History & Biography
Outwitting the Hun. My Escape From a German Prison Camp.
London: William Heinemann, 1918. [War memoir] FIRST UK EDITION. Octavo (20 x 14cm), pp.[2] xii [2] 266 [6]. Publisher's red cloth, black titles to upper and spine. Small pictorial motif in black to upper, publisher's device to lower. Interior foxed throughout, edges toned. Cloth rubbed and dulled, toning to spine..... More
Drums Under the Windows.
London: Macmillan & Co., 1945. [Autobiography] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.vi; 340 [2]. With a black and white photographic frontispiece. Publisher's grey cloth with gilt titles to red backing on spine. With the dust-jacket illustrated by Jack Matthew, priced at 15s. Spotting and toning to edges. Jacket toned..... More
Inishfallen Fare Thee Well.
London: Macmillan & Co., 1949. [Literary Autobiography] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.viii; 307 [1]. With a black and white photographic frontispiece. Publisher's grey cloth with gilt titles to a green backing square on spine. With the green and grey illustrated dust-jacket, priced at 16s. Light spotting and toning..... More
Rose and Crown.
London: Macmillan & Co., 1952. [Literary Autobiography] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.viii; 307 [5]. With a black and white photographic frontispiece. Publisher's light green cloth, with gilt titles to a red backing square on spine. With the green illustrated dust-jacket. Some toning to edges, and a little bumping..... More
Ticehurst: The Story of a Sussex Parish.
Tunbridge Wells: "Courier" Co., 1925. [Village History] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.197 [3]. With 15 black and white photographic plates, including a frontispiece. Publisher's brown cloth with gilt titles to upper only. Black ink ownership to flyleaf, dated 1963. A nice clean copy, with light wear and bumping..... More
Malaya Upside Down.
Singapore: Printed by Jitts and Co., April 1946. [South-East Asian History] SECOND EDITION, the seventh-thousand. Octavo, (23 x 16cm), pp.[8] 208 [14]. With an appendix including a map and glossary. Publisher's simple illustrated turquoise paper-covered boards, with titles to spine and upper. Blue stamp of the Commercial Trading Co. to..... More
Diplomatic Correspondence Respecting The War Published by the Belgian Government. Presented to Both Houses of Parliament by Command of His Majesty. October 1914.
London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1914. Government publication, Miscellaneous No.12 (1914). Printed pamphlet, pp.viii; 76. Original price 4 1/2d. Slightly browned, simple later paper spine. Near fine. More
John Steinbeck: A Biography.
London: Heinemann, 1994. [Literary Biography] SIGNED FIRST UK EDITION. Octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.[10] 614. With two suites of four double-sided black and white photographic plates. SIGNED by the author in black ink to title page, dated 29.3.94. Publisher's black cloth with gilt titles to spine. With the photographic dust-jacket..... More
A History of the Roman World from A.D. 138 to 337. Methuen's History of the Greek and Roman world.
London: Methuen and Co, 1935. [Roman History] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (23 x 15cm), pp.[12] 402 [2]. Publisher's red cloth with gilt titles to spine, and blind ruling and titles to upper. Includes four folding maps to rear. Toning and spotting to textblock edge, else internally clean. Green 'Foyles' sticker to..... More
The State, the Poor, and the Country, Including Suggestions on the Irish Question.
Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1870. FIRST EDITION. Octavo, pp.ix, 100 [13]. In publisher's green cloth with gilt titles to spine. Brown end-papers. Library mark to verso of front free end-paper; library sticker to half-title; black ink library stamp (Dutch) to verso of title page. Very good overall. Intended as a sequel..... More
The Observer's Book of British Architecture.
London: Frederick Warne & Co., 1951. [Observer Book] FIRST EDITION. Small octavo (15 x 10cm), pp.218 [4]. With frequent in-text illustrations, many dichromatic. Publisher's grey cloth with maroon titles to spine and upper. With the illustrated dust-jacket, priced at 5s. Cloth spine slightly toned. Light rubbing to jacket edges, with..... More
A Treatise on Electricity, Wherein its various phaenomena are accounted for, and the cause of the attraction and gravitation of solids, assigned. To which is added a short account, how the electrical effluvia act upon the animal frame, and in what disorders the same may probably be applied with success and in what not.
Oxford: Sackville Parker, 1752. Octavo. p.40. Bound in quarter brown calf over marbled paper boards, wtih gilt titles to spine; all edges red speckled. With owner's stamp and bookplate. Binding is rubbed, worn to board edges, bumping to corners and spine ends. Internally clean, with one illustrative diagram (p.32) of..... More
The Otto Penzler Collection of Bibliomysteries. A Catalogue of First Editions of Mystery Fiction Set in the World of Books, 1849-2000.
New York, NY: The Mysterious Bookshop, 2017. [Bookseller's Catalogue] SIGNED COPY. Octavo (23 x 15cm), pp.[4] 147 [1]. With occasional in-text colour images. SIGNED by the author in black ink to title page. Publisher's colour-illustrated soft covers, priced at $10.00. A fine, as-new copy. A prime sale catalogue of book-related..... More
The Life, Journals, and Correspondence of Samuel Pepys, Esq. F.R.S., Secretary to the Admiralty in the Reigns of Charles II and James II. Including a Narrative of his Voyage to Tangier, Deciphered from the Short-Hand MSS. in the Bodlian Library, by the Rev. John Smith, A.M., Decipherer of "Pepys's Memoirs." Now First Published from the Originals.
