, Lewis. The Hunting of the Snark an Agony in Eight Fits. With Nine Illustrations by Henry Holiday. MacMillan and Co., London, 1876, [24788]
FIRST EDITION. Publisher’s original decorative cloth, a.e.g. black endpapers, pp. (xiv), 83, 1 adverts. Light general wear, slight fraying to joints. Very good indeed. Lewis Carroll’s ‘The Hunting of the Snark’ is a nonsense poem about a group of adventurers hunting a legendary beast.
£475
Williams & Madan [189]

CARROLL, Lewis [DODGSON, Charles] [TENNIEL, John]. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Alice in Wonderland). London: Macmillan and Co., 1867. [22128]
With 42 illustrations by John Tenniel. Sixth Thousand printing. Octav. Same format as the first published edition. Unusual in a contemporary binding of half calf with burgundy title label to spine, marbled boards. Moderate wear with some general handling, rubbing etc.. A very good, very early copy of ‘Alice’ in contemporary leather. £1,250
Mathematician Dodgson’s wierdly wonderful adventures of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit-hole into a fantasy realm populated by talking playing cards and anthropomorphic creatures. The book is fraught with satirical allusions to Dodgson’s friends and to the lessons that British schoolchildren were expected to memorize. The Wonderland described plays with logic in ways that has made the story of lasting popularity with children as well as adults.

Listed in BBC’s Big Read (200 Best Novels) [2003].

[CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, Miguel de] The History and Adventures of the Renowned Don Quixote, Translated from the Spanish... To which is prefixed, Some Account of the Author’s Life, by Dr. T. Smollett. [Novelist’s Magazine Vol. VIII] London: Printed for Harrison and Co., 1782. [26522]
4 volumes in 1; 8vo. Contemporary full roan, raised bands and two title labels to spine. Binding lightly rubbed and marked; black ink stain to upper, spilling a little on to fore-edge. Illustrated with several beautiful and sharp copper engraved plates by Stothard. Edges slightly age toned. Survived the passing of time quite unscathed. A lovely copy.
The story of the gentle knight and his servant Sancho Panza has entranced readers for centuries. £350
Listed in The Observer’s All-Time 100 Best Novels [2003]

CHESTERTON, G. K. The Napoleon of Notting Hill. With Seven Illustrations by Graham Robertson and a Map of the Seat of War. London, John Lane 1904. [26103]
FIRST EDITION, FIRST BINDING. 8vo., pps. 301. Original green pictorial cloth stamped in black and red, top edge stained green, other edges uncut. Uniform, minor rubbing and soiling. Ex libris label to front pastedown, neat ink inscription to ffep. A very good copy of the author’s first novel. A comical futurist fantasy, first published in 1904, about a tradition-loving suburban London community of the 1980s at war with its modernizing neighbors. Chesterton's splendid storytelling gifts, his love of medievalism and heroism, and his sympathies for the plight of small nations trying to remain independent are strongly in evidence. £150
Sullivan [7]

FIRST COLLECTED EDITIONCONRAD, Joseph. The Complete Works of Joseph Conrad. [set of writings/novels including The Nigger of the Narcissus, Lord Jim, Youth, Heart of Darkness, Typhoon, Nostromo, An Outcast of the Islands, The Secret Agent, Under Western Eyes, Chance, Allmayer’s Folly, Victory, The Rescue, The Inheritors, Romance, The Mirror of the Sea, The Arrow of Gold, The Shadow Line, etc.] London, William Heinemann 1921 [27097]
SIGNED LIMITED EDITION. Number 134 of 780 sets. 20 vols., 8vo. Finely bound in recent full dark green morocco, gilt decoration to spine, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. An excellent set. LIMITED EDITION on handmade paper.
£4,250

CONRAD, Joseph. Nostromo. A Tale of the Seaboard. London, Harper and Brothers, 1904. [23815]
FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE. Octavo. 480pp. Elegantly bound in half dark blue oasis with raised bands, gilt titles and gilt to spine, cloth sides, with publisher’s original covers bound in at rear. Edges show a little dustiness else a fine copy in attractive recent binding. First issue copies have p187 mis-numbered. Conrad's masterpiece: a tale of money, love and revolutionary politics. £295
Wise, p.10. Listed in ‘The Novel 100’ (Burt, 2004), also in The Observer; All-Time 100 Best Novels (2003)

CONRAD, Joseph. The Rescue. A Romance of the Shallows. London: J.M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., 1920. [22135]
FIRST TRADE EDITION. Bright in publisher’s green cloth with gilt titles to spine, corners bumped, lower inner hinge split; in its nearly near fine pictorial dust wrapper very little frayed to extremities, spine darkened with minute chip. Shows extremely well. £245
Civil war rages between the native tribes of the Malay straits, and Captain Tim Wingard sides with the Rajah Hassim. As is the case with so much in the Far East, however, nothing is quite straightforward and events unfold by indirection.

COOPER, J. Fenimore. The Spy. A Tale of the Neutral Ground. London, Colburn and Bentley. 1831. [26368]
First Illustrated, One Volume Edition, small 8vo. Half bound in later calf, brown and black labels to spine, titles in gilt with dark brown marbled boards and speckled page edges. First successful American historical novel. Engraved frontispiece and title page, protected with tissue guard. An attractive binding. Minimal bumping to extremities with one or two scratches. A little transfer marking to front and back free endpapers. Fresh, clean pages with a small, clear text, just a few spots here and there with a little browning to the page edges. Extremely good.
‘The Spy.. is the very first novel of it’s kind in English.’ (Peter Haining).
An important novel, first published in 1821, this follows the escapades of Harvey Birch, an American secret agent operating during the War of Independence; Birch proved himself to have the attributes of Athleticism, bravery and mastery of disguise that single out the great spy.
£125
See Haining; Crime Fiction p184.

CORNWELL, Bernard Sharpe’s Gold. Richard Sharpe and the Destruction of Almeida, August 1810. Collins, London 1981 [13191]
FIRST EDITION. SIGNED by the author. Very good indeed, in like price-clipped dustwrapper. Also with superb, amusing INSCRIPTION by Cornwell to front endpaper.
The inscription reads: “For Shona & Jasper, who have the first critical look at every Sharpe novel, and are, Q.E.D, therefore responsible for most of the faults in the canon, Nevertheless, with complete affection & all thanks, Bernard J Cornwell. P.S. A descendent of Hornblower’s Butler”.
From the Library of Jasper Partington & Shona Crawford Poole, who are the also the dedicatees of the Sharpe’s Honour novel.
The Second Sharpe novel. A rare item. £1,950
A year after the victory at Talavera, Wellington’s army, outnumbered and bankrupt, is on the verge of collapse. Its only hope lies in a cache of gold hidden in the Portuguese mountains, and the only man capable of stealing it is Captain Richard Sharpe-even if it means turning against his own side.

CORNWELL, Bernard. Sharpe’s Sword. Richard Sharpe and the Salamanca Campaign, June and July, 1812. London, Collins, 1983. [26258]
FIRST EDITION. By far the most scarce Sharpe title, with a very small first print run of around 500 copies. Rare. Publisher’s cloth in jacket. Minimal wear; near fine. £1,250
Napoleonic drama; Colonel Leroux is killing Britain’s most valuable spies, and it’s up to Richard Sharpe to stop him. Thrust into the unfamiliar world of political and military intrigue, Sharpe relentlessly pursues Leroux, determined to exact his revenge with the cold steel of his sword.

[DEFOE, Daniel] [Illus., STOTHARD, Thomas] The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Embellished with engravings from designs by Thomas Stothard. London, 1820. [19681]
2 vols., large 8vo. Contemporary binding by A.Taffinrel in full black morocco elaborately decorated with extra gilt to spine and covers, top edge gilt, blue moirée silk doublures. Light general wear, a little rubbed, small chips to head of spines, occasional light foxing, a little more so to volume II. Generously illustrated with plates in 2 states. A wonderful early illustrated edition of this classic desert island story. Very Good indeed. £950
‘The first English novel’.
Listed in ‘The Novel 100’ (Burt, 2004), also`in The Observer; All-Time 100 Best Novels (2003)

DERLETH, August. [Lovecraft, H.P.] The Trail Of Cthulhu. Sauk City, Arkham House. 1962 [25088]
FIRST EDITION. 8vo. 248pp. Limited to 2470 copies. Publisher’s black gilt titled cloth, slight bumping at head and tail of spine. Blue Richard Taylor dustwrapper (another classic example of the “cyclopean wasteland with eyeless walking corpse” school of dustwrapper design, leaving do doubt in the mind of the beholder that Taylor could have Richard Chopping in a fight after school any day.) unfortunately slightly faded to spine and a little tanned to the rear panel. Nevertheless a pretty litttle book, one of its most interesting features perhaps being Derleth’s afterword “A Note on The Cthulhu Mythos” in which he gives a little insight into how Lovecraft viewed his creations, and his happiness when other people contributed further dimensions to the pantheon. £100

DERLETH, LOVECRAFT, WANDREI, HOPE HODGSON, AICKMAN et al. Travellers By Night. 14 New Stories Of The Macabre. London, Gollancz. 1968 [27013]
First UK Edition. 8vo. Publisher’s red cloth, clean, fine and bright. Fragile yellow and red wrapper very slightly toned to spine with negligible wear to head and tail of spine, otherwise a splendid example (Gollancz wrappers being notorious for their ability to attract dirt, sunlight and to fall to bits at the merest whisper of use). A fine copy of a book we have found to be considerably rarer in collectible condition than its earlier US Arkham House counterpart. In order to tip the balance it also contains a story by William Hope Hodgson, and it is a well known fact that anything that contains a Hodgson story should be purchased, cherished for eternity and jealously defended against the giant, malevolent hogs of the beyond. £150

DOYLE, Arthur Conan. Rodney Stone. Smith, Elder & Co., London, 1896. [27258]
FIRST EDITION in book form. A prizefighting novel from the days of The Fancy. Octavo, with illustrations. Half-title, pps. 336 + 10 of adverts. Bound in publisher’s blue cloth decorated and titled in gilt. Some, slight fading to spine and a little minor wear to the extremities. Internally clean. Very good. This copy is from the library of Eric Quayle and bears his pencil note. It’s first appearance, in common with much of Mr. Doyle’s best work, was in Mr. Newnes’ Strand magazine.
This historical novel, set in Regency-period England, curiously brings together Lord Nelson and the sport of boxing. Doyle had always been fond of boxing, had revelled in the history of the prize-ring, and in ‘Rodney Stone’ his enthusiasm and knowledge are apparent. As usual the action-episodes are first-rate.
£100


Green and Gibson A20a.

DOYLE, Arthur Conan, WELLS, H.G., VERNE, Jules, NESBIT, E, WODEHOUSE, P.G, MAUGHAM, W Somerset. Contribute [to THE STRAND MAGAZINE]; The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Return of Sherlock Holmes (all Doyle), The Stolen Body, The First Men In the Moon, The Country of The Blind, The Empire of the Ants (all Wells) etc. Volumes I to XXX. George Newnes Ltd., London, 1891-1905 [24401]
8vo., with illustrations, 30 volumes. Original mgazine parts bound in the famous half-yearly volumes; publisher’s light blue pictorial cloth, elaborately blocked in black and gilt. A long unbroken run, with uniform wear, some light general rubbing and soiling, occasional darkening to spines. Occasional signs of ownership (bookplate or signature). Shows well. Contains the first appearance of all the above mentioned Sherlock Holmes stories, plus ‘The Adventure of the Cardboard Box’ (vol.5, 1893) which was not published in book form until ‘His Last Bow’ (1917). Several of these Holmes stories feature far more illustrations (notably by Sidney Paget) than in book form, and in some (such as ‘Cardboard Box ‘) the illustrations are exclusive to ‘The Strand’. Other contributions by Doyle include the non-Holmes serials ‘Rodney Stone’ (vol. 11-12), ‘The Tragedy of the Korosko’ (vol. 13-14), ‘Round the Fire Stories’ (vol 15,17,18,19), and ‘Exploits / Adventures of Brigadier Gerard’ (vol. 8,9,10,19,24).
Also includes several important first appearances of H G Wells’ strange tales , significantly ‘The First Men In the Moon’ (vol. 20-21, 1900-01) published with more and larger illustrations than the book form. There is further science fiction from Jules Verne; ‘Dr Trifulgas’ (vol 4, 1893), and ‘An Express of the Future (vol 10, 1895).
A superb literary magazine, in very good condition. Longer runs such as this are now uncommon. £1,500

DOYLE, Sir Arthur Conan. The Maracot Deep. London, George Newnes. 1927 [26965]
First edition in parts as originally issued. Publisher’s paper wraps. Seven single editions of The Strand Magazine running from October 1927 to May 1929 containing the full text of ‘The Maracot Deep’. Some chipping to the head and tails of spines on four of the issues, but no other significant defects beyond creasing to the bottom front corners of the first and second installments. As is usual with Strands, they are a wealth of articles and advertisments verging from the cringeworthy to the awe-inspiring. As a snapshot of an age, objects like The Strand are indispensable. These issues were produced after the Strand had moved into colour printed covers, and the first installment has a stunning full colour undersea extravaganza of an illustration fit for the most exacting of bathysphere fetishists; depicting a variety of undersea organisms including what appears to be a bizarre hybrid between an angler fish and a red admiral butterfly. Our heroes traverse the bottom of the ocean in what appears to be a riveted steel shed with Maracot himself (‘dry stick of a man...’) peering myopically out of the front porthole. A fine example of Doyle in Verneian vein. £450
Green and Gibson; A Bibliography of Arthur Conan Doyle.

