"A book should serve as the axe for the frozen sea within us."
— Franz Kafka
Poetry & Drama
Luther. A Play.
London: Faber and Faber, 1961. [Drama]. FIRST EDITION. Octavo (21 x 13cm), pp.102 [2]. Publisher's purple cloth with gilt titles to spine. With the black and white illustrated dust-jacket. Black ink ownership inscription to front free endpaper. A few marks to jacket, small surface loss to upper panel, and one..... More
The World of Paul Slickey.
London: Faber and Faber, 1959. FIRST EDITION. Octavo (21x13cm), pp.96. Publisher's brown cloth, in photographic dust-wrapper by Alec Murray. A lightly used copy with a little edgewear, dustiness and toning. Very good. John Osborne was an anti-Establishment writer, one of the 'angry young men' and leading playwright of England's post-war..... More
![Ovid's Festivalls, or Roman Calendar [Fasti], Translated into English verse equinumerally, by...](/pictures/thumb/51572.jpg?v=1536329251)
Ovid's Festivalls, or Roman Calendar [Fasti], Translated into English verse equinumerally, by John Gower Master of Arts, and sometimes of Jesus College in Cambridge.
Cambridge: Printed by Roger Daniel, printer to the University of Cambridge: and are to be sold by M[ichael]. S[parke]. junior, in the little Old-Baily in London, 1640. [Latin Literature] FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH. Small octavo (15 x 10cm), pp.[44] 146 [4]. With supplied endpapers and fly-leaves - lacking the first..... More
![The Theological Works. The Age of Reason [and] Miscellaneous Poems. Thomas PAINE](/pictures/thumb/54426.jpg?v=1567697630)
The Theological Works. The Age of Reason [and] Miscellaneous Poems.
London: R. Carlile, 1819-1826. [Collected Essays] FIRST COLLECTED EDITION, a mixed issue. Part one of The Age of Reason dated 1826; all other parts dated 1819. Octavo (22 x 14cm), pp.[4] 52; pp.96; pp.61 [1]; pp.71 [1]; pp.[4] 24; 25-28. Containing all four parts of The Age of Reason. Followed..... More
The Bernini Bust.
London: Victor Gollancz, 1992. [Crime Fiction] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (21 x 14cm), pp.192. Red cloth lettered in gilt to spine, illustrated dust-wrapper. Price clipped, otherwise a clean, fine copy. The third of seven acclaimed mysteries for detective art historian Jonathan Argyll, from