"There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favourite book."
— Marcel Proust
Kingsley Amis | First Editions
1922 - 1995
Sir Kingsley William Amis, CBE (16 April 1922 – 22 October 1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. Amis produced more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, various short stories, radio and television scripts, and also dabbled in social and literary criticism.
Amis' biographer,, Zachary Leader, has described the author as "the finest English comic novelist of the second half of the twentieth century." Moreover, Amis lectured in science fiction (a passion since boyhood), and is responsible for coining the term "comic inferno" to describe 'humorous dystopias'. Amis is the focus of international literary acclaim; in 2008, The Times ranked Kingsley Amis ninth on their list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945.
See below our stock of Kingsley Amis First Editions, fine bindings, and signed copies.
The Egyptologists.
London: Jonathan Cape, 1965. [Modern Literature] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (20 x 13cm), pp.254 [2]. Publisher's grey cloth with gilt titles to spine. Top edge pink. With the dust-jacket designed by Jan Pienkowski, priced at 18s. Some toning and marking to edges, one small tear to jacket top edge, and just..... More
The Book Of Bond, Or Every Man His Own 007 (Writing as Bill Tanner).
New York: Viking, 1965. [Bondiana] FIRST EDITION. Small octavo (18 x 14cm). Publisher's white glossy hardcovers, red endpapers. Illustrated throughout. With Raymond Hawkey-designed book-jacket priced at $2.50. A fine copy in clean, bright jacket. An unusual piece of Bondiana. Bill Tanner is a fictional character in the James Bond novel..... More
The Book Of Bond, Or Every Man His Own 007 (Writing as Bill Tanner).
London: Jonathan Cape, 1965. [James Bond] FIRST EDITION, First Impression. Small octavo (18 x 14cm), pp.111; [1]. Publisher's black cloth, gilt endpapers. Illustrated throughout. With Raymond Hawkey-designed 'reversible' book-jacket for work in the field; the pictorial dust-wrapper can be rapidly disguised as a bible. Ink ownership to endpaper, small patch..... More
The Book Of Bond, Or Every Man His Own 007 (Writing as Bill Tanner).
London: Jonathan Cape, 1965. FIRST EDITION. Small octavo (18 x 14cm). Publisher's black cloth, gilt endpapers. Illustrated throughout. With Raymond Hawkey-designed 'reversible' book-jacket for work in the field; the pictorial dust-wrapper can be rapidly disguised as a bible. A fine copy in clean, bright jacket, with a couple of faint..... More
The Book Of Bond, Or Every Man His Own 007 (Writing as Bill Tanner).
London: Pan Books, 1966. [Bond reference] FIRST PAPERBACK EDITION. Octavo (18 x 12cm), pp.111; [9], endmatter and advertisements. Bound in pictorial card covers designed by Raymond Hawkey, priced at 3/6 to back. Original small bookshop ticket to inside cover. A particularly fine copy. Uncommon thus. Bill Tanner is a fictional..... More
The James Bond Dossier.
London: Jonathan Cape, 1965. [James Bond Reference] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.159 [1]. Publisher's black cloth-effect paper over boards, with gilt titles to spine, and the pictorial dust-wrapper, based on the familiar Chopping 'trompe l'oeil' designs from the Ian Fleming first editions. Priced at 16s. to flap. A...... More
The James Bond Dossier.
London: Jonathan Cape, 1965. [James Bond Reference] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.159 [1]. Publisher's black cloth-effect paper over boards, with gilt titles to spine, and the pictorial dust-wrapper, based on the familiar Chopping 'trompe l'oeil' designs from the Ian Fleming first editions. Contents clean, page edges toned, some..... More
The James Bond Dossier.
London: Jonathan Cape, 1965. [James Bond Reference] FIRST EDITION, ASSOCIATION COPY. Octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.159 [1]. Publisher's black cloth-effect paper over boards, with gilt titles to spine, and the pictorial dust-wrapper, based on the familiar Chopping 'trompe l'oeil' designs from the Ian Fleming first editions. Decorative bookplate, SIGNED by..... More
The James Bond Dossier.
London: Jonathan Cape, 1965. [James Bond Reference] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.159 [1]. Handsomely bound in half red oasis morocco, titled and decorated in gilt to the spine, raised bands, matching cloth sides, top edge gilt. Contents clean, but for a few light spots/reading marks, exterior as new. A...... More
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
The James Bond Dossier.
