"Outside of a dog, man's best friend is a book. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."
— Groucho Marx
Literature
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In Seven Parts. Presented by Willy Pogany.
London: George G. Harrap, 1910. [Illustrated] FIRST POGANY ILLUSTRATED EDITION. Quarto (32 x 24cm), unpaginated. With black and white decorations within the text, two colour tints and twenty mounted colour plates. Publisher's pale green cloth with bevelled edges, elaborately stamped in gilt and colour to spine and upper, illustrated endpapers..... More
Artemis Fowl.
London: Viking, 2001. [Children's Fantasy Adventure] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 14cm), pp.viii; 278 [2]. Publisher's black cloth with gilt titles in Gnommish to spine. With the bronze metallic effect pictorial dust-jacket designed by Tony Fleetwood, priced at £12.99. A fine, as-new copy. The first in the series, and basis..... More
Artemis Fowl.
London: Viking, 2001. [Children's Fantasy Adventure] SIGNED FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 14cm), pp.viii; 278 [2]. SIGNED by the author in black ink to title page. Publisher's black cloth with gilt titles in Gnommish to spine. With the bronze metallic effect pictorial dust-jacket designed by Tony Fleetwood, priced at £12.99..... More
The Romance of the Echoing Wood.
Newport: R.H. Johns, the "Directory" Press, 1937. [Welsh Fairy Tale] SIGNED LIMITED EDITION. Small quarto (26 x 20cm), pp.[8] 43 [5]. Number 50 of just 220 copies, SIGNED by all the contributors, including the publisher, to the limitation page. With wide marginal illustrations and three full page plates all engraved..... More
After Dark.
London: The Gresham Publishing Co., n.d. [c.1900]. [Classic Literature]. FIRST THUS. Octavo (21 x 14cm), pp.xxiv; 355 [1]. With six wood engraved plates by Browne, including a frontispiece. Publisher's blue cloth with gilt titles to spine and upper board, along with distinctive white and green decoration. Grey endpapers. Black ink..... More
The Moonstone.
New York, NY: Harper and Brothers, 1868. [Literature] FIRST U.S. EDITION, being the FIRST ILLUSTRATED EDITION, also first single volume edition. Published the same year as the UK triple-decker. Slim octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.223; [1] blank. Publisher's blind-stamped textured brown cloth (not ribbed, as some copies), with decorative gilt..... More
The Works of Wilkie Collins. Including The Woman in White, The Moonstone, After Dark, The Evil Genius, The Dead Secret, etc.
New York: Peter Fenelon Collier, no date [circa 1900]. [Literature] THE WORKS. Complete in 30 volumes. Octavo (20 x 14 x 89cm). With frontispiece illustrations and many other full-page plates. Handsomely bound in brown half calf, gilt titles and decoration to spines, matching buckram boards, all edge speckled. Internally clean..... More
The Story of a Puppet or the Adventures of Pinocchio. Translated from the Italian by M.A. Murray. Illustrated by C. Mazzanti.
London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1892. [Fairy tale] FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH. Octavo (17 x 11cm), pp.[6]; 232. Publisher's white cloth with blue floral decoration, blue title to spine and upper. Edges and endpapers repeating the design of the cloth. Illustrated with a tissue protected frontispiece and numerous in-text illustrations by..... More
The Last Sherlock Holmes Story.
London: Jonathan Cape, 1978. [Mystery] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.192. Publisher's hardcover in original dust-wrapper priced at £3.95. Very good or better in similar jacket with some discreet restoration to top edge, sunned to spine. Very good. The author's scarce first book, pitting the greatest detective in the..... More
The Great Digest & The Unwobbling Pivot. Stone Text from rubbings supplied by William Hawley.
London: Peter Owen, 1952. [Chinese Philosophy] SECOND IMPRESSION THUS, first impression title page. Octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.187 [3]. A dual language edition with images of the stone-classics, and translation and commentary, on facing leaves. Publisher's black cloth with gilt titles to spine. With the plain yellow dust-jacket, priced at..... More
The Great Digest & The Unwobbling Pivot. Stone Text from rubbings supplied by William Hawley.
London: Peter Owen, no date [1952]. [Chinese Philosophy] FIRST UK EDITION, First Impression. Octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.187 [3]. A dual language edition with images of the stone-classics, and translation and commentary, on facing leaves. Publisher's black cloth with yellow titles to spine. With the yellow dust-jacket showing a photograph..... More
Confucian Analects.
London: Peter Owen, 1956. [Chinese Philosophy] FIRST UK EDITION THUS, EX LIBRIS DENIS GOACHER. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.135 [1]. Publisher's yellow cloth with purple titles to spine. With the yellow and purple dust-jacket priced at 16s. Also with a publisher's review copy slip, and a typed letter signed by..... More
Confucian Analects. Square $ Series.
New York, NY: Kasper & Horton, No date [1951]. [Chinese Philosophy] FIRST SEPARATE EDITION. Octavo (23 x 15cm), pp.98 [2]. Publisher's grey soft covers, stapled twice. One or two minor marginal notes, and some blue ink notes to blank at rear. Some oxidation to staples. Fairly light wear to covers;..... More
The Unwobbling Pivot & The Great Digest.