London: Richard Bentley, 1841. [Letters] FIRST EDITION. Two volumes. Octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.[4] 37-456; pp.[4]; 367; [1]. With a frontispiece engraving of the author to volume I. Publisher's brown cloth with gilt titles to spines and blind decoration to boards. All edges untrimmed, later endpapers. Some spotting but generally..... More
The Glory of the Medieval World.
London: Dennis Dobson, 1954. [Medieval History] FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.266 [2]. With eight black and white photographic plates. Publisher's orange cloth with gilt titles to purple backing on the spine. Top edge orange. With the dust-jacket, priced at 18s. A nice clean copy with some..... More
Rouge et Noir. The Academicians of 1823, or the Greeks of the Palais Royal and the Clubs of St. James's.
London: 1823. FIRST EDITION. pp.310; 439-456, with hand-coloured frontispiece entitled 'La Roulette'. Not including pages 311 to 438, which were redacted in some cases. Bound in original linen-backed grey boards with paper label to spine, edges untrimmed. Heraldic bookplate to pastedown, bound without flyleaves, minor wear to binding, label toned..... More
The Ghost of '66. Martin Peters: The Autobiography.
London: Orion Books, 2006. [Football Autobiography] SIGNED FIRST EDITION. Octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.viii; 312. With three suites of four double-sided photographic plates. SIGNED by Peters in black ink to title page. Publisher's red cloth with gilt titles to spine. With the photographic dust-jacket, priced at £18.99. A fine copy..... More
The Empty Quarter. Being a description of the Great South Desert of Arabia known as Rub' al Khali.
London: Constable & Company Ltd., 1933. [Arabian Travel] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (23 x 15cm), pp.xxiv; 433 [3]. With a photographic frontispiece, and 32 further black and white plates, as well as three folding maps. Elegantly hand-bound in half mid-green oasis morocco over matching cloth sides, spine gilt-lettered in six compartments..... More
Villare Cantianum: Or Kent Surveyed and Illustrated. Being an exact Description of all the Parishes, Burroughs, Villages, and other Respective Mannors Included in the County of Kent; and, the Original and Intermedial Possessors of them, even until these Times, Drawn out of Charters, Escheat-Rolls, Fines, and other Publick Evidences; But especially out of Gentlemens Private Deeds and Muniments.
London: William Godbid, 1659. [Kentish history] FIRST EDITION. Quarto (30 x 20cm), pp.[16]; 401; [1]. In contemporary brown full calf, recently rebacked with the original spine laid on, gilt titles on polished leather square to spine. Armorial bookplate of John Wells Esq. and booksellers ticket of C. Brown, High Street..... More
The Railway Panoramic Guide. Complete Midland. A Panoramic Decription of the Principal Objects of Historic Interest, Sacred Edifices, Chief Cities, Towns, Villages, Country Seats, Pleasure Resorts, Natural Objects, Engineering Works, Roads, Rivers, Canals, etc., Inviting the Attention of Passengers over the Main Line and Chief Branches of the Midland Railway.
London: Bembrose and Sons, n.d. [1873]. FIRST EDITION PAMPHLET. (295 X 190mm), pp.i, 56 [10]. First page of adverts dated 1873. With an illustrated map of the railways and steam boat routes of England, Wales and southern Scotland to verso of front cover. In publisher's yellow paper covers with black..... More
Colbran's Guide for Tunbridge Wells. Being a Full and Accurate Description of The Wells and its Neighbourhood Within a Circuit of Nearly Twenty Miles, and Notices of the London and Dover Railway; Illustrated With Plates, Wood Engravings, etc., of Most of the Principle Places.
Tunbridge Wells: Printed and Published by John Colbran, 1840. [Kent] FIRST EDITION, first issue. Octavo, pp.[2] xiv; 404; xi; [33]. With sixteen engraved plates including a frontispiece, but lacking the map. Publisher's dark green cloth boards, recently re-backed with original cloth spine laid over. Gilt titles to spine and upper..... More
KP: The Autobiography.
London: Sphere, 2014. [Cricket Biography] SIGNED FIRST EDITION. Octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.[8] 324 [4]. With four suites of four double-sided colour photographic plates. SIGNED by the author in black ink to half-title. Publisher's black cloth with silver titles to spine, and grey endpapers. With the photographic dust-jacket, priced at..... More
A Mirror for the Female Sex: Historical Beauties for Young Ladies. Intended to Lead the Female Mind to the Love and Practice of Moral Goodness. Designed principally for the Use of Ladies' Schools. Ornamented with Thirty-Four Engravings, Beautifully Cut on Wood.
London: Printed for Vernor and Hood in the Poultry; and sold by E. Newbery, 1798. [Historical Female Biography] FIRST EDITION. Duodecimo (17 x 11cm), pp.[4] xxiv; 226 [6]. Including a leaf of advertisements at rear. With an engraved frontispiece and many head and tail pieces in the style of Bewick..... More
Fortress Colony: The Final Act 1945-1964. Vol. I 1945-1954.
Valletta: Studia Editions, 1987. [Maltese History] INSCRIBED FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 16cm), pp.xx; 444. With occasional black and white in-text illustrations. INSCRIBED by the author in black ink to the title page: 'To Graham | with very best wishes | Jos M. Pirotta.' Publisher's deep red leatherette, with gilt..... More
A City in Search of an Author: The Literary Identity of Trieste.
London: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001. [European Literature] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.218 [6]. With occasional black and white illustrations. Publisher's blue cloth with gilt titles to spine. With the illustrated dust-jacket, not priced. A crisp, fine copy. More