DU MAURIER, Daphne. Jamaica Inn. Victor Gollancz, London. 1936. [22087]
FIRST EDITION. 8vo. Publisher’s cloth in dustwrapper. Light general wear, top edge spotted, some fraying to spine tips, contemporary ownership to flyleaf. An attractive copy, very good indeed. Extremely scarce in wrapper. Presented in a custom made clam-shell box. Du Maurier’s first commercially succesful novel is a famous gothic masterpiece; Jamaica Inn stands alone, stark and forbidding, on bleak Bodmin Moor, its very walls tainted with corruption.... £3,250

FALKNER, J. Meade. The Lost Stradivarius. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1895. [25718]
FIRST EDITION. A beautiful copy in publisher’s original dark blue cloth with gilt titles to spine, blind tooled pictorial title to upper. A trifle of bumping and some negligible wear to the extremities. Publisher’s catalogue dated October 1895. A rare title, mostly forgotten in favour of his more popular “Moonfleet”, Falkner’s tale of a young musician gradually becoming possessed by the spirit of a long dead dabbler in the forbidden is nevertheless stirring stuff. £650

FALKNER, J. Meade. Moonfleet. London, Edward Arnold. 1898 [26416]
First Edition. 8vo.305pp. + 32pp ads. Publisher’s dark red cloth, gilt titles to front board and spine, cloth embossed with silver gilt and black embellishment depicting the Mohune family crest. Silver gilt slightly rubbed as usual, some bumping to extremities, head and tail of spine with the cloth of the spine sunned to a dusky orange. Slightly frayed at the head of the spine. Inner rear hinge skin cracked, but unbroken. Edges untrimmed, internally clean, robust and tight.
A very attractive and distinguished copy of a rare book, the mention of which is guaranteed to elicit a groan from anyone who was at school in the early seventies when this particular tale of smuggling, crypts and derring-do was required reading. This particular copy was the property of noted Victorian bibliophile and author Eric Quayle, and bears his bookplate and descriptive note to the front pastedown. Laid in is a typewritten letter to Mr.Quayle from Jesus College Oxford, obviously a response to some query regarding J. Meade Falkner. £2,500
Eric Quayle (1921- 2001) was a highly respected and renowned author (and authority) writing on many different aspects of book collecting and bibliography. Amongst other achievements he produced the standard bibliography of the works of R.M.Ballantyne, The Collector’s Book series covering everything from Detective Fiction to Boy’s Stories, in later years he also produced volumes of little known children’s stories, including a volume of Cornish folktales. His collection came up for auction at Bonhams in March and April 2004 and attracted a great deal of interest from collectors and dealers alike, Mr. Quayle may have gone, but the books that he spent his lifetime preserving and describing are still circulating, and will do so for a very long time.

FAST, Howard. Spartacus. London, The Bodley Head 1952. [19875]
FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. 8vo., pp. 368. Publisher’s red cloth in pictorial dustwrapper. Light age-toning to edges, gilt to spine tarnished, wrapper with mild wear and a couple of tiny tears. Overall clean and bright. A very good copy indeed with no inscriptions or price-clipping. Epic oscar-winning film from Stanley Kubrick. £195

FLEMING, Ian. Casino Royale. (a James Bond novel) London, 1953 [26832]
FIRST EDITION, FIRST STATE dustjacket without reviews. Publisher’s black cloth with red titles and ‘Heart’ design to upper, in pictorial jacket. Neat contemporary name and date to flyleaf, price-clipped wrapper with some expert restoration to extremities. Shows very well indeed. Near fine. An attractive copy housed in a collector’s felt-lined clamshell box. The first James Bond novel. (Only 4728 copies). £9,500
‘The most famous spy in literature’- Steinbrunner & Penzler.
Inspired by authors such as Raymond Chandler, Leslie Charteris and Eric Ambler, Fleming was the unconscious champion of a new way of literary life that demolished the ‘give the underdog a chance’ idiom, and substituted a ‘shoot first, ask later’ or ‘blast in and out’ policy, which complimented the pacy nature of his writing, now famous as the ‘Fleming sweep’. He was also an accomplished travel writer, and his cultured travelogue style was a glorious escape for any audience, let alone a bleak, post-war Britain, coping with shortages, national service and city smog.
Nowadays, with fourteen (Fleming) books, multiple literary sucessors and twenty one adventures filmed (to date), the character of James Bond is as integral part of the popular culture as Winnie-the-Pooh, MacDonalds or Sony. Or Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, The Saint......
Penzler; Ian Fleming’s James Bond (1999). Biondi/Pickard; Firsts Vol 8 No4 (1998). Campbell; Ian Fleming- A Catalogue of a Collection (1978), Steinbrunner & Penzler; Ency.of Mystery & Detection (1976). Eric Quayle; Detective Fiction (1972).

Q’s own copy!FLEMING, Ian. You Only Live Twice. (a James Bond novel) Jonathan Cape, London 1964 [26896]
FIRST EDITION. This copy one of two variant states, with ‘First Published March 1964’ on copyright page; some copies note ‘First Published 1964’. The bibliography confirms “both sets of sheets were ordered before publication and constitute the first issue of the book.”
Near fine (dustiness to top edge) in like, bright dustwrapper with some nominal wear and handling. ASSOCIATION COPY, with the inscriptions of the original ‘Q’ on the flyleaf and half-title:
“G.Boothroyd/ Armourer to 007.” (twice!) Boothroyd was Ian Fleming’s firearms advisor (one of his guns appears on the Chopping wrapper for “From Russia With Love”) and was the inspiration for the character of ‘Q’, one of Fleming’s most enduring supporting characters. One of the most bizarre novels of the series sees a wasted Bond given a ‘mission impossible’ to the exotic orient, which in turn leads him to the the maniacal westerner Dr. Shatterhand; a ‘collector of death’ who lives has just purchased a weather-beaten castle on a Japanese island and stocked his ‘scientific research gardens’ with all manner of poisonous tropical flora and deadly creatures, which has in turn attracted Japanese citizens wishing to commit suicide; the devilish doctor’s response to the nation’s government is that his public service program is merely a convenient way for the tormented to end their days in pleasant surroundings. One of the more surreal moments finds Herr Doktor strolling in his suicide gardens, resplendent in a gleaming suit of chain armour, complete with a spiked, winged helmet with closed visor, with his dumpy wife beside him attired in rubber boots, plastic rainsuit topped with a green straw bee-keeper’s hat with heavy pendant veil. £875

FORESTER, C.S. The African Queen. London: William Heinemann, Led., 1935. [24524]
FIRST EDITION. Publisher’s brown cloth, recased, with gilt titles to spine, some moderate wear and dustiness. An attractive copy of a rare book, only 2500 printed. Set in 1915 on the treacherous rivers of war torn Africa, the gin sodden trader, Charlie Allnut reluctantly agrees to help prim missionary Rose Sayer travel down river on a hazardous journey to destroy a German gun boat.
Filmed by John Huston starring Katherine Hepburn, and featuring an Oscar-winning performance from Humphrey Bogart. £750
C.S. Forester was awarded the 1938 James Tait Black Memorial Prize. The Prize was founded in memory of a partner in the publishing house of A. & C. Black Ltd., and is one of the oldest and most prestigious book awards in Britain.

Complete Adventures Of Horatio HornblowerFORESTER, C. S. The Complete Hornblower Novels. Michael Joseph, London. 1932-68. [27296]
ALL FIRST EDITIONS. 11 vols. bound as 10, 8vo. All the Horatio Hornblower novels in First Editions, bound uniformly in recent half blue leather. Gilt ship motifs and titles to spines, top edge gilt. A Fine Set. Increasingly rare. In the same way that everything with an elf in it written over the past fifty years owes a debt to Tolkien, so it is that the Sharpes, Maturins, Bolithos and Aubreys of this world all owe something to Forester. While Hornblower was far and away the author’s most enduring creation, he was also responsible for classics like ‘The African Queen’ and ‘The Gun’, although perhaps anything starring Frank Sinatra as a Spanish gypsy is probably best glossed over. C.S. Forester was awarded the 1938 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for both the Hornblower novels ‘A Ship of the Line’ and ‘Flying Colours’. The Prize was founded in memory of a partner in the publishing house of A. & C. Black Ltd., and is one of the oldest and most prestigious book awards in Britain. £2,500

WITH DUSTWRAPPER SKETCHES FORESTER, C. S. Hornblower and the Atropos. Michael Joseph, London, 1953, [16198]
With ORIGINAL COVER ARTWORK. 8vo., pp. 302, 190 x 140mm. Publisher’s cloth. Near fine (slight lean) in fine dustwrapper, with one neat tear at upper joint. FIRST EDITION. Together with two sketched drafts for the cover by wrapper illustrator Biro;
1. Pastel. Image 130x190mm, on larger paper, front panel illustration with three-quarters view of sailing ship, author and VARIANT title in colour above/beneath. The working title for this book was ‘The Captain of the Atropos; A New Hornblower novel’. Paper lightly foxed, instructions and dimensions in pencil to left of image, one short tear, folded (not affecting sketch).
2. Pencil. Image 155x185mm, on slightly larger tracing paper, showing front panel and spine with side (chosen) view of sailing ship with smaller boat to spine, lettered as finished design. Some minor creasing. £650
C.S. Forester was awarded the 1938 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for both the Hornblower novels ‘A Ship of the Line’ and ‘Flying Colours’. The Prize was founded in memory of a partner in the publishing house of A. & C. Black Ltd., and is one of the oldest and most prestigious book awards in Britain.

FORESTER, C.S. A Pawn Among Kings. London, Methuen & Co. 1924 [22058]
FIRST EDITION of the author’s first book, a mediaeval drama. 8vo, Publisher’s sea blue cloth. Some bumping to spine and corners, slight staining to top edge of back board, a little fading to top front edge and spine. The pages are clear with a little discolouration, mainly to the free endpapers and edges with some dust on the top, a tiny bookseller’s sticker is attached to the back fixed endpaper. There is an inscription to the owner of the book on the front free endpaper, very good. £950
C.S. Forester was awarded the 1938 James Tait Black Memorial Prize, founded in memory of a partner in the publishing house of A. & C. Black Ltd., and is one of the oldest and most prestigious book awards in Britain.

