"Books are a hardbound drug with no danger of overdose. I am the happy victim of books."
— Karl Lagerfeld
Literature
The Anti-Death League. A Novel.
London: Victor Gollancz, [1966] 1972. [Modern Literature] SIGNED EDITION. Octavo (21 x 14cm), pp.352. Publisher's brown cloth with gilt titles to spine. With the dust-jacket designed by Raymond Hawkey, priced at £2.75. One of an unspecified small number of the second printings issued on behalf of the New Fiction Society..... More
The Green Man.
London: Jonathan Cape, 1969. [Strange tale] UNCORRECTED PROOF of the FIRST EDITION. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.253. Publisher's green softcovers in proof-only pictorial dust-wrapper priced at 30s. A fine, unread copy of the book in near fine, lightly rubbed oversized jacket. A ghostly tale set in an english medieval coaching..... More
My Enemy's Enemy, Stories.
London: Victor Gollancz. 1962. First Edition. Octavo, pp. 224. Red publisher's cloth with gilt titles to spine, in strikingly restrained yellow dustwrapper. Top and fore edge slightly browned, slight bumping to head and tail caps. Some wear to the top and bottom edges of the dustjacket with some marking and..... More
The Riverside Villas Murder.
London: Jonathan Cape, 1973. [Mystery] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (20 x 14cm), pp.224. Publisher's green cloth with gilt titles to spine, coloured endpapers, top edge green. With the dust-jacket illustrated by Ian Beck. Some minor dustiness to fore-edge else a fine, fresh copy. An old-fashioned whodunit, set in the 1930s... More
The Disputed Crown. A Novel of Eleventh Century England.
London: Chatto and Windus, 1982. [Historical Fiction] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.xxii; 297; [1]. Publisher's brown cloth with silver titles to spine. With the brown dust-jacket reproducing an image from the Bayeux tapestry. Some spotting to top edge and a very slight reading lean. A crisp, clean near..... More
Gildenford.
London: Chatto and Windus, 1978. [Historical Fiction] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.[10]; 323; [3]. Publisher's red cloth with gilt titles to spine. With the dust-jacket illustrated by Walter Hodges. Some spotting to top edge, otherwise a crisp, clean, near fine copy. The author's first novel, set in the..... More
Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales with Pictures that Spring to Life. Bookano Series.
London: Strand Publications, no date [circa 1938]. [Pop-Up Fairy Tales] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 18cm), pp.[62]. With four colour-illustrated pop-up scenes, a colour frontispiece and vignette title page, and several line-drawn illustrations, all by Wickham, and design and arrangement by Giraud. Publisher's colour illustrated paper-covered boards, with endpapers illustrated..... More
Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales.
London: T.C. & E.C. Jack, 1911. [Children's Illustrated] FIRST WALTON-ILLUSTRATED EDITION. Large octavo (24 x 18cm), pp.viii; 431 [1]. With 24 chromolithographic plates after Walton, including a frontispiece. Publisher's navy cloth with gilt titles and decoration to spine and upper board. Top edge gilt; others untrimmed. Black and gold illustrated..... More
Tea and Sympathy. A Drama in Three Acts.
London: Heinemann, 1957. [American Drama] FIRST UK EDITION. Octavo (20 x 13cm), pp.159 [1]. With a frontispiece photograph of a scene from the 1956 film starring Deborah and John Kerr. Publisher's light green cloth with white titles to spine. With the pink and blue typographic dust-jacket designed by Leslie Needham..... More
Family Secrets. or hints to those who would make home happy.
London: Fisher, Son and Co., no date [1843]. [Literature] ILLUSTRATED Three volumes, octavo (21 x 14 x 8cm). Brown half calf over brown cloth sides, gilt titles on darker brown calf squares to spine. Each volume with an engraved frontispiece and half title page plus another twenty-five plates spread between..... More
L'Historien Vertueux ou le Modele de l'Adolescence et de la Jeunesse. Dedie au jeune age.
Paris: Louis Janet, 1822. Sextodecimo. Bound in beige paper boards, all edges gilt. Binding shows wear, particularly to corners and spine ends. Text shows some spotting, including to illustrations. A calendar is printed at the rear. The title of one notable and worryingly un-ironic plate is, roughly translated, "The charity..... More
The Metropolis. And the Second Part of the Metropolis.
Dublin: John Barlow, 1805 and 1806. SECOND EDITION. Duodecimo. pp. 69, 87. In recent marbled paper-covered boards with navy titles to cream paper label on spine. Top right corner of title page to part two damaged and repaired. Text unaffected. Otherwise a near-fine example in an attractive new binding. An..... More
Streetwalker.
London: The Bodley Head, 1959. [Social history] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (20 x 13 cm), pp.191; [1]. Publisher's black cloth with gilt titles to spine, dust-wrapper with printed price of 12s 6d. Slight toning to edges of textblock, minor rubbing at head and tail of spine, dust-wrapper is slightly chipped with..... More
The Song of Songs.
