"There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. "
— Oscar Wilde
History & Biography
The Beats: From Kerouac to Kesey, an Illustrated Journey through the Beat Generation.
Philadelphia, PA: Running Press, 2007. SIGNED FIRST EDITION. Quarto (29 x 25cm), pp.192. Illustrated throughout in colour and black and white. SIGNED by the author in black ink to front free endpaper. Publisher's glossy paper-covered boards with light blue endpapers and matching dust-jacket. Some minor creasing to the top and..... More
Shut In: A Tale of the Wonderful Siege of Antwerp in the Year 1585.
London: T. Nelson and Sons, 1894. [Children's Historical Fiction] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (20 x 15cm), pp.491 [5]. With a double-page sketch-map and a vignette title page. Publisher's red cloth with gilt, black and blind titles and decoration to spine and upper. Top edge gilt, and floral-patterned endpapers. Illustrated bookplate of..... More
With Gilbert & George in Moscow.
London: Bloomsbury, 1991. [Art and Russia] INSCRIBED FIRST EDITION. Large octavo (25 x 20cm), pp.191 [1]. With frequent black and white and occasional colour photographs. INSCRIBED by Gilbert & George to Michael Barnett in red ink to half-title. Publisher's red cloth with black titles to spine and upper, and red..... More
The Life of Charles Dickens, as Revealed in his Writings.
London: Chatto & Windus, 1905. [Literary Biography] FIRST EDITION. Complete in two volumes. Octavo (23 x 16cm), pp.xx; 309 [3]; pp.[2] xiv; 322 [34]. With a frontispiece to each volume, and a facsimile letter to volume I. Advertisements dated November 1904. Publisher's green cloth with gilt titles to spines and..... More
A History of Spanish Literature.
London: William Heinemann, 1898. [Spanish Literature] FINELY BOUND FIRST EDITION. Octavo (20 x 14cm), pp.xii; 423 [3]. Contemporary full tree calf for the King Edward VI School, Grantham, with gilt titles and decoration to spine, and school crest stamped in gilt to upper. All edges and endpapers marbled. School prize..... More
Brazilian Adventure.
London: Queen Anne Press, 2010. [Travel] LIMITED NUMBERED EDITION, being one of 150 copies. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.364. Finely bound in the publisher's gilt decorated cloth, to the design of the original first edition binding. With photographic plates and illustrated map endpapers. A fine, as-new copy. Out of print..... More
The Manners of the Ancient Israelites; Containing an Account of their Peculiar Customs, Ceremonies, Laws, Polity, Religion, Sects, Arts and Trades, Division of Time, War, Captivities, Dispersion, and Present State. With a Short Account of the Ancient and Modern Samaritans. The Whole Much Enlarged from the Principal Writers on Jewish Antiquities.
London: Sold by William Baynes, 1809. [Jewish History] FINELY BOUND, the third edition thus. Octavo (22 x 14cm), pp.[2] 389 [5]. With a frontispiece etching of the author after Gobert. In later tan half calf, circa 1900, with raised bands, gilt titles to a black label, Masonic gilt tooling to..... More
Marianne Thornton 1797-1887. A Domestic Biography.
London: Edward Arnold and Co., 1956. [English Literature] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.viii; 301; [3], blank. 2000 copies only. Publisher's blue cloth lettered in gilt, illustrated dust-wrapper priced at 21s. Spine a little toned, slightly pushed to crown, one or two small nicks. Overall a near fine, fresh..... More
The Michael Fraenkel and Henry Miller Correspondence, Called Hamlet. Volume I and Volume II.
London: Edition du Laurier, Carrefour, 1962. FIRST ONE VOLUME EDITION, third printing. Quarto, pp.411 [5]. With a handful of in-text lithographic illustrations. In publisher's cream card wraps, bound together with blue string. Titles to front cover. Some light external wear; very good overall. First printed in 1939, with subsequent impression..... More
Major Fraser's Manuscript, His Adventures in Scotland and England; His Mission to, and Travels in, France in Search of his Chief; His Services in the Rebellion (and his Quarrels) with Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat 1696-1737.
Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1889. FIRST THUS. In two volumes. Crown octavo, pp.xxiv, 220 [4]; pp.xii, 223 [1]. With a frontispiece copper engraving to each volume. In publisher's burgundy cloth with gilt titles to spine and gilt strawberry plant device to upper boards. Top edges gilt, others untrimmed. Very light external..... More
Liberty or Death. India's Journey to Independence and Division.
London: Harper Collins, 1997. [Indian history]. Octavo (24 x 17cm), pp.xxiii; [1]; 467; [5]. Publisher's black cloth, tiles in silver to spine, photographic dust-jacket. Illustrated with two suites of black and white photographs. Signed and inscribed to the title page. Edges slightly toned. Near fine. More
Book of the Eskimos.
London: Arthur Barker, 1962. FIRST UK EDITION. Octavo, pp. 441. Bound in publisher's light blue cloth with silver titles to spine, endpapers feature maps, bookplate of Ronald Spicer to front flyleaf. In a bold, photographic dustjacket. Illustrated throughout, with an additional block of photographs to middle of textblock. Slight lean..... More
Bearders: My Life in Cricket.