London: Jonathan Cape, 1965. [Reference critique] UNCORRECTED PROOF COPY. Octavo (18 x 13cm), pp.159; [1], blank. Publisher's green card lettered in black. Contents clean, covers have some scuffs to upper, tear/loss to lower panel with old tape makes to inside rear. Very good. Amis' first venture into the world of..... More
The James Bond Dossier.
London: Jonathan Cape, 1965. [Reference critique] UNCORRECTED PROOF COPY IN PROOF-ONLY JACKET. Octavo (18 x 13cm), pp.159; [1], blank. Publisher's paper covers, with pictorial proof dust-wrapper (entirely unclipped and with original setting of the text) with design based on the familiar 'trompe l'oeil' art which decorated the Ian Fleming first..... More
Memoirs.
London: Hutchinson, 1991. [Literary anecdotes] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.xvi; 346; [6], blank. Illustrated with three suites of eight photographic plates. Publisher's black cloth, photographic jacket priced £16.99. A fine copy. Memoirs of the literary heavyweight Kingsley Amis, who had more than a passing interest in James Bond;..... 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 Riverside Villas Murder.
London: Jonathan Cape, 1973. [Crime Mystery] UNCORRECTED PROOF. Octavo (20 x 13cm), pp.224. Publisher's green monogrammed card covers. Light handing to covers. Worn and a little toned to spine, with a reading lean. Very good. An old-fashioned whodunit, set in the 1930s. More
The Letters of Kingsley Amis.
London: Harper Collins, 2000. [Literary correspondence] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.lvi; 1208. Illustrated with four suites of eight photographic plates. Publisher's black cloth lettered in gilt, photographic jacket, showing the famous portrait of Amis adopting the pistol pose. A very good copy in like, price-clipped jacket. The letters..... More
Lucky Him. The Life of Kingsley Amis.
London: Peter Owen, 2001. [Literary biography] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (23 x 15cm), pp.432. Illustrated with a suite photographic plates. Publisher's burgundy cloth lettered in gilt, photographic jacket, priced at £22.50. A clean, fine copy. Retailer's security tag to flap. The biography of literary heavyweight Kingsley Amis, who had more than..... More
Colonel Sun. A James Bond Adventure.
Jonathan Cape, 1968. Octavo. Original green wrappers, lettered in black, decorated with white publisher's motif. With dust jacket. Housed in custom blue quarter morocco solander case. A very good copy, spine creased and lightly stained, otherwise in good condition for a proof copy, in like dust jacket, edges rubbed and..... More
The James Bond Dossier.
Jonathan Cape, 1965. Octavo. Original green wrappers, lettered in black and decorated with white publisher's motif. A near-fine copy, spine creased otherwise in excellent condition for a proof copy. Uncorrected proof copy, Kingsley Amis's first venture into the world of James Bond. He also wrote a light-hearted work The Book..... More
Archive of correspondence relating to James Bond typescripts and continuation books.
1963-67. Collection of 19 letters comprising original typescript and carbon copies. Housed in pink foolscap folder. A fine set. Archive of correspondence between Jonathan Cape, the publisher of Fleming's Bond series, and the author's favoured typist Jean Frampton. The papers mainly consist of friendly professional letters, telegrams, notes and postcards..... More
Colonel Sun. A James Bond Adventure.
London: Jonathan Cape, 1968. [James Bond] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (19 x 14cm), pp.255 [1]. Cartographical endpapers at rear. Elegantly hand-bound in half green calf over matching cloth sides, spine gilt-lettered in six compartments with raised bands, publisher's original titled cloth spine bound in at rear, top edge gilt. Near fine..... More
Colonel Sun.
London: Jonathan Cape, 1968. [James Bond Continuation] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (19 x 14cm), pp.255; [1]. Publisher's hardback cloth in pictorial dust-jacket priced at 21s. Wraparound art by Tom Adams. Book is very clean, jacket with two short tears and a tiny amount of rubbing to crown. A particularly bright copy..... More
Colonel Sun. A James Bond Adventure by Robert Markham.
London: Pan Books Ltd., 1970. [Spy novel] The FIRST Pan paperback edition. 'M' Series. Octavo (18 x 11cm), pp.221 [3]. Publisher's illustrated softcovers priced at 5 shillings (25 pence). Some gentle age-toning to paper stock, trivial wear to covers, slight lean; a near fine copy of the striking softcover version..... More