Calcutta: Published for Kavitabhavan by Orient Longmans, 1949. [Chinese Philosophy] FIRST INDIAN EDITION. Octavo (21 x 14cm), pp.[10] 44 [2]. Publisher's soft covers with brown titles priced at two Rupees and eight Annas. Very lightly toned, with light handling. Near fine. Originally published in the USA in 1947, but not..... More
The Unwobbling Pivot & The Great Digest.
Calcutta: Published for Kavitabhavan by Orient Longmans, 1949. [Chinese Philosophy] FIRST INDIAN EDITION. Octavo (21 x 14cm), pp.[10] 44 [2]. Publisher's soft covers with brown titles priced at two Rupees and eight Annas. Very lightly toned, with rubbing and soiling to covers, and some chipping and splits to spine. Price..... More
The Drop.
New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company, 2011. [Crime Thriller] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.[6] 388 [6]. Publisher's orange cloth with silver titles to spine. With the dust-jacket designed by Allison J. Warner, priced at $27.99. A fine copy. Detective Harry Bosch feels compelled to take on more..... More
Laughing Anne.
London: Printed at The Morland Press, 1923. [Modern Literature] SIGNED LIMITED EDITION. Octavo (25 x 17cm), pp.67; [5], blank. Hand-printed in two colours on Kelmscott hand-made paper Publisher's full limp vellum, lettered in gilt to spine, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed. Number 164 of 175 copies for sale, signed..... More
The Rover.
London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1923. [Literature] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (20 x 14cm), pp.317; [3]. With the textual error ' o' for 'go', p. 221, line 2. Publisher's green cloth with gilt titles to spine and upper board. Top edge lightly tinted green. With the cream illustrated dust-jacket, priced at 7/6..... More
The Secret Agent.
London: Methuen and Co., 1907. [Landmark Spy novel] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (20 x 14cm), pp.[viii]; 442; [1], imprint; [1], blank; [40], advertisement catalogue dated September 1907. Bound in publisher's burgundy coloured cloth with gilt titles to the spine. Edges of text block toned/browned, binding a little sunned to the spine..... More
Suspense. With an Introduction by Richard Curle.
London and Toronto: J.M. Dent and Sons, 1925. FIRST EDITION. Octavo, pp. ix; 303; 4 [advertisements]. Bound in publisher's purple textured cloth, with blind ruling to front board, publisher's logo blind stamped to front board, title in dull gilt to spine, top edge coloured dark green. In a pictorial dustjacket..... More
The Works of Joseph Conrad. Including: Almayer's Folly, Tales of Unrest, Typhoon, Nostromo, Lord Jim, An Outcast of the Islands, The Secret Agent, Under Western Eyes, Chance, Allmayer's Folly, Victory, The Rescue, The Inheritors, Romance, The Mirror of the Sea, The Arrow of Gold, The Shadow Line, etc.
Edinburgh: John Grant, 1925. [Literature] THE WORKS. Complete in 20 volumes. Octavo (22 x 14cm). Frontispiece photogravure to each volume. Facsimile signature of the author printed to first and final leaves. Handsomely bound in half dark blue oasis morocco with gilt titles and gilt raised bands to spines, blue cloth..... More
The Prince of Tides.
Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1986. [Southern Literature] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.[8] 567 [1]. Publisher's blue quarter cloth with gilt titles to spine and grey paper over boards, and light brown endpapers. With the dust-jacket illustrated by Wendell Minor, priced at $19.95. A fine, as-new copy. A...... More
L'Alleluja. Poesie di Ennio Contini e La Prima Decade dei Cantos di Ezra Pound.
Mazara: Societa Editrice Siciliana, 1952. [Poetry] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (23 x 15cm), pp.131 [5]. All text in Italian. Publisher's soft covers titled in red and black, priced at L.1000. Publisher's promotional slip to preliminaries. Toned throughout, especially to edges. Vertical crease to front cover, with light spotting and moderate wear..... More
The Leatherstocking Tales. [The Deerslayer; The Last of the Mohicans; The Pathfinder; The Pioneers; The Prairie].
London: Macmillan and Co., 1900 and 1901. [American Literature] FINELY BOUND FIRST BROCK EDITIONS. Complete in five volumes. Octavo (20 x 14 x 15cm), pp.[2] viii; 522 [2]; pp.[2] xxviii; 398 [2]; pp.[2] viii; 463 [3]; pp.[2] viii; 455 [3]; pp.[2] viii; 437 [3]. With 40 illustrations by Brock to..... More
The Works of James Fenimore Cooper. [Including 'The Last of the Mohicans'; 'The Pathfinder'; 'The Deerslayer' etc.] The Mohawk Edition.
New York, NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons, no date [circa 1895]. [American Literature] FINELY BOUND COMPLETE SET. 32 volumes, ctavo (22 x 15 x 96cm). Printed by the Knickerbocker Press. Each volume with a photogravure frontispiece reproducing illustrations by F.T. Richards. Contemporary tan half calf with gilt titles to contrasting red..... More