The archetypal Victorian adventurer.HAGGARD, H. Rider. Allan Quatermain, being An Account of His Further Adventures and Discoveries In Company With Sir Henry Curtis, Bart., Commander John Good, R. N. and One Umslopogaas. Longman’s, Green, And Co., 1887. [21288]
FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE. 8vo., with portrait frontispiece and 19 wood engravings. Publisher’s grey cloth, gilt titles, patterned end-papers. Light wear, slightly cocked, bookplate, neat ownership incription, booksellers’ blind stamp. A near fine, attractive copy. First issue, with ‘Dongo’ for ‘Donyo’p.17, third line from bottom, additionally ‘Quartermain’ mispelt on caption Ee, p.78 (not called for by Whatmore). Previously published as a serial story in the Longmans Magazine, Jan.-Aug. 1887. The book-form edition features some textual revisions from that version.
Allan Quatermain and his companions set out for Africa, this time in search of a white race reputed to live north of Mount Kenya. They discover a lost civilization and become embroiled in a fierce civil war. £210
Whatmore [F6]

HAGGARD, H. Rider. King Solomon’s Mines. London, Cassell & Company, Limited, 1885. [26528]
8vo., with folding colour frontis, pp. half-title, (vi), 7-320. Finely bound in recent burgundy full morocco, raised bands, gilt titles to spine, gilt border to boards, marbled end-papers, original boards bound in at rear, top edge gilt. A fine copy. First Edition, First Issue.
The first of the famous Allan Quatermain adventures; Following a map drawn 300 years ago by a dying man, three adventurers set out in search of the legendary riches of King Solomon's diamond mines. On their journey they have to cross deserts, mountains and inhabitants that kill strangers. Will they make the journey and become the richest men on Earth? £1,750
With all the textual misprints: p.10 - “Bamamgwato”; p.122 3rd line up - “let twins to live”; p.307 footnote, last line - “Wrod.” Very Scarce.
Whatmore [F3]

HAGGARD, H. RIDER Montezuma’s Daughter London, Longmans, Green & Co. 1893. [25905]
FIRST EDITION. Octavo, 325 pages with 24-page catalogue inserted (dated 8/93). Publisher’s gilt-titled dark green cloth, bevelled edges and patterned endpapers. 25 b/w illustrations including frontispiece with tissue guard. Trivial spotting, text a little shaken within case, extremities rubbed, armorial bookplate to pastedown. The strange adventures and escapes of Thomas Wingfield, half English and half Spanish, in the years after Cortes's conquest of Mexico.
£65
Whatmore.

HAGGARD, H. RIDER Montezuma’s Daughter London, Longmans, Green & Co. 1893. [25918]
FIRST EDITION. Octavo, 325 pages with 24-page catalogue inserted (dated 8/93). 25 b/w illustrations including frontispiece with tissue guard. Elegantly hand-bound in half burgundy oasis morocco leather with raised bands to spine, titled in gilt, cloth sides, black endpapers, with publisher’s cloth covers bound in at rear. Internally clean. A very good copy in an attractive recent binding. £125
Whatmore.

HAGGARD, H. RIDER Queen of The Dawn London, Hutchinson & Co. [1925] [25912]
FIRST EDITION. Undated, but published 8th April 1925. Scarce later title. FIRST ISSUE, with ‘sisturm’ for ‘sistrum’ page11 line 12. Octavo, 287 pages with 48 pages of adverts to rear. Bound in publisher’s grey/green cloth, titled in black. Neat bookseller’s blindstamp to flyleaf. Fine copy. Historical fantasy of Egypt and Babylon from the popular Victiorian/Edwardian adventure novelist, a master of wierd invention and spell-binding narrative.
£85
Whatmore.

HAGGARD, H. Rider. She. A History of Adventure. London, Longmans, Green, and Co., 1887. [12245]
FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE. 8vo, pp. 317. Illustrated. Publisher’s dark blue cloth with gilt titles to spine and upper board. Inner hinges starting. A very good copy indeed. Eerie Late-Victorian adventure in which African explorers discover a lost and ancient people ruled by an immortal white queen. £650
First Issue, with the following errors; ‘geneleman’ for ‘genelman’ p.59, line 22, ‘had’ for ‘have’ p126, line 26, ‘it compared’ for ‘if compared’ p.258, line37 and ‘godness me’ p.269, line 38. Whatmore fails to note the ‘geneleman’ mispelling but lists one further misprint ‘mysogymist’ for ‘mysogynist’, p.88, line 4. This in itself may be erroneous- we have not encountered such a mistake in all our years of cataloging this title and at the time of writing no other copy available for sale is described as such.
Actually printed in December 1886. Previously published as a serial story in the Graphic, October 1886-January 1887, illustrated by E.K. Johnson. The book-form edition features some textual revisions from that version.
Whatmore ]F4]. Listed in Jones & Newman; 100 Best Horror Novels.

HAGGARD, H. RIDER The Spirit of Bambaste [Benita, An African Romance] New York, Longmans, Green & Co. 1906 [25916]
FIRST US EDITION. Octavo, 329 pages with 16 pages of adverts to rear. Bound in publisher’s gilt-titled green cloth with pictorial medallion to upper. Text a little shaken within case else a fine copy. Issued simultaneously with the British edition ‘Benita’ but with the author’s preferred title ‘Spirit of Bambaste’. Another exotic adventure from the popular Victiorian/Edwardian adventure novelist, a master of wierd invention and spell-binding narrative.
£85
Whatmore.

HAGGARD, H. RIDER Stella Fregelius. A Tale of Three Destinies. London, Longmans, Green & Co. 1904 [25910]
FIRST EDITION. Octavo, 361 pages with 2 pages of adverts. Bound in gilt-titled blue/grey cloth, black endpapers. Cloth with minor soiling else a fine copy. ‘He discovered the figure of Stella seated in her accustomed place by the desolate-looking stone altar, whereon stood the box containing the aerophone that they had used in their experiments’.
In other words then, normal everyday Edwardian life...
£85
Whatmore.

HAGGARD, H. Rider. Swallow. A Tale of the Great Trek. Longman’s, Green, and Co., London, 1899 [25942]
First Edition. 8vo, with 8 full page illustrations, half-title, pps. (viii) + 348. Publisher’s blue cloth, bevelled edges, gilt titles, black end-papers, owner’s signature to half title... Head of spine bumped, spotting to fore-edge, some light foxing. A fresh, sound copy. £85
Whatmore F22.

HAGGARD, H. Rider. The Works of H. Rider Haggard. Including: King Solomon’s Mines, Alan Quatermain, She, etc. New York, McKinlay Stone & MacKenzie. nd. [24582]
20 volumes, 8vo. Illustrated frontispieces. Finely bound in recent full lime green morocco with gilt titles and lovely extra decoration to spines, gilt rule and blind stamped borders to boards; top edges gilt; marbled end papers. A very handsome set. £4,500
Whatmore [F56]

“Cut Some Capers Man! Play With Your Bladder!”HARDY, Robin. SCHAFFER, Anthony. The Wicker Man. London, Hamlyn Books. 1979. [25729]
First Edition. 8vo. Fine in publisher’s gilt titled shiny black boards with a similarly unspoiled dustwrapper. A surprisingly scarce book, considering the cult (no pun intended) following the film has. One of the best- and most literate- novelisations ever, unusually appearing some five years after the film. £185
Proof positive that men in Aran sweaters cannot be trusted, and that one should keep a weather eye out for phallic topiary when visiting the Western Isles of Scotland. Strait-laced Sergeant Howie visits remote Summerisle investigating a disappearance, encounters all kinds of pagan shenanigens, and ends up ensuring the endurance of the community for at least another year (not to mention becoming the posthumous mascot of the Summerisle wicker-weavers association). Notorious at least in Britain for it’s almost seduction scene in which Britt Ekland (the woman who put the rot in erotic, though in this case the body belonged to someone else) dances (badly) naked around the upper floor of a bed and breakfast whilst Edward Woodward sweats next door. Apart from attracting untold numbers to paganism (which has always been famous as the belief system where people get their kit off most often, blessed be) it also proved once and for all that there’s no profit in false piety, because you’ll just end up burned alive in a giant man basket with some sheep and a bunch of pigeons while surly looking agricultural types gambol around joyfully waiting to plough you into the earth. As a secondary moral ‘don’t mess with Christopher Lee.’ might also be considered.
Book Collector No.270 (p35)

HENTY, G. A. By Conduct And Courage. A Story Of The Days Of Nelson.
Illustrated By William Rainey. London, Blackie and Son Ltd., 1905. [20232]
FIRST EDITION. 8vo. Publisher’s green pictorial cloth. Light rubbing to extremities. Occasional very light foxing. Minor tear to half-title. Very Good indeed. £95
The publisher’s note reads: “the present story is the last of Mr. Henty’s great series of historical stories for boys.”
Newbolt, 109.1

HENTY, G. A. A Knight of the White Cross. A Tale of the Siege of Rhodes.
London, Blackie and Son Ltd., 1896. [11655]
FIRST EDITION. Octavo. With twelve illustrations by Ralph Peacock and a plan. Publisher’s green pictorial cloth, extremities lightly rubbed, starting to split but still secure, light foxing, owner’s inscription. A very good copy. £145
The longest Blackie-published G.A. Henty adventure, and one of the few novels in its first edition format that was only issued in one cloth colour, probaly at the insistence of the artist Ralph Peacock, who not only illustrated the book but also provided the striking design for the covers.
Newbolt 72.1

HENTY, G. A. A March on London. Being a Story of Wat Tyler’s Insurrection.
With Eight Illustrations By W. H. Mageston. London, Blackie and Sons, 1898. [20156]
FIRST EDITION. 8vo. Publisher’s blue pictorial cloth. Rubbing to extremities, corner gently bumped, light foxing to a couple of leaves, owner’s stamp. Very good. £95
George Alfred Henty [1832-1902] was an extremely successful novelist, best known as a writer of boys’ books which combined adventure and history. A former army captain, ocean-going yachtsman and mining operative in Italy, Henty would incorporate many personal experiences within his thrilling historical escapades.
Newbolt, 81.1

HENTY, G.A. Under Wellington’s Command. A Tale of the Peninsular War. London, Blackie & Son Ltd., 1899. [20125]
FIRST EDITION. 8vo., 12 Illustrations by Wal Paget. Publisher’s royal blue cloth, cover designed by Ralph Peacock. Bright cloth, with light foxing. Neat gift inscription to end-paper, occasional light foxing. Very good indeed. £110
With a longer than usual preface by Henty, who recalls his young hero’s ‘story so far’ (as featured in the earlier adventure ‘With Moore at Corunna’).
Newbolt 83.1

HENTY, G. A. With Buller in Natal. Or, a Born Leader.
London, Blackie and Son Ltd., 1901. [11654]
FIRST EDITION. Octavo. With ten illustrations by W. Rainey, R.I. Publisher’s blue pictorial cloth, extremities lightly rubbed, starting to split but still secure, owner’s stamp. A very good fresh copy. £110
‘With Buller In Natal’ was one of Henty’s most successful novels; although bearing the next year’s date ( a common Victorian practice), the book was first issued in July 1900 and was reprinted twice before the end of that year.
Newbolt 97.1

HENTY, G. A. With The Allies To Pekin. A Tale of the Relief of the Legations.
London, Blackie and Son Ltd., 1904. [20162]
FIRST EDITION. Illustrated By Wal Paget. Octavo. Publisher’s green pictorial cloth. Light rubbing, spine slightly sunned. Inscription erased from end-paper, occasional minor foxing. Very good indeed. £75
This Henty novel illustrated by the popular artist Walter Stanley Paget (1863-1935), the youngest of three famous artist brothers, who had a keen sense of period costume for his figures, and whose other commisions included Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island (1899). Wal.Paget was orignally chosen to illustrate The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1891 onward), but through an unfortunate misunderstanding the position fell to his brother Sydney, who went on to illustrate thirty eight Holmes stories, using Walter’s face as the model for the great detective! Walter finally got to produce four Holmes drawings for ‘The Adventure of the Dying Detective’ (1913).
Newbolt, 108.1

HODGSON. William Hope. Carnacki The Ghost-Finder. Sauk City. Mycroft and Moran (Arkham House). 1947. [25209]
First US Edition. First Edition Thus. 8vo. 241pp. Limited to 3050 copies. A fine copy in a bright, clean, unfaded Utpatel dustwrapper with just the slightest hint of toning to the rear panel. £225
A very attractive example of the first collection of Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki stories to be published in the US. The 1913 Eveleigh Nash edition, apart from being very scarce and valuable, doesn’t contain three additional Carnacki stories unearthed by Derleth in his research and added to the Mycroft/Moran publication. Much under-appreciated today William Hope Hodgson was, for the duration of his short life, an amazing man. He ran away to sea, travelled the world, was one of the first men to photograph stalk lightning on the open ocean, was an accomplished photographer, taught self defense to the police force, founded his own school of fitness, wrote a large body of wierd and macabre fiction (much of which, unsurprisingly deals with the sea), tried very hard at everything he attempted and finally got killed in 1918 as part of an army of young men led to war by a Field Marshall whose contribution to history (other than to get them all killed) was to firmly believe that machine guns were overrated and that cavalry were to be the deciding factor on a battlefield which consisted of one giant, flooded pothole. Notwithstanding historical tragedy, the Carnacki stories represent some of Hodgson’s most entertaining work, foremost amongst which would have to be “The Whistling Room”, a tale any writer of the macabre would have been proud of.

