"There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favourite book."
— Marcel Proust

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.
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
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
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. Foyles..... More
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
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. Some..... More
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
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
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
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
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
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
London: Jonathan Cape, Hodder and Stoughton, Armchair Detective Library, Viking, Pegasus, Penguin and Orion Books, 1968-2022. [James Bond] THE COMPLETE JAMES BOND. Forty-nine volumes, octavos. All being UK hardcover editions in jackets, bar the two Raymond Benson collections which are softcover originals (no hardbacks issued). The Fleming titles published by..... More
London: Jonathan Cape, 1968. FIRST EDITION, Uncorrected Proof Copy. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.255; [1], blank. Publisher's lime green softcovers with 'greek urn' device repeated in white, titles printed in black. Edges of text block toned, some wrinkling to spine, covers a little dusty and soiled, moderately handled. Very good..... More
London: Jonathan Cape, 1968. [James Bond] UNCORRECTED PROOF COPY IN PROOF JACKET. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.255; [1], blank. Publisher's lime green softcovers with 'greek urn' device repeated in white, titles printed in black, oversized proof jacket with the provisional publication boldly printed to flap and textual changes to the..... More