"Hungry man, reach for the book: it is a weapon. "
— Bertolt Brecht

Born into a family of puppeteers, Ambler spent his early life in the entertainment industry helping his parents, before moving on to study engineering at Northampton Polytechnic in Islington - now known as City University, London. However, his upbringing as an entertainer proved dominant, and he soon began writing plays and other works. Ambler was staunchly anti-Fascist, and his political leanings can be highlighted in his early literature, with the sympathetic portrayal of Soviet agents. War and politics would continue to impact Ambler's fiction throughout his lifetime.
See below our stock of Eric Ambler Signed and First Editions.
New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1937. [Intrigue] FIRST U.S. EDITION. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.280; [1], blank; [1], advertisements; [2], blank. Publisher's orange cloth lettered in burgundy, pictorial jacket priced at $2.00. Edges of text block toned, ink ownership to flyleaf, jacket with a few chips and tears, clipped..... More
London: Hodder and Stoughton 1938. [Intrigue] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.320; [6], advertisements. Publisher's pale blue cloth lettered in black, mid-blue endpapers, striking 'bullet' jacket by Thomson, priced 7/6. A few descreet blue ink numbers to rear pastedown, cloth toned to extremities. Jacket with a few chips and..... More
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1939. FIRST EDITION. A Haycraft-Queen cornerstone novel. Octavo (19 x 14cm), pp.320. Publisher's red cloth with gilt titles to spine. Internally very clean with no ownership marks, bookplates or inscriptions. Covers are fresh but for a little sunning to spine, a few small marks and the..... More
London: Heinemann, 1959. [Gun-running thriller] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (21 x 14cm), pp.250. Publisher's hardback cloth binding in pictorial dust-jacket priced at 16s. Edges toned, jacket with some light wear to extremities spine toned. Near fine. A modern day pirate adventure, set in the South-Seas. This title was proof read by..... More
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1937. [Intrigue] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.314; [6], advertisements. Publisher's pale blue cloth lettered in black, mid-blue endpapers, pictorial jacket by Gibbs, priced 7/6. Trivial toning to edge of text block, jacket with very light rubbing/wear to extremities. Overall a lovely fine copy of..... More