HODGSON, William Hope. The House On The Borderland. Sauk City, Arkham House. 1946 [27143]
First US Edition. Large 8vo.639pp. Near fine in publisher’s gilt titled and decorated black cloth, light edgewear one small bump to the point of the bottom front corner. Gorgeous crisp unfaded, though lamentably priceclipped, Hannes Bok dustwrapper featuring a host of rainbow hued unspeakables and an almost unheard of clean, white rear panel. Maybe the slightest toning to the page edges, but barely perceptible. Hodgson’s adventure-philosopher is projected into a vastly distant Dying Earth future, in a story that is one of the most important influences on H.P. Lovecraft.
Not merely containing the House On The Borderland, which the word ‘seminal’ only begins to describe, but also The Night Land (which makes the vision of Lovecraft look all cramped and unambitious by comparison) in convoy with The Ghost Pirates and The Boats Of Glen Carrig, tales packed to the top-sails with giant octopods, Sargasso weed and ghostly ships that pass in the night. Hyperbole aside (I believe that’s also a place invented by Robert E. Howard), William Hope Hodgson has to rate as one of the best and most underrated writers of the weird and bizarre. His short but eventful life contained much in the way of adventure and invention, and the greater part of that leaps from his tales like the spray from a following sea. A gorgeous copy of a book that seems almost designed to fade and droop.
£450
Listed in Jones & Newman’s 100 Best Horror Novels.

VERY RARE VICTOR HUGO BOUND BY GAUDI’S BINDERHUGO, Victor Notre Dame De Paris [The Hunchback of Notre Dame] Paris: Charles Gosselin, Libraire, 1831. [23248]
FIRST EDITION, FIRST STATE. The first printing consisted 1100 copies, although only 275 are the first state; the others bearing the same title-page overprinted ‘second’, ‘third’ or ‘fourth edition’, and released according to demand (then a regular ploy, giving the false appearance of ‘bestseller’ status) Octavo, 2 vols. Complete with half-titles and the two page table at the rear of each volume . Wood-engraved title vignettes after Tony Johannot. Superbly bound in full straight grained crimson goatskin, signed and dated on turn-ins, 1922, by Canape (who also received commissions from Gaudi). Spines fully gilt with four raised bands, title and date panels, quadruple gilt rule to boards, with gilt cornerpiece plus further triple gilt rule border including repetitive gilt motif. Top edge gilt, others gilded in the rough (a now uncommon practice where the untrimmed edge is gilt, resulting in a pleasant appearance but importantly retaining the deckled paper edge and the full margins of the sheets). Endpapers are bronze silk and each volume is housed in a leather trimmed marble slip-case. Text is gloriously clean throughout, and binding is immaculate. Originally issued in fragile self wraps, the paper is vulnerable and subsequently copies now appear with repairs or re-margins, and bound copies can be cropped or edges decorated to hide defects. No such problems beset this copy, which is fresh and tall; surely one of the best available examples. £35,000
Notre Dame de Paris is widely considered the greatest of Hugo’s many historical novels, set in fifteenth century Paris and presenting a vivid picture of medieval France. The title of the English translation led some to believe the primary character of the drama was the hunchback bell-ringer, Quasimodo. However, this was not the author's intent, who felt the primary character was Notre-Dame de Paris itself, the Cathedral. The human drama within the novel revolves around the gypsy Esmeralda, and which of several suitors she will choose. Notable characters include the roguish Phoebus de Chateaupers (Captain of the Royal Archers), the philosophical poet Gringoire, the enchanting goat, Djali and a certain Claude Frollo, the lust-haunted Archdeacon of Notre Dame, who befriends Quasimodo, who in turn kidnaps Esmerelda on Frollo’s orders.

The enormous popularity of the novel drew attention to the delapidated condition of the cathedral, and was probably instrumental in instigating the restoration project of 1845. It can even claim responsibility for the subsequent Gothic Revival architecture!

INNES, Hammond. The Lonely Skier [aka Fire In the Snow]. London, Collins. 1947 [26278]
First Edition. 8vo. Publisher’s spotless burgundy cloth with silver gilt titles to spine. Some slight spotting to page edges. Price-clipped dustwrapper with very light wear mainly limited to the head of the spine otherwise clean sharp and unfaded. Super copy. £95
Neil Blair is relishing an expenses-paid holiday in the Italian Dolomites, where he plans to finish his film script. All goes wrong, however, when he stumbles on the location of a hoard of buried Nazi gold. From then on, he faces a terrifying race for his life from a group of murderous criminals.

INNES, Hammond. The Mary Deare [aka The Wreck of the Mary Deare]. London, Collins. 1956 [26276]
First Edition. 8vo. Publisher’s green cloth lightly bumped to head and tail of spine otherwise clean and sharp, sliver of sunning to head of spine. Gilt titles. Signed by Hammond Innes to title page. Clean and attractive price-clipped dustwrapper with almost imperceptible fading to the spine, a small triangular nick to the upper edge of the rear panel and a one centimetre closed tear to the upper edge of the front panel. Some very slight abrasions otherwise a lovely copy. £100
The ‘Mary Deare’ was a 6000-ton freighter which emerged one night from severe Biscay gales into the English Channel, and into the newspaper headlines. It falls to John Sands, a salvage operator, to investigate what had happened to her.

KINGSTON, W.H.G. The Two Supercargoes. Adventures In Savage Africa. London, Sampson, Low, Marston and Company. [1895] [26909]
Illustrated throughout. Publisher’s gilt titled dark blue cloth decorated in black. Minor rubbing to extremities, a slight lean and bumping to the head and tail. Browned to prelims, prize label to front pastedown. £35
An attractive copy of one of those stories where everything happens; pirates, sea battles, lions, elephants, friendly natives, hostile natives, lost cities, shady Portuguese types and lashings of pluck.

THE RARE SUSSEX EDITION LIMITED AND SIGNEDKIPLING, Rudyard. The Complete Works in Prose and Verse. [Sussex Edition] [set of writings / novels / poems including: The Jungle Book, Kim, Wee Willie Winkie, Plain Tales from the Hills, Just So Stories, Captain Courageous, Rewards and Fairies, Stalky & Co., Puck of Pooks Hill, Rewards & Fairies, The Man Who Would be King &c.] London: Macmillan and Company, 1937-1939 [24172]
The SUSSEX EDITION, LIMITED to 525 numbered copies (500 for sale) of which this is No 14, and SIGNED by the Author. Royal 8vo. Printed on handmade paper with Ganesha (elephant) watermark. 35 volumes bound in publisher’s native red Niger with raised bands and gilt titles to spines, double gilt rules to boards, rough-edge gilding to top, others untrimmed, marbled endpapers. A few spines a touch faded, barely noticeable. Clean throughout. In their original mustard coloured slipcases showing some general wear, a few with tears. Extremely rare thus. A fine set. This edition, issued posthumously, represents Kipling’s final revised texts, and includes 2 volumes of uncollected prose and much verse. Of the limited copies printed, a substantial portion were destroyed by fire following the bombing of London in 1941. Remaining sets are scarce and desirable. This is a beautiful example. £19,500
Stewart 577.

LE QUEUX, William. The Czar’s Spy. A Story of a Matter of Millions. Illustrated by T.H. Robinson. London, Hodder and Stoughton. 1905 [26911]
FIRST EDITION. Octavo. Publisher’s light green cloth decorated in black, white and red, handsome and clean with only the lightest wear to the extremities.Page edges and prelims slightly spotted otherwise internally clean save for the odd spot here and there. Bumped to the head of the spine. A stirring bit of political intrigue in the Buchanian vein, full of men who spend their spare time hunting grouse in Scotland and meet the challenge of an enemy with a steely glint in their eyes and a grim smile playing about their lips. Possibly a new category should be created to cover this type of fiction, it could be called ‘man-fetishist’, fiction from a world where a man’s worth is gauged upon meeting by the shape of his jaw, the openness of his countenance and the manner in which he looks you up and down. I am of course only bitter because I never had the slightest urge to become a blistering wing three-quarter, and thus would be viewed as suspect.
William Le Quieux, on the other hand seems to have done everything (or at least said he did); journalist, diplomat, explorer, early pilot, radio enthusiast and the author of a staggering 197 books. There is even the suggestion that Duckworth Drew, one of Le Quieux’s espionage heroes, was a direct inspiration for James Bond. Collect the set. £175
‘The man who really deserves credit for helping develop the spy novel is William Le Queux’ (Peter Haining).

Haining; Crime Fiction p.187-189.

LEIBER, Fritz. Night’s Black Agents. Sauk City, Arkham House. 1947 [26325]
First edition. 8vo. 237pp. Publisher’s black gilt decorated cloth, slight bumping to head and tail of spine. Dusty top-edge. Clean, crisp and unfaded dustwrapper with almost non-existent shelf wear to the lower edge. A lovely copy made even more interesting by the addition of an inscription from Mr.Leiber:
“For Byron Warner / who, I know, is / well acquainted / with the mysterious / terrors of the / upper air. / Fritz Leiber Jr.”
As we always do when receiving a book with an inscription, we did a quick check to see if we could track down Mr. Byron Warner. In this case we have arrived at two possibilities: he is either a voice-over actor from Nashville or a gentleman who makes biltong in Florida. In any case we are very pleased to have acquired his book in such lovely condition.

£350

LONDON, Jack. The Call of The Wild. With colour illustrations by Charles Livingston Bull. The MacMillan Company, New York, 1903, [23978]
FIRST EDITION. 8vo., pp 231 + 2pp adverts. Occasional light marking else a fine copy handsomely bound in recent half dark green oasis morocco over original pictorial boards, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Internally clean. An attractive, near fine copy. £750
Jack London’s classic adventure; the story of a dog who joins a pack of wolves after his master's death.
Sisson & Martens p13. Listed in The Observer’s All-Time 100 Best Novels [2003], also Modern Library; Top 100 Novels [1998].

ACTION AND ADVENTURELONDON, Jack. White Fang. Macmillan & Co. New York 1906. [26890]
8vo., pp. 327 + 4 of adverts. Colour frontis + 7 colour plates. Elegantly bound in full dark blue oasis morocco, raised bands, gilt titles to spine, boards ruled in gilt, original board and spine bound in at the rear, top edge gilt. A fine copy, in a beautiful recent binding FIRST EDITION. £375
London’s story of a wild dog’s journey toward becoming civilized in the Canadian territory of Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush. ‘White Fang’ is a companion novel (and a thematic mirror) to London's earlier novel ‘The Call of the Wild’.
Sisson & Martens pp.29-30

LONG, Frank Belknap. The Horror From The Hills. Sauk City, Arkham House. 1963 [26676]
First edition. 8vo. Publisher’s gilt titled black cloth, slightest bump to head of spine, clean, bright and shiny. Richard Taylor designed dustjacket of surpassing loveliness, if such a phrase can be used to describe an image of what appears to be a Shoggoth on the rampage. A fine copy of a title by one of Mr.Lovecraft’s odder proteges. £125

LOVECRAFT, H. P. At the Mountains of Madness. And Other Novels. Sauk City, Arkham House 1964 [21611]
FIRST EDITION, 3000 copies printed, 8vo., Publisher’s black cloth, near fine copy with an introduction by August Derleth. Pictorial dustwrapper, also near fine. £210
Lovecraft's over-the-top verbal styling and unique vision of crawling chaos and dread is one of the gems of the genre. Much of his best work is in his short fiction (collected in several volumes) but this novel, set in the Antarctic, is a firm favourite.
Michael Marshall Smith; Top 10 Horror Novels.