London: Orion Books, 2006. [Cricket Autobiography] INSCRIBED FIRST EDITION. Octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.[10] 322 [4]. With two suites of four double-sided photographic plates. INSCRIBED by the author in black ink: 'For Jeff Hunt | All good wishes,' to title page. Publisher's green cloth with gilt titles to spine. With..... More
English Seamen In The Sixteenth Century. Lectures Delivered at Oxford Easter Terms 1893-4.
London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1915. [Naval history] FINELY BOUND. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.[vi]; 309; [2]. Bound by Spottiswoode in navy polished calf, raised bands and gilt titles and tooling to spine, gilt borders to boards, marbled edges, marbled endpapers. First and last few pages spotted, otherwise internally clean..... More
The Right of the Child: A Chapter in Social History. With a Foreword by Countess Mountbatten of Burma and an Introduction by Captain L.H. Green.
London: Victor Gollancz, 1951. [Humanitarianism] INSCRIBED FIRST EDITION, EX LIBRIS CLEMENT ATTLEE. Octavo (20 x 14cm), pp.159 [1]. INSCRIBED by the author in blue ink to V.H.A. (Violet Attlee) to fly-leaf. Publisher's navy cloth with gilt titles to spine. A new bookplate detailing provenance to front pastedown. Spine sunned with..... More
A History of the Weald of Kent. With an Outline of the Early History of the County. Also, a Sketch of the Physical Features of the District.
Ashford: Henry Igglesden, 1871-1874. [Kent Topography] FIRST EDITION, a presentation copy. Two volumes bound in three parts, as issued. Octavo (23 x 15cm), pp.xvi; 462; pp.xii; 424; pp.iii; 425-935. With six folding maps. Publisher's handsome green cloth with gilt titles to spine, black tooling, and gilt motifs to the upper..... More
The Chosen Few: A Sketch of Men and Events in Parliament.
London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1940. [Communist memoirs] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.231 [1]. With a black and white photographic frontispiece portrait of the author. Publisher's blue cloth with red titles to spine. With the plain typographic dust-jacket, titled in red and priced at 5s. An exceptionally crisp, clean..... More
A Study in depth of 143 Maps representing the Great Siege of Malta of 1565.
San Gwann: Publishers Enterprises Group, 1994. [Military Cartography] FIRST EDITION. Complete in two volumes. Quarto (31 x 25cm), pp.xxiv; 502 [2]; pp.xviii; 368 [2]. With numerous colour plates, many folding, as well as reproductions of engravings and a large index, to volume II, and full descriptions and notes to volume..... More
Abyssinian Patchwork. An Anthology.
London: Frederick Muller Ltd., 1949. [Second World War] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.[4]; 290; [2]. Publisher's navy cloth, gilt titles to spine. Illustrated with eight double sided plates in colour. Bookplate to pastedown, neat ownership to flyleaf, slight toning to edges. Cloth lightly rubbed, some negligible paint splashes..... More
Gandhi and the Viceroy. Extracts from the letters which led up to Gandhi's twenty-one day's fast in February, 1943.
London: Peace News Ltd., no date [1943]. [Indian independence] PAMPHLET. (22 x 14cm), pp.12. Three leaves folded once and stapled. Printed in black, priced at 1d. Some very slight spotting, staple rusted. An rare ephemeral survival, with only two copies found on Copac. Fine. A publication by Peace News, the..... More
From the Closet to the Screen, Women at the Gateways Club, 1945-85.
London: Pandora, 2003. Paperback octavo, pp.x, 278. Some slight and negligible shelf wear, a very good copy. More
History of the Spirit Lake Massacre and Captivity of Miss Abbie Gardner.
Des Moines, IA: Iowa Printing Co., 1885 [1891]. [Americana] THIRD EDITION. Octavo (21 x 15cm), pp.[2] iv; 316 [2]. With six black and white illustrated plates, including a frontispiece. Publisher's brown leather-effect cloth, blocked in gilt to spine and upper. All edges speckled red, with patterned endpapers. Neat ownership to..... More
Romance and Reality of the Puritan Coast.
Boston: Little Brown 1897. FIRST EDITION. Octavo. Illustrated. Attractive Art-Nouveau style binding in full green morocco, gilt, all edges gilt, inner gilt dentelles. with gilt floral endpapers. Spine sunned else fine. Includes a chapter on Salem. More
Genealogical Tables Illustrative of Modern History.
Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1916. FIFTH EDITION. Inverted Foolscap Folio (25x41cm). pp. iii, 54. In quarter blue cloth with grey paper-covered boards. Titles hand-inscribed in black ink to upper board. Binding weak; gutting split, and one of three tapes missing. Mould staining to spine. Large damp mark to top..... More
English Guns and Rifles, Being an Account of the Development, Design and Usage of English Sporting Rifles and Shortguns - from their Introduction during the Fifteenth Century until the Advent of the Metallic Cartridges in the Nineteenth Century - together with Notes on Muskets, Service Rifles, Blunderbusses and Other Arms.
Harrisburg, PA: The Stackpole Company, 1947. [Firearms] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (24 x 17cm), pp.x; 344; [2]. With twenty three black and white plates including a frontispiece, and occasional in-text illustrations. Publisher's cream cloth with gilt titles to green squares on spine and upper board, dust-jacket priced at $7.50. Textblock clean..... More