"There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favourite book."
— Marcel Proust
Literature
Honey for the Bears.
London: Heinemann, 1963. [Cold War Novel] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.256. Publisher's orange cloth with gilt titles to spine. With the dust-jacket designed by Neil and Leila Godfrey, priced at 18s. Some spotting to edges and preliminaries; lightly browned throughout. Light rubbing and bruising to jacket edges. Very..... More
A Vision of Battlements.
London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1965. [Modern literature] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (20 x 14cm), pp.266; [4], blank. With illustrations by Edward Pagram. Publisher's bright yellow hardcover in original pictorial dust-wrapper priced 25s. A lightly used copy in near fine condition. This is the first issue (illustrated) jacket which was subsequently replaced..... More
A Killing Frost.
London: Published for the Crime Club by Collins, 1961. [Crime fiction] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.256. Publisher's red cloth with black titles to spine. With the illustrated dust-jacket, unpriced for export. Very light spotting to edges and endpapers, W.H. Smith Rue de Rivoli branch ticket to pastedown. Jacket..... More
The Lost Witch.
London: Andersen Press, 2018. [Young Adult Fantasy] SIGNED FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 14cm), pp.[6] 325 [5]. SIGNED by the author in black marker to publisher's bookplate affixed to flyleaf. Publisher's green cloth with silver titles to spine, and light green endpapers. With the dust-jacket designed by Kate McKendrick, priced..... More
Death In Stanley Street.
London: Gollancz Detection, 1974. [Mystery] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (20 x 14cm), pp.192. Publisher's gilt-titled red cloth in dust-wrapper priced at £2.00. Ink number and tape ghost to flyleaf else a fine copy in a fine wrapper with a touch of wear to the crown. More
Wycliffe and the Tangled Web.
London: Gollancz Crime, 1988. [Mystery] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (20 x 14cm), pp.191; [1], blank. Publisher's gilt-titled black cloth in dust-wrapper priced at £10.95. A fine copy in near fine jacket. Starring detective Charles Wycliffe, one of the most popular literary Police investigators. More
Little Lord Fauntleroy.
London: Frederick, Warne and Co., 1886. [Classic children's story]. FIRST UK EDITION, with 1886 date to both title and copyright pages. Octavo (pp.22 x 15cm), pp.x; 269; [1], imprint. Twenty-six illustrations illustrations after Reginald B. Birch. Half green straight-grained morocco, gilt, red leather label to spine, combed marble sides and..... More
Camilla: Or, A Picture of Youth. By the Author of Evilina and Cecilia. In Five Volumes.
London: Printed for T. Payne, T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1796. [Literature] FIRST EDITION, five volumes, duodecimo (18 x 11cm). Half tan calf with spines ruled in compartments, black and green leather labels, gilt decoration, marbled sides and endpapers, edges speckled. Contents clean, armorial bookplate of Charles Henry Grove, Rector..... More
The Romance of Private Life: The Renunciation and The Hermitage. In Three Volumes.
London: Henry Colburn, 1839. [Mysteries] FIRST EDITION, three volumes, octavo (21 x 13 x 8cm), pp.320; 316; 340. Includes publisher's 8-page prospectus at the front of first volume. Original grey paper-covered boards, respined to style with paper title labels, edges untrimmed. Internally clean, covers rubbed, corners and edges worn. A...... More
The works of robert burns. Illustrated by an Extensive Series of Portraits and Authentic Views. With a Complete Life of the Poet: An Essay on his Genius and Character, by Professor Wilson. Numerous Notes, Annotations, and Appendices.
London: Blackie and Son, 1866. [Poetry] FINELY BOUND AND ILLUSTRATED. Two volumes. Large octavo (26 x 18cm), pp.cclxxvi; iv; 149; [1]; pp.xx; 412. With a total of 83 engraved plates by various artists, including a frontispiece and vignette title page to each volume, and a facsimile example of Burns' handwriting..... More
The poetical works of robert burns. with notes, glossary, index of first lines and chronological list.
London: Henry Frowde, 1896. [Poetry] COMPLETE EDITION. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.[xx]; 635; [iii], blank. Contemporary blue half morocco over marbled papers lettered in gilt to spine, raised bands and gilt decoration to spine, top edge gilt, marbled endpapers. Spotting to end matter, otherwise internally clean, minor spotting to edges..... More
Poems, chiefly in the Scottish Dialect.
Newport, RI: John Brown, 1870. [Poetry] Octavo (23 x 15cm), pp.240. A facsimilie of the 1786 Kilmarnock edition. PUBLISHER'S PRESENTATION COPY Handsomely bound by Bayntun-Riviere for Lauriat in tan half calf over buckram sides, gilt to spine, top edge gilt, marbled endpapers. Contents toned, some thumbmarks, neat repair to corner..... More
The Poetical works of robert burns, in two volumes with a complete glossary, and Life of the Author.