LOVECRAFT, H.P. Dagon. And Other Macabre Tales. Sauk City, Arkham House. 1965 [25081]
FIRST EDITION, first printing. 8vo. 413pp. Near fine in publisher’s gilt titled black cloth with the slightest bumping to head and tail. A striking example of another Lee Brown Coye dustwrapper, a man who clearly was to artistic restraint what I am to Angelina Jolie (a complete stranger in case you are wondering), this example being a tasteful and subtle little affair involving a hare-lipped maniac with what Mr. Lovecraft would refer to as ‘ichthyian’ eyes, a harpoon, some fish skeletons and a mortally wounded mutant sperm whale. All in a days work for Mr. Coye, and he was probably paid a grand total of $50 for it. There’s a tiny bit of wear to the head and tail of the wrapper, and some very slight soiling to the back panel, otherwise a very nice copy of a book that among other highlights contains the seminal “Herbert West- Reanimator.” and “Imprisoned Among The Pharaohs” which if my memory serves me well, was ghost written for Harry Houdini. £145

LOVECRAFT, H.P. The Dunwich Horror. Sauk City, Arkham House, 1963. [26675]
First Edition, first printing.Near fine in publisher’s black gilt titled cloth.Gorgeous Lee Brown Coye dustwrapper (depicting what appears to be a bizarre hybrid between a racecourse bookie and a vampire bat) with the slightest toning to the spine (which appears to be a printing error since all of my copies have this, either that or my eyes are going funny), otherwise a lovely copy that has clearly never been exposed to more than the most minor wear to the extremities. An indispensible collection of Lovecraft’s greatest tales including ‘The Call of Cthulhu’, ‘The Shadow Over Innsmouth’ (don’t make deals with the things beyond the reef) and the delicious “Pickman’s Model” (‘ That nauseous wizard had waked the fires of hell in pigment, and his brush had been a nightmare spawning wand. Give me that decanter Eliot!’). Mr. Lovecraft we salute you. £225

LOVECRAFT, H. P. Marginalia Sauk City, Arkham House 1944 [21551]
FIRST EDITION, Publishers black cloth, fine copy, slightly bumped at top and bottom of spine, page edges a touch dusty. Text contains illustrations, photographs and a lament to Lovecraft. Original dustwrapper with suitably atmospheric design, slight wear to edges and spine. Near fine. £300

LOVECRAFT, H.P. The Shuttered Room and Other Pieces. Sauk City, Arkham House. 1959 [26662]
First edition.8vo. 313pp. Publisher’s gilt titled black cloth, slight bumping to head and tail of spine otherwise very pretty, shrouded in a Richard Taylor dustwrappper with minor wear and fading to the spine. A very nice copy barely tainted by its contact with the terrors of beyond. Copies of this book in the main tend to have some splashes of ichor, staining from ill advised rituals etc. This copy has mostly escaped such punishment, presumably through judicious use of the last passage of the Sigsand MS. As well as the title story, a couple of Lovecraft/Derleth posthumous collaborations and a spot of juvenilia, this volume also contains a wealth of little details about Lovecraft, his life, his loves, his chin and his friends. Indispensable should you want to build your own Howard Phillips Homonculus. There’s cool, and then there’s this stuff, sacred to those that believe that freedom lies in doubt and that doubt is the only certain thing. £210

LOVECRAFT, H.P.& DIVERS HANDS The Dark Brotherhood The Dark Brotherhood and Other Pieces. Sauk City, Arkham House 1966 [21541]
LIMITED FIRST EDITION, 3,500 COPIES. Publisher’s black cloth, fine copy. Contains various illustrations and photographic plates. Very fine dustwrapper, illustrated by Frank Utpatel. £185

LYNCH, Bohun. Menace From The Moon. London, Jarrolds. 1925 [26900]
First Edition. Publisher’s dark brown cloth titled and ruled in red to spine and front board. A trifle bumped at head and tail, dusty top edge and some toning to the endpapers, otherwise clean, strong and bright. A previous holder of the book has graciously seen fit to place his, admittedly discreet, ownership stamp on both the front pastedown and the title page. An oddity indeed, and the author’s only science fiction novel. The basic premise being that a group of seventeenth century scientists have managed to travel to the moon and can’t get back, consequently demanding that the technologically advanced twentieth century Earth retrieve them from their fate or suffer destruction by heat ray. Like most Britsh science fiction of the time it makes no technical suggestions as to how any of these things may be possible, it merely observes the behaviour of the people who find themselves in such situations. An interesting work. £75

MACDONALD FRASER, George. Flashman in The Great Game. The Flashman Papers 1856-58. Barrie & Jenkins, London. 1975 [22289]
FIRST EDITION. 8vo. Publisher’s red cloth. Minor wear. A lovely near fine copy in like dustwrapper, without any fading to spine. The fifth Flashman volume and one of the more elusive in the series. £210
A Flashman novel set during the Indian Mutiny, in which Harry suffers an unusual bout of heroism and is awarded the Victoria Cross!

MACDONALD FRASER, George. Flashman’s Lady. London, Barrie and Jenkins. 1977 [19432]
FIRST EDITION. 8vo. A Fine copy in a Fine price-clipped Barbosa dustwrapper. The sixth packet of the Flashman papers, spanning 1842-45 and recounting our hero’s adventures alongside Ranavalona of Madagascar and Brooke of Sarawak amongst others. £85

McCULLEY, Johnston. The Mark Of Zorro. London, MacDonald, 1959. [20651]
FIRST UK EDITION. 8vo. Publisher’s cloth, owner’s name near fine. In near fine dustwrapper, with light edge wear. £75
‘Zorro’, Spanish for fox, is the secret identity of Don Diego de la Vega (originally Don Diego Vega), a fictional nobleman and master swordsman living in the Spanish-era California, who defends the people, Robin Hood-style, from the corrupt tyranny of the Spanish governor, proving himself much too cunning and ‘fox’ like for the bumbling authorities to catch.

RARE LARGE PAPER IN THE CHROME BOXMELVILLE, Herman. KENT, Rockwell. Moby Dick. Chicago. Lakeside Press. 1930. [27109]
Limited Edition. 3 vols. Quarto. Publisher’s black cloth titled and finely decorated in silver. The very slightest wear to the spine ends otherwise virtually spotless. A beautiful set, internally clean (some slight offsetting to the thick handmade paper from Kent’s heavy black woodcut illustrations). The usual drawback to this set (limited to 1000 copies) is that the slipcase is a dramatic confection made of aircraft aluminium which has a tendency to get knocked about and scratched and ends up looking likely a badly treated biscuit tin. This particular example is a single step below pefect. There’s some slight marking to the spine panel of the case but it has otherwised escaped unscathed. Indisputably the most elegant edition of Melville’s masterpiece. £5,500
Listed in ‘The Novel 100’ (Burt, 2004).

METCALFE, John. The Feasting Dead. Sauk City, Arkham House. 1954 [25089]
FIRST EDITION. 8vo. 123pp. Limited to 1200 copies. Fine in like dustwrapper. A title of such tantalising perfection it almost makes up for the verging on the ridiculous nature of the contents; delicate public schoolboy victimised by demonic scarecrow in the south of France. Kind of like “A Year In Provence With Satan.” Metcalfe was one of Derleth’s English authors who never really achieved any great success in the US, he was unfortunate enough to be picked up by Arkham house at possibly the lowest point of their long history, and this is probably his only published work in the US, though in all he released something like 5 different anthologies of wierd tales in the UK. £125

MILES, Alfred H. Fifty-Two Pioneer Stories, All Round the Compass. Stories of Travellers, Explorers, Prospectors, Engineers etc. London, Hutchinson & Co., undated. (1906) [26902]
FIRST EDITION. Illustrated. Octavo, pp.456 + 8 advertisements. Publisher’s red pictorial cloth, elaborately blocked in black, white, grey and gilt., black endpapers, all edges gilt. Slight crase to flyleaf else a clean, fine copy. A vast collection of thrilling episodes including kidnap, savages, torpedo boats, rapids, convicts and prisons, Indians, man-eaters, mammoths and snakes. £75

O’BRIAN, Patrick. Blue at the Mizzen. London, Harper Collins, 1999. [26399]
First Edition, SIGNED to title page. 8vo. Publisher’s dark blue cloth, titles in gilt to spine. Pictorial dust jacket illustrated by Geoff Hunt. An Aubrey/Maturin adventure. A super copy- a few little spots to fore-edge, else fine in like dust jacket. The last of Patrick O’Brian’s famous naval stories, regarded by many as the greatest series of historical novels ever written. The adventures of Captain Jack Aubrey RN, and Stephen Maturin, who becomes his secretive ship's surgeon and an intelligence agent, contain all the action and excitement which could possibly be hoped for in a historical novel, loaded with detail of life aboard a Nelsonic man-of-war. £600
Patrick O’Brian won the 1995 Heywood Hill Literary Prize (Lifetime Contributon).

O'BRIAN, Patrick The Far Side of The World. Collins,London 1984 [26887]
Fine in like dustwrapper. This book originally retailed at £9.95, yet all wrappers were printed at £8.95, hence unclipped wrappers are exceedingly scarce. This copy has been re-priced and clipped by Collins, as usual. FIRST EDITION.
This title, together with the first in the series, formed the basis of the Hollywood blockbuster starring Russell Crowe. £1,250
Patrick O’Brian won the 1995 Heywood Hill Literary Prize (Lifetime Contributon).

O'BRIAN, Patrick Master & Commander. London, Collins, 1970 [26891]
FIRST EDITION. The first Jack Aubrey novel. Publisher’s blue cloth, titled in gilt, in pictorial dustwrapper. Light wear, spine a touch sunned to spine. A near fine copy. The first of Patrick O’Brian’s famous naval stories, regarded by many as the greatest series of historical novels ever written. It establishes the friendship between Captain Jack Aubrey RN and Stephen Maturin, who becomes his secretive ship's surgeon and an intelligence agent, and contains all the action and excitement which could possibly be hoped for in a historical novel, loaded with detail of life aboard a Nelsonic man-of-war.
Basis for the Hollywood blockbuster starring Russell Crowe. £895
Callil & Toibin; Modern Library. (200 Best Novels in English since 1950). Patrick O’Brian won the 1995 Heywood Hill Literary Prize (Lifetime Contributon).

O’BRIAN, Patrick. Post Captain. London: Collins, 1972. [26128]
First Edition. Fine and clean in Near Fine dust wrapper slightly rubbed to extremities, folding trace to inside upper flap. A bright, sound copy. The second title of the series. £575
Patrick O’Brian won the 1995 Heywood Hill Literary Prize (Lifetime Contributon).

O’BRIAN, Patrick. [BARBOSA, Arthur.] H.M.S. Surprise. ORIGNAL COVER ART Collins, London, c.1984 [22449]
Original painting by A.E Barbosa for the cover of Patrick O’Brian’s HMS Surprise, watercolour on board. Vignette image, 22 x 14cms on larger board. Supplied with offprint of the original dustjacket showing reduced image as finally published. Minor handling to boards, some pencil note and ruling, tracing cover/guard attached. FINE. A rare opportunity to obtain an original illustration by one of the most popular twentieth century dustwrapper artists.
Patrick O'Brian's twenty Jack Aubrey novels were published in the UK between 1970 and 1999. Barbosa illustrated the first edition of The Far Side of the World (1984) and such was the reaction to his work that a major part of the series was reissued with new cover paintings by Barbosa, and it is the original of his version of HMS Surprise that is presently offered. Barbosa went on to illustrate the next new instalment, The Reverse of the Medal, (1986), before continuing the Flashman series for George MacDonald Fraser. £2,750
Arthur Barbosa (1908-1995), artist, theatrical designer and interior stylist had an inimitable vision of the Regency world. He was a quintessential British gentleman, and counted Rex Harrison, Cecil Beaton and Laurence Olivier among his friends. His prolific book illustration was the most constant and popular element throughout his long career and he was commissioned by authors such as C.S Forester, George MacDonald Fraser, Patrick O’Brian and Georgette Heyer. His stylised designs are immediately recognisable and have become a characteristic perception of the (extended!) Regency period (Hornblower and Flashman technically fall either side of the years 1810-20!).

ORCZY, Baroness The Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel. London, Hutchinson & Co. Ltd. 1929 [23015]
FIRST EDITION: 8vo. Fine/near fine Publisher's boards. Unfaded and clean with sharp edges, only one tiny indentation to top outer corner. Slight foxing to fore-edge. SCARCE original dustwrapper, suffering from some wear to head and tail of spine with 4 small closed tears and a small 1 cm area of abrasion to spine. Nonetheless a good, clean, bright example with unfaded spine. £895
Another classic entry in famous adventure series set during the French Revolution; the ‘Adventures’ being a collection of short stories about the exploits of the Scarlet Pimpernel where swashbuckling rescue from the dreaded Guillotine is the order of the day, and clever disguises and narrow escapes are in abundance.
Steinbrunner & Penzler; Ency.of Mystery & Detection, p354-5 (1976). Quayle; Detective Fiction, p.96 (1972).

ORCZY, Baroness. The Celestial City. London, Hodder and Stoughton, [1926] [19502]
FIRST EDITION. Publisher’s light blue cloth with black titles to spine and upper, minor offset to pastedown, very good. In attractive pictorial dustwrapper with some chips and tears, backed with paper tape. A very good copy. Adventure novel set during the French Revolution. £450
Historical adventure novel set during the French Revolution.

ORCZY, Baroness. Eldorado. A Story of the Scarlet Pimpernel. Hodder and Stoughton, London, [1913] [16264]
FIRST EDITION. 8vo. Publisher’s red cloth, gilt titles to spine and upper board, vignette to upper board; inner upper hinge starting, owner’s name, some edge spotting, light soiling to cloth else a very good, clean copy. £175
The elusive Pimpernel returns for another swashbuckling adventure in El Dorado; the still-raging French Revolution continues to claim lives, and the shadow of the guillotine draws ever nearer to the the young Dauphin, son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The mysterious Sir Percy Blakeney, (the Scarlet Pimpernel) is the only one daring enough to attempt to liberate the little prince, and Sir Percy must take on Robespierre’s agents, the scheming Citizen Chauvelin, in a suspenseful blend of action and political intrigue, recounted with captivating period detail.
Steinbrunner & Penzler; Ency.of Mystery & Detection, p354-5 (1976). Quayle; Detective Fiction, p.96 (1972).

ORCZY, Baroness. The Elusive Pimpernel. Hutchinson, London. 1908. [16261]
FIRST EDITION. Blue cloth with gilt titles to spine and upper board. Cloth rubbed, general wear, new endpapers. Very good. Becoming a difficult title. £145
A sequel to ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’ where French agent and chief spy-catcher Chauvelin is as crafty as ever, but Sir Percy Blakeney is more than a match for his arch-enemy. Meanwhile the beautiful Marguerite remains wholly devoted to Sir Percy, her husband. Cue more swashbuckling adventures as the elusive Pimpernel attempts to smuggle French aristocrats out of the country to safety.
Steinbrunner & Penzler; Ency.of Mystery & Detection, p354-5 (1976). Quayle; Detective Fiction, p.96 (1972).

ORCZY, Baroness. The First Sir Percy. London, Hodder & Stoughton [1921] [19456]
FIRST EDITION. Story of the ancestor of ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’ 8vo., pp. 320. Publisher’s red cloth titled in black, some edge-spotting. In pictorial wrapper with moderate wear, spine sunned, some brown tape to reverse side. Shows well, very good. £200
A fine adventure which features the Scarlet Pimpernel’s ancestor, Diogenes, aka the First Sir Percy Blakeney. Netherlands, 1624; Diogenes and his companions Socrates and Pythagoras swear allegiance to the Royalist cause. Their undivided loyalty results in many escapades - and more than one foe.

Steinbrunner & Penzler; Ency.of Mystery & Detection, p354-5 (1976). Quayle; Detective Fiction, p.96 (1972).

ORCZY, Baroness. I Will Repay. A Scarlet Pimpernel story. London; Greening & Co. 1906 [19471]
FIRST EDITION. 8vo., pp.326. Publisher’s blue pictorial cloth, printed in red and gilt. Some foxing, foldout frontispiece creased, with a few short tears. Cloth rubbed to extremities, edgeworn, very good. £245
The second novel in the famous adventure series set during the French Revolution, where the elusive Pimpernel must keep his head in his attempts to smuggle French aristocrats out of the country to safety.
Steinbrunner & Penzler; Ency.of Mystery & Detection, p354-5 (1976). Quayle; Detective Fiction, p.96 (1972).

ORCZY, Baroness. The Laughing Cavalier. London, Hodder & Stoughton, [1914] [19474]
FIRST EDITION. 8vo., pp. 406 + 2 ads. Publisher’s red cloth with pictorial dustwrapper. Owner’s inscription to half-title, small dampstain to corners offset to wrapper, which has light soil and a few chips and tears backed with tape. Very good. £275
A Dutch adventure, featuring the ancestor of Sir Percy Blakeney, aka ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’.
Steinbrunner & Penzler; Ency.of Mystery & Detection, p354-5 (1976). Quayle; Detective Fiction, p.96 (1972).

ORCZY, Baroness. The Scarlet Pimpernel. London, Hodder and Stoughton [27353]
Octavo, pp320, edition not stated (1930s). Publisher’s hardback cloth in pictorial dustwrapper. Light general wear, neat ownership to pastedown, small xmas postage stamp affixed to flyleaf. A very good copy indeed. The first title in the famous adventure series set during the French Revolution; a band of titled Englishmen, led by Sir Percy Blakeney (the Scarlet Pimpernel), assist condemned aristocrats in their escape to England during the Reign of Terror. £85
Steinbrunner & Penzler; Ency.of Mystery & Detection, p354-5 (1976). Quayle; Detective Fiction, p.96 (1972).

ORCZY, Baroness. Sir Percy Leads the Band The new Scarlet Pimpernel novel. London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1936 [19500]
FIRST EDITION. Publisher’s light blue cloth with black titles to spine and upper, edges spotted/dusty, minor offset to pastedown. In beautiful pictorial dustwrapper, lightly rubbed. Still a bright, near fine copy. £395
Another classic entry in famous adventure series set during the French Revolution where swashbuckling rescue from the dreaded Guillotine is the order of the day, and clever disguises and narrow escapes are in abundance.
Steinbrunner & Penzler; Ency.of Mystery & Detection, p354-5 (1976). Quayle; Detective Fiction, p.96 (1972).

ORCZY, Baroness. A Spy of Napoleon London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1934 [19507]
FIRST EDITION. 8vo., pp. 321 + 6 ads. Publisher’s light blue cloth with black titles to spine and upper, rubbed at extremities. In worn pictorial wrapper, with several chips and tears plus a couple of larger losses to spine. A good/very good copy. £100
Thrilling historical espionage novel from the creator of ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’.

ORCZY, Baroness. The Triumph of the Scarlet Pimpernel. London, Hodder & Stoughton. 1922 [23014]
FIRST EDITION: 8vo. Publisher’s original red cloth boards with black embossing, fine but for the faintest traces of wear to outer corners. Near Fine. SCARCE original dust-jacket has closed tears, some creasing and soiling . Loss to top edge of rear. A very good copy. £475
Paris, 1794, and still Robespierre’s reign of terror is wreaking its bloody havoc, but the elusive Scarlet Pimpernel is still at large...
Steinbrunner & Penzler; Ency.of Mystery & Detection, p354-5 (1976). Quayle; Detective Fiction, p.96 (1972).

ORCZY, Baroness. The Way of the Scarlet Pimpernel. London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1933. [19499]
FIRST EDITION. Publisher’s light blue cloth with black titles to spine and upper, edges spotted. In beautiful pictorial dustwrapper, lightly rubbed. A clean, bright, near fine copy. £675
1793; the darkest days of the French revolution, and little Charles-Léon is ill. The delicate son of Louise and Bastien de Croissy is recommended country air, but travel permits are needed and impossible to come by. Louise’s friend, Josette, believes she knows a way out and is convinced that her hero, the Scarlet Pimpernel, will come to their rescue. Thus sets forth into the Paris streets...
Steinbrunner & Penzler; Ency.of Mystery & Detection, p354-5 (1976). Quayle; Detective Fiction, p.96 (1972).

[RASPE, R.E.] The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Illustrated by Gustave Dore. London, Cassell, Petter & Galpin. [22415]
A NEW REVISED EDITION, 4to. Bound in full recent plum morocco and tastefully decorated in gilt on the spine and boards with original boards bound in. The pages are good with gilt to the top edge. There is some discolouration and quite large spots of foxing. Gustave Dore’s unusual, sometimes shocking, sometimes entertaining illustrations appear throughout the text making this a must for Dore fans. £450

ROHMER, Sax. Sinister Madonna. A Sumuru Story. London, Herbert Jenkins. 1956 [26471]
FIRST EDITION. 8vo. Fine in publisher’s deep red cloth, slight bump to tail of spine. Some very light edgewear to the fabulous, garish ‘pulp’ dustwrapper, discreet tape repair to inside head of spine. One of the increasingly elusive (but always cool) Mr.Rohmer’s Sumuru titles, featuring the female equivalent of Fu Manchu who, apart from being dazzlingly beautiful apparently has “infernal hypnotic gifts”.
A composite of themes from the Sumuru novels was fimed in 1967, as ‘The Million Eyes of Su-Muru’, starring former ‘Goldfinger’ victim Shirley Eaton.
£175
Steinbrunner & Penzler p345-7.

ROHMER, Sax. The Yellow Claw. Lippincott’s Magazine. 1915 [25893]
First appearance in print, bound from the parts. 8vo. Attractively bound in recent half green morocco leather with gilt titles to spine, black title label. Green cloth boards and plain endpapers. Bound from the parts extracted form the 1915 issues of Lippincott’s Magazine predating the first US edition in book form, the first appearance of one of Mr.Rohmer’s more melodramatic stories, which for the man who created Fu-Manchu, master of the Si-Fan, is saying something. As far as he was concerned if it didn’t have an opium den in there somewhere it just wasn’t a story. £475

STEVENSON, R.L. Kidnapped.
Being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751. Together with Catriona. A Sequel.
Being Memoirs of the Further Adventures of David Balfour at Home & Abroad. London: Cassell & Company, Limited, 1886 and 1893. [25660]
FIRST EDITIONS. Kidnapped being a FIRST ISSUE. Catriona is not subject to issue points. 2 volumes, 8vo, folding map frontispiece to first volume, publisher’s catalogues at end. Beautifully bound in full green and blue oasis with raised bands, gilt titles and decoration to spine, gilt rule to boards, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt by Bayntun of Bath. Original spines bound in at end. £1,250
Superb copies, high adventure with kilts, ruffled shirts and villainous Englishmen. What more could anyone ask for.
First issue Kidnapped- ‘business’ for ‘pleasure’p.40, line 11. Adverts dated 5G 4.86
Prideaux [18]

STEVENSON, Robert Louis. The Stories of Robert Louis Stevenson. London, Gollancz. 1928 [26894]
FIRST EDITION THUS. Octavo. 1120pp. Publisher’s red cloth, a trifle darkened. Titled in gilt to spine. Strong and solid. Dustwrapper solid, brown paper slightly toned at spine, otherwise clean, bright and respectable. A collection of the more esoteric of Stevenson’s tales advertised as containing ‘ diablerie, horror, mystery, exotic charm, hocus-pocus and strange adventure.’ Can’t say fairer than that. The classic mysteries and adventures including; The Suicide Club, The Rajah’s Diamond, The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde, The Bottle Imp, The Misadventures of John Nicolson, and The Body-Snatcher. £50

CLASSIC DARK THRILLERSTEVENSON, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. London, Longmans, Green and Co. 1886 [23572]
FIRST EDITION: Crown octavo, pp.viii + 144. Publisher’s salmon coloured cloth, as issued. Lettered in black upon the front cover with the sign of a ship in the left hand upper corner. A scarce original copy with some darkening and wear to the spine and extreme edges. Internally remarkably clean and fresh. Housed in a custom, quarter black Morocco clamshell box. Fleece lined, with gilt lettering and raised bands to spine. The classic mystery crime novel/ horror story (or ‘Crawler’ as Stevenson called it), inspired by the case of the Edinburgh body snatchers Burke and Hare, was written in just three days, although it was shelved by the author for three years as he considered it too disturbing for publication.
“Jekyll & Hyde” is a chilling masterpiece work; a brilliantly suggestive, resonant study of human duality by a natural storyteller.
£1,450
Pideaux 17. A Haycfraft-Queen Cornerstone novel. Book Collector; Top 200 Crime Novels (No.272). Listed in The Observer’s All-Time 100 Best Novels [2003] also Jones & Newman; 100 Best Horrors.