London: Collins, 1973. [Erotica] FIRST THUS. Small quarto (28 x 21cm), pp.[6] 16 [34]. With frequent line drawings by Erni. Publisher's black cloth with gilt titles to spine, and gilt decoration to upper. With the illustrated dust-jacket, priced at £2.95. A fine copy with just a hint of light handling..... More
The Dream of Ravan: A Mystery. (Reprinted from "The Dublin University Magazine," 1853 & 1854.)
London: The Theosophical Publishing Society, 1895. [Hindu Theosophy] FIRST SEPARATE EDITION. Octavo (20 x 14cm), pp.[4] 248. Publisher's green cloth with black titles to spine and upper. All edges untrimmed. Merchant Taylors' School prize plate to front pastedown, dated 1944. Spotting to endpapers, and to first and final few leaves..... More
The Club Cricketer. Hints by "Cricketer" of the Manchester Guardian.
Manchester: Manchester Guardian, n.d. FIRST PUBLICATION OF CARDUS. Slim octavo, pp.3 [ads]; 54. Bound in publisher's orange paper covers with illustration of cricketer to front panel. Includes diagrams and charming contemporary advertisements for golfing trousers, etc. Shows very well, excepting one crease to rear of pamphlet which continues into contents..... More
Literary Characters.
London: Jonathan Cape, 1954. [Literary Offprint] ORIGINAL PAMPHLET. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.32. INSCRIBED in black ink to inside of cover on behalf of the publisher. Publisher's plain paper covers with woodcut illustrations, bound with thick brown string. Lightly toned and spotted. Browning to spine and outer edges, with some..... More
Sam Sheridan: The Secret Service Special, or, the jamboree at "Early Bird" bar. The Aldine "Boys' First-Rate Pocket Library." No. 178.
London: Aldine Publishing Company, n.d. [1893]. ORIGINAL PAMPHLET. Octavo, pp.32. In original colour illustrated paper covers. text heavily browned and extremely brittle. Some chips to leaf edges. Covers much less brittle, also chipped in places. Spine reinforced with archival tape. Good considering paper stock. More
Tales of the Classics: A New Delineation of the Most Popular Fables, Legends, and Allegories commemorated in the works of Poets, Painters, and Sculptors. Selected and Written by a Lady, for the amusement and instruction of her own daughters.
London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1830. [Greek Mythology] FINELY BOUND FIRST EDITION. Complete in three volumes. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.[4] xxiv; 302 [4]; pp.[4] iv; 302 [4]; pp.[4] iv; 370 [4]. Contemporary black half calf with raised bands, gilt titles to burgundy labels, further gilt decoration to spines..... More
The Wonderful Discoverie of the Witchcrafts of Margaret and Phillip Flower, daughters of Joan Flower neere Beuer Castle: executed at Lincolne, March 11. 1618. Who were specially arraigned & condemned before Sir Henry Hobart, and Sir Edward Bromley, Judges of Assize, for confessing themselues actors in the destruction of Henry, Lord Rosse, with their damnable practices against others the Children of the Right Honourable Francis Earle of Rutland. Together with the seuerall Examinations and Confessions of Anne Baker, Ioan Willimot, and Ellen Greene, Witches in Leicestershire.
Leicester: Vance Harvey Publishing; 1970. [Witch Trials] FACSIMILE EDITION. Octavo (22 x 14cm), pp.26 [20]. With a woodcut vignette title page. A facsimile of a Victorian edition, circa 1841, limited to 500 copies, including the alarmingly large publisher's catalogue. Publisher's brown hard covers reproducing the title page to upper. Light..... More
Dinner with the Family.
London: Methuen & Co., 1958. [French Drama] FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.98 [2]. Publisher's red cloth with silver titles to cloth. With the dust-jacket illustrated by Harry More-Gordon, priced at 10/6. A lovely crisp copy, with some toning and chipping to jacket spine. Near fine. An..... More
The Talking Horse and Other Stories.
London: Smith, Elder, and co., 1893. Presentation Copy, "New Edition". Octavo. Bound in publisher's red cloth, with panelling embossed in black to boards, titles to front board, and titles in gilt to spine. Binding is rubbed, with noticable fading to spine; somewhat shaken, linen visible in joint at p.1, and..... More
The Voyage of Argo: The Argonautica.
London: The Folio Society, 2014. [Greek Mythology] FIRST EDITION THUS. Large octavo (26 x 19cm), pp.xxii; 168 [4]. With eight colour illustrations by Egneus, including a frontispiece. Publisher's blue cloth with black titles to spine, and black and white decoration. Maps to endpapers, and with the illustrated paper-covered slipcase. A...... More
Dead Man's Bay.
London: Published for the Crime Club by Collins, 1959. [Mystery Thriller] FIRST UK EDITION. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.160. Publisher's red cloth with black titles to spine. With the green and black dust-jacket priced at 10/6. Light offsetting to endpapers and some browning to edges. Jacket toned and chipped to..... More