London: W. Lewis and Co., 1816. [Poetical Works] EARLY EDITION, publisher's original boards. Two volumes. Sextodecimo (17 x 11cm), pp.viii; 199 [1]; pp.viii; 165 [3]. With an engraved frontispiece and vignette title page to each volume. Publisher's blue quarter paper-covered spine, with plain grey paper over boards. Plain paper title..... More
The Poetical Works of Robert Burns. Edited with A Memoir by George A. Aitken.
London, Covent Garden: George Bell and Sons, 1893. [Verse]. FINELY BOUND. 3 volumes; small octavo (17 x 11 x 8cm). Engraved portrait frontispiece to first volume. Elegantly bound by Morrell for bookseller Charles Lauriat in half mid blue morocco, spine gilt-titled in six compartments with raised bands, gilt rules and..... More
The Naked Lunch.
London: John Calder in association with Olympia Press, 1964. [Modern literature] FIRST UK EDITION. Octavo (21 x 15cm), pp.[4]; 251; [1]. Publisher's cream cloth, gilt titles to spine, pictorial dust-jacket, priced at 42s. Slight reading lean. Mark to rear board, spine ends a little pushed. Dust-jacket creased to top edge..... More
The Naked Lunch.
Secaucus, NJ: Castle Books, no date [1973]. [Beat Novel] EARLY US EDITION. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.xvi; 255 [3]. Publisher's yellow paper-covered boards with red titles to spine. With the yellow, red and black illustrated dust-jacket, priced at $6.00. Light rubbing to boards and jacket. Near fine. First published in..... More
Nova Express.
New York, NY: Grove Press, Inc., 1962. [Experimental novel] FIRST U.S. EDITION. Octavo (21 x 14cm), pp.187. Publisher's orange cloth boards, pictorial dust-jacket by Roy Kuhlman priced at $5.00. Trivial wear only. A lovely fine copy. Nova Police take on the Nova Mob, who want to addict the world. Massively..... More
Four-Ply Yarn.
London: The Crime Club by Collins, 1944. [Crime fiction] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (20 x 14cm), pp.192. Publisher's red cloth, titles in black to spine, pictorial dust-jacket. Internally fine. Cloth clean and bright, spine ends a little pushed. Price clipped dust-jacket shows very well, slightly bruised to top and tail of..... More
A Coffin for Pandora.
MacMillan, 1973. FIRST EDITION. 8vo., pp.220. Fine in dustwrapper. A Victorian mystery set in Oxford. The Crime Writer's Association award winning novel. Cooper & Pike; Detective Fiction, p 61-64. More
The Way of All Flesh.
London: Grant Richards, 1903. [Literature] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.424; [12], advertisements. Publisher's dark red cloth lettered in gilt to front cover and spine, top edge gilt. Housed in a vintage leather-spined slip-case with paper-backed cloth chemise. Bookplate of Frank J. Hogan, bookseller ticket (Liverpool), typed slip to..... More
William Blake, Mystic: A Study. Together with Young's Night Thoughts: Nights I and II with illustrations by William Blake and frontispiece Death's Door, from Blair's 'The Grave.'
Liverpool: The Liverpool Booksellers Co., 1911. [Biography] LIMITED FIRST EDITION. Small quarto (28 x 21cm), pp.[6] 14 [5]; [2] 42. The first part printed and paginated to recto of each leaf only. Number 190 of 250 copies of the first edition, hand-numbered to verso of flyleaf. With a copper engraved..... More
Poetry of Byron.
London: Macmillan and Co., 1892. [Poetry Selection] FINELY BOUND, third impression thus. Octavo (16 x 11cm), pp.xxxvi; 276. With a vignette title page. Contemporary green full calf by BUMPUS of London, with titles and decoration to spine. Top edge gilt; marbled endpapers. Spotting to preliminaries. Light rubbing to binding; spine..... More
Hebrew Melodies.
London: John Murray, 1815. [Romantic Poetry] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 14cm), pp.[6] 53 [1]. Recently re-backed in tan calf with raised bands and gilt titles to black label; incorporating contemporary tan calf boards by W. Nutt, marbled endpapers and edges. Bound without the advertisement and without the half title..... More
The Poems and Dramas of Lord Byron. With Biographical Memoir, Explanatory Notes, etc.
New York, NY: Thomas Y. Crowell and Co., no date [circa 1900]. [Poetical Works] VINTAGE COPY. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.xiv; 855 [3]. With a half-tone frontispiece portrait of the author. Rebound in 1929 in brown full morocco with gilt titles to spine and brown endpapers. All edges gilt. Black..... More