A COPY TO TREASURESTEVENSON, Robert Louis. Treasure Island. London: Cassell & Company Limited, 1883. [26349]
First Edition, First Issue. 8vo., with map frontispiece, pps. (viii) + 292 + 4 of adverts. A superb, clean copy of this classic adventure story in a very pretty c.1900 dark brown half morocco by Morrell with gilt titles and elegant gilt tooling to spine, marbled boards and end papers, top edge gilt; red cloth page marker still present. A fine copy indeed. The first issue points are:
‘Dead Man’s Chest’ not capitalised on page 2; No ‘a’ on p. 63, line 6; “7” hand-stamped to p.127; p.178, line 20: no full stop after “opportunity”; p.197, line 3: ‘worse’ for ‘worst’; ads are dated 5G-783. Michael Sandler’s copy. £3,950
Prideaux; A Bibliography of the Works of Robert Louis Stevenson (1917). [Item 11]. Listed in ‘100 Books That Shaped World History’ [Raftery, 2002]. Also in BBC Big Read (200 Best Novels) [2003].

STEVENSON, Robert Louis. OSBORNE, Lloyd. The Wrecker. London, Cassell. 1892 [26895]
FIRST EDITION, noted in several important crime checklists. Octavo. 427pp. 10pp ads. Illustrated. Publisher’s blue gilt titled cloth. Clean and bright, slight wear to extremities. Top edge slightly dusty, all other edges untrimmed. Light foxing to endpapers otherwise internally bright and sharp. Another stirring tale of shipwreck, salvage and dark doings from Mr.Stevenson. A second mystery written in collaboration with Stevenson’s stepson Lloyd Osborne, in this instance the investigator being the narrator himself. Inspired by the schooner Equator (1888-1953) this strange South Seas tale concerns the abandoned wreck of the Flying Scud at Midway Island... £275
Prideaux; A Bibliography of the Works of Robert Louis Stevenson (1917). [Item 34] See also Eric Quayle; The Collectors Book of Detective Fiction (1972), Graham Greene & Dorothy Glover; Victorian Detective Fiction (1966).

STEVENSON, Robert Louis [PAGET]. The works of R.L. Stevenson. Including: Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Jekyll & Hyde, The Wrecker, The Suicide Club, etc., as well as Letters. London: Cassell and Company, Chatto & Windus, et al, 1893-1900. [25145]
A collection of 33 volumes, 8vo, in a uniform contemporary binding of pale green half calf with gilt titles and gilt to spines evenly faded to tan, marbled boards and end papers; top edges gilt. With illustrations. Occasional foxing. A sound set in an old leather binding. £2,100

STEVENSON, Robert Louis. [WYETH, N.C.] The Black Arrow. A Tale of the Two Roses.
Illustrated by N.C. Wyeth. Toronto: Copp Clarke Company and Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1916. [19740]
FIRST WYETH EDITION (CANADA). 4to. With 14 full page colour illustrations. Finely bound in recent full green morocco, gilt titles and decoration to spine, top edge gilt, marbled end-papers, original pictorial end-papers also retained, publisher’s pictorial cover and spine bound in. Fine. £175

STOKER, Bram. Dracula. London, Westminster, Archibald Constable and Company. 1897. [25650]
Octavo. [i-vii], viii-ix, [1], 2-390. Superbly bound by the Chelsea Bindery in full yellow morocco, in facsimile of the original Constable binding, red titles to front board and spine, publisher’s boards bound in at rear. Internally clean, a fine copy in a beautiful and unusual binding which mirrors the appearance of the original. FIRST EDITION. £4,750
A Haycroft Queen cornerstone. A mystery classic, interpreting ‘mystery’ in its broadest sense. Stoker didn’t invent the vampire story, but with ‘Dracula’ he produced the genre-defining novel as well as the essental 20th century horror archetype.
Listed in Jones & Newman; 100 Best Horror Novels, also ‘The Novel 100’ (Burt, 2004).

STOKER, Bram. The Lair of the White Worm. William Rider and Son Ltd., London, 1911. [19945]
FIRST EDITION. 8vo., pp. viii, 324. Illustrated with 6 coloured plates. Finely bound in recent full burgundy morocco, gilt titles and decoration to spine, gilt ruled border to covers, top edge gilt, marbled end-papers, publisher’s cloth bound in. Occasional very light foxing, very small marginal tear to one leaf. Near Fine. A classic horror novel by the author of Dracula, written whilst he was addicted to laudanum. £450

STRANG, Herbert. The Cruise of The Gyro Car. London, Henry Frowde. 1911 [27071]
First edition. Publisher’s decorated red cloth a trifle bumped to the spine ends, otherwise bright, clean and suitably dramatic in its depiction of the ‘gyro-car’ (which looks rather as if someone has forcibly mated a speedboat, a coal scuttle and a bicycle in some bizarre Wilf Lunn style experiment). Prize giving label to ffep. Spotting to page edges and sporadic, minor foxing to contents. Illustrated in stirring style by A.C. Michael. A highly attractive example of pre-First World War man worship. £125

FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE.TOLKIEN, J.R.R. The Hobbit. London, George Allen & Unwin. 1937. [24925]
8vo, pp. 310 + 2 [ads]. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE. Publisher’s green cloth with titles and designs by the author in black, in original FIRST STATE dustwrapper (text hand-corrected on rear flap). Cloth and text block a little browned to extremities, shelfwear, small bookseller label of W.H. Smith to pastedown. Wrapper with light general wear, plus a couple of tiny chips, the very slightest toning to the spine, otherwise a beautifully bright and unfaded example of a notorously frail wrapper.Unrestored. Overall a lovely copy that looks like it stayed in its hole rather than going off and getting into adventures with wizards. Seldom has any book been so widely read and loved as this classic tale, and its hero, Bilbo Baggins, has taken his place among the ranks of the immortals: Alice, Pooh, Toad... Tolkien's Middle-Earth is a vast mine of treasures and knowledge, its roots delving deep into folklore, mythology and language, and ‘The Hobbit’ is an ideal introduction to this richly imagined world, which was more fully and complexly realised in ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Silmarillion’. £27,500
Hammond and Anderson A3.

DUSTWRAPPER SET OF THE MIDDLE EARTH TRILOGYTOLKIEN, J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings.
Being: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1954, 1954, 1955. [19729]
FIRST EDITIONS, First impressions. 3 vols, octavo. Publisher’s red cloth, gilt titles, top edge red, in dustwrappers. Books are very good, without inscriptions, with only mild spotting to endpapers. Small Foyles sticker to corner of front pastedown of Fellowship and a little light red staining to the bottom edge of the front pastedown of Return, which seems to have bled from the red cloth boards Original dustwrappers show general wear, spine tips with some small chips and tears, moderate rubbing and handling. Tape marks to front and rear flaps of Fellowship. The red lettering to the spine is unfaded and the set shows extremely well. A very good set of Tolkien’s classic work. £12,500
A fantastic trilogy, “The Lord of the Rings” is one of the greatest books of the twentieth century, containing amazing details of a new mythology, never really surpassed.

Hammond & Anderson [A5], listed in Time Magazine; 100 Best Modern Novels.

Various. [POE, IRVING etc.] Weird Tales; American. London, Paterson. [1890] [27012]
First Edition. 16mo. Publisher dark grey cloth with dramatic silver gilt titles, bolts of lightning and bats flying past new moons, all standard fodder for tales of gothic weirdness. A trifle rubbed to the extrmities and bumped to the head and tail of the spine otherwise clean and bright. Glazed yellow endpapers with small booksellers sticker to front pastedown (Lausanne of all places). A collection of classic weird and supernatural tales including Washington Irving’s The Headless Horseman. £100

VERNE, Jules. 20,000 Lieues Sous Les Mers. Paris, Collection Hetzel. c.1877. [25470]
4to. Publisher’s red cloth, “A un elephant avec titre eventail, spine F, back board Q”.(see bibliography ref. below) Wonderful illustrations throughout by Riou; De Neuville, engraved by Hildebrand. A gorgeous copy with boards in excellent condition. Lovely pages, minimal age toning, a tiny tear to lower edge of p.419, a few little smudges and slight intermittent foxing. £875
Superb polychrome binding, one of the famous Hetzel publications of the writings of Jules Verne. Printed on thick paper, with elaborate bevelled cover, these are heavy books which seldom survive in such fine condition.
Andre Bottin, 1978, p.405 - 8.

VERNE, Jules. Adventures in the Land of the Behemoth [Meridiana] Boston. Henry L.Shepherd and Co. 1874 [24306]
Large 8vo. This is the second US edition. The first was published in the same year by Scribners’ Sons and is bound in a less attractive blue cloth. Large 8vo. Publisher’s superb green pictorial cloth with decorative border design and central picture of a hippopotamus. Illustrated copiously with many wood engravings. Owner’s name in ink to front free end paper. Original green end papers. Neat previous owner’s name to front free end paper. Some insignificant traces of wear to extreme edges, but otherwise a very good sound copy indeed. £295
The South African escapade ‘Meridiana’ was previously sub-titled ‘The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians’ and is part of Jules Verne’s ‘Voyages Extraordinaires’ series.

VERNE, Jules. Among The Cannibals. Containing “The Mysterious Document,” “On The Track,” and “Among The Cannibals.”
Illustrated by Henry Austin. London, Ward, Lock & Co., Ltd. n.d. [26899]
8vo. Publisher’s blue cloth. Clean and bright, with a little light rubbing. Hinges starting. Occasional light spotting. Small neat gift inscription. Very Good indeed. £85

VERNE, Jules. An Antarctic Mystery. London, Sampson, Low, Marston and Company. 1898 [26588]
First Edition in Book Form (Originally published in English in The Boy’s Own Magazine). Publisher’s decorated olive green cloth (one of two variants we have seen, this one having pale green and white in the design rather than pale grey and white). Slightly cocked, lightly bumped at head and tail of spine and with some of the characteristic chipping off of the white paint applied to the cloth design. Some rubbing to extremities but solid and attractive. A very pretty copy of a tricky book to find in nice condition. £1,450
Verne’s sequel to Edgar Allan Poe’s “Arthur Gordon Pym” originally published in French as “The Sphinx Of The Ice” , packed to the gunwales with hollow earth theory, snowy horror and a smattering of nineteenth century xenophobic political incorrectness. Arthur Gordon Pym’s fate held a peculiar fascination for Lovecraft as well as Verne (pause a moment and imagine Poe, Lovecraft and Verne at a table in the corner of a bar, surely some sort of critical mass of the imagination would be reached and the whole place would be sucked into a parallel universe of sky pirates, flying fungus and disgruntled homicidal housing), resulting in the epic and delicious “Mountains of Madness” and a yen to repeat the phrase “Tekeli-Li” with an increasing number of exclamation marks.
E & J Myers.

A Verne Pirate adventureVERNE, Jules. The Archipelago On Fire. London, Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington. 1886 [24421]
FIRST EDITION. 8vo 198pp + 32pp ads. Publisher’s decorated blue cloth with gilt titles to board and spine. Ex-Libris bookplate to front pastedown. All edges gilt. Some slight scuffing to the extremities of the soft blue cloth and some bumping and fraying to the head and tail of the spine.Slightly shaken. Aside from the expected erosion caused by rubbing up against a passing century this copy is clean and not in any need of mollycoddling. £1,250
Myers

VERNE, Jules. The Begum’s Fortune. Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott and Co. [1880] [26592]
First US Edition (printed from the UK sheets). Publisher’s gilt and black titled and decorated crimson cloth. Clean and bright, with some expert restoration to the head of the spine. A very pretty copy, tight and strong. Copiously illustrated, as are most of the works of M. Verne, who probably warranted something in the order of a lifetime achievement award from the French Guild of Book Illustrators.
£575
Myers; Jules Verne- A Bibliography.

VERNE, Jules. Dr.Ox’s Experiment. With:
Master Zacharias, A Drama In The Air, A Winter In The Ice. London, Sampson Low, Marston, Low and Searle. 1874 [26668]
True First English Edition. Publishers decorated green cloth, embossed titles and decoration in black and gilt to spine and front board. Slight rubbing to extremities, bumping to head, tail and corners. Small spot (2 or 3 mm) of white paint to rear board. A hint of cocking, all edges gilt. A solid, strong and pretty copy of a scarce collection of some of verne’s earliest tales of adventure. As usual for Verne this edition is illustrated as if the art of engraving was about to go out of fashion and they wanted to make sure they got enough plates in. Lavish is one word that could be used to describe the UK Verne editions, opulent might also do. They are to late Victorian book production what the pyramids are to architectural conservatism. A difficult book that has a tendency to collapse in on itself, this copy has escaped such a fate and continues to endure. £600
Myers

VERNE, Jules. The Exploration of The World. The Great Navigators of the XVIII th Century. New York, Scribners. 1880 [27338]
FIRST ILLUSTRATED EDITION, following Muro’s Seaside Library edition Octavo. 409pp. Publishers olive green cloth decorated in black and titled in gilt to spine and front board. Minor rubbing to extremities and a trifling spine lean otherwise an exceptional copy. A clean, bright and lovely example of the scarcest part of Mr. Verne’s trilogy, in which he attempts to chronicle every major exploratory act in history in typically ambitious fashion. £250
E and J Myers; Jule Verne- A Bibliography (p.26)

VERNE, Jules. The Field Of Ice. London, George Routledge. 1876 [27142]
FIRST EXPORT EDITION. Publisher’s maroon cloth, lavishly decorated and titled in black and gilt with a typically Vernian illustration of dauntless explorers trapped in a sea of ice. Cloth is worn to extremities, slightly sunned to the spine and bumped to the head and tail of the spine. There is also a mild spine lean and some marking to the rear panel of the cloth. Ownership signatures to ffep. All of the above rather makes it sound as if the book istself had been trapped in a sea of ice, but it is nevertheless solid and strong, internally clean and packed with the usual fleet of illustrations (126 of them on this occasion) depicting derring do in all its forms, including a rather unsavoury episode involving a dead fox, four polar bears and a keg of gunpowder.
£175
E. and J. Myers. Jules Verne; A Bibliography, p.65.

VERNE, Jules. A Floating City. And, The Blockade Runners. New York, Scribner, Armstrong and Co. 1874 [26591]
First US Edition. Publisher’s gilt and black titled and decorated embossed brick red cloth. Slightly rubbed to spine with some evidence of expert repair to head of spine. Clean, sharp and neat. Ownership to ffep. Some slight, light foxing throughout, shows very well. The title pretty much says it all, if it is unfeasibly large, massively complex and steam powered then it’s probably gushed willy-nilly from the massive glowing head of Jules Verne. £595

VERNE, Jules. From the Earth to the Moon. Direct in 97 hours 20 Minutes: And A Trip Round It. Translated From the French by Louis Mercier and Eleanor King. With Numerous Illustrations. London, Sampson Low, Marston, Low and Searle, 1873. [25735]
8vo., pps. (viii) + 323. Good/ very good. Publisher’s pictorial green cloth gilt, a little rubbed, expertly restored, all edges gilt. Overall a very good copy. First English, & First Illustrated Edition.
Another splendid example of Mr. Verne’s imaginary sweep, a giant gun, a bullet spaceship furnished like a high class railway carriage and a bunch of stalwart chaps careering round in space dressed in frock coats surrounded by an orbiting cloud of broken bottles, food wrappers and dead dogs. All in a days work for Mr. Verne, although he may have broken his golden rule here and left out either pirates or giant steam powered elephants. £875

VERNE, Jules. The Fur Country. Or Seventy degrees North Latitude. Boston; James R.Osgood & Co. [1873] 1874 [24236]
Translated from the French by N.d'Anvers. With One Hundred Illustrations. A particularly fresh copy of the FIRST EDITION, printed November 1873 with typical practice of a post-dated (1874) title page. This is possibly the first printing in English, as the London edition was also issued in that month. Octavo, pp.334 illustrated with steel engravings. Bound in original pebble-grained green pictorial cloth, embossed in blind, gilt and black, dark brown endpapers. A little edge spotting and some trivial wear to cloth, contents very lightly shaken. A bright, FINE example. £875
E & J Myers [27].

VERNE, Jules. In Search Of The Castaways. A Romantic Narrative. Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott. 1874 [25875]
Single volume edition, 620pp. Bound in contemporary half red calf, with extra gilt tiles and decoration to spine, black and brown title labels and gilt ruling to marbled boards. Top edge gilt. Bizarre willow pattern endpapers. A most distinguished and luxurious looking copy, showing only minor wear to extremities. Another stirring tale of shipwreck, derring-do, world travel, survival, reckless courage, close encounters with wild life, train wrecks, pirates (I’m assuming, with Mr. Verne there are always pirates, or spies, or mutineers, or elephants powered by steam, or man cannons that launch plush projectiles at the moon) and enough striking engravings to keep an entire legion of French engravers busy for the terms of their natural lives (174 in all). A tempestuous creation from a writer who, along with Wells, Lovecraft, William Hope Hodgson and Mervyn Peake regularly blurs the knife-thin line that exists between visionary genius and rampaging mentalist. £450

VERNE, Jules. A Journey To The Centre Of The Earth. With 52 Illustrations by Riou. New York, Scribner Armstrong and Co. n.d. [26578]
Subscriber’s Edition. 8vo. Publisher’s deluxe decorated brick red cloth ove heavy bevelled boards. Titled and decorated in black and gilt to spine and front board. Slightly rubbed to the extremities and lightly bumped to the head of the spine, clean, attractive and robust. A scarce example of the US deluxe edition, completely different in appearance to the US first edition and available only to subscribers (as stated on the title page, along with the fact that it contains 52 Riou engravings; the gilt legend on the spine however states that there are 53 Riou plates). A super copy of one of Verne’s most popular tales with an influence stretching across the works of Lovecraft and Burroughs right up to the present crop of writers who remain fascinated with the possibility of the vast uncharted catacombs ‘neath our feet. In many ways Verne’s work can be categorised as fiction aimed at ‘filling dark, empty spaces’, this being one of his more deft attempts. £1,500
E & J Myers [26]

VERNE, Jules. Meridiana,or Adventures in South Africa. The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in South Africa. New York, Scribner, Armstrong and Co. 1874 [24059]
FIRST U.S. EDITION, FIRST STATE. 8vo. 232pp. plus one page of ads. 48 illustrations. Advertisements for “Journey to the Moon” and “Journey to the Centre of The Earth” on verso of title page as called for. Very good in publisher’s embossed green cloth. Gilt decorated titles to spine and upper. Slight wear to extremities and a little bumping to head and tail of the spine. Yellow endpapers. £450

VERNE, Jules The Purchase Of The North Pole. A sequel to “From The Earth To The Moon.” London, Sampson Low, Marston and Company. 1894 [26670]
First English edition, later impression. Publishers bottle green decorated cloth binding, embossed in gilt and black depicting a rather fetching “man meets polar bear” theme. Slight signs of rubbing to corners and head of spine, but very minor, bright and strong. £1,500
A scarce printing, lavishly illustrated by our old friend M. Roux, depicting the continued (if slightly less sound) adventures of The Baltimore Gun Club, as they purchase the afore mentioned Arctic and seek to divert the earth from its accustomed orbit to shift the climate zones. This will result in the privately owned North Pole becoming a tropical paradise, allowing the Club to clean up on the cruise ship and pina colada holidays market. A tropical paradise inhabited by polar bears? Who ever heard such a...wait just a minute! Once again Mr.Verne proves that, if it hasn’t a some point entered his head, it probably isn’t worth thinking about. Presumably if I were an ABC executive I’d consider buying his entire body of work and locking J.J. Abrams in a broom closet with a flashlight until he’d read them all. A splendid book.

WALLACE, Edgar. Again Sanders London, Hodder and Stoughton. [1928] [26493]
First Edition. 8vo. Publisher’s blue glazed cloth titled in black to spine and front board. Slightly bumped at head and tail of spine, light fading to spine, clean bright and strong. Dustwrapper clean and fresh, with chipping and fraying to the head of the spine and with two 2 inch closed tear to the edges of the front panel, reinforced with tape to the inside. Much solar topee’d tomfoolery. £250
Eric Quayle; Detective Fiction, p.106.

WALLACE, Edgar. Sanders. London, Hodder and Stoughton. [1926] [26514]
First edition. 8vo. Clean, bright and strong in publisher’s bright red cloth titled in black to spine and front board. Some minor spotting to page edges and toning to prelims. Dustwrapper chipped to extremities £250
Colonial adventure featuring Commissioner Sanders, one of a series of novels which included the earlier ‘Bosambo of the River’ (1914) and Sandi The Kingmaker (1922).

WALLACE, Edgar. The Works of Wallace. [set of novels including The Four Just Men, Sanders of the River, The Green Archer, etc.] New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1930, [14992]
8vo, 20 volumes. Finely bound in recent brown half morocco with gilt titles and raised bands to spines, brown cloth boards. A little foxed on the edges. “The Scotland Yard Edition”. A fine, elegant set of the works of one of the masters of the murder mystery genre.
£1,850

FINELY BOUND SET OF H.G. WELLSWELLS, H. G. The Atlantic Edition of the Works of H G Wells. [set of writings/novels. Contains all his famous titles; The Time Machine, The Dream, In the Days of the Comet, The Wonderful Visit, The Valley of Spiders, The Empire of the Ants, The Invisible Man, The Sleeper Awakes, The Discovery of the Future, The Country of the Blind, The Man Who Could Work Miracles, Kipps, First Men in The Moon, War of The Worlds, The War in The Air, The Island of Dr Moreau, The History of Mr Polly, etc.] London. T. Fisher Unwin, 1924. [22765]
Large 8vo; 28 volumes. Portrait frontispiece. Printed on hand made rag paper with ‘HGW’ watermark. Text revised by the author, with new prefaces plus a general introduction to the set. Finely bound in full burgundy oasis morocco, gilt boxed design and decoration to spine, gilt border to boards, top edge gilt, others uncut. A beautiful copy in attractive recent leather binding. THE ATLANTIC EDITION, British Issue (also published by Scribners, New York). SIGNED on limitation page by author. Limited to 1050 sets. The definitive set of Wells. £7,500
Geoffrey H. Wells [14].

WELLS, H. G. The First Men in the Moon. London, George Newnes, 1901, [24354]
FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE. 8vo., pps. (vii) + 342. Illustrated with 12 monochrome plates. Publisher’s dark blue cloth, gilt titles and decoration to faded spine and upper board, black endpapers. A very clean, sound copy with bright boards. £650
A brilliant scientist who accidentally produces a gravity-defying substance and builds a spaceship, and with the materialistic Bedford, they travel to the moon. With oposing expectations, the two must unite as they encounter the biologically engineered Selenites who will viciously defend their home.
Geoffrey H. Wells [18]

SCI-FI CLASSICWELLS, H. G. In the Days of the Comet. A Novel. MacMillan and Co., Limited, London, 1906 [14952]
First Edition in book form. 8vo., pp. 305 + 8 of adverts dated 20.8.06. Creases to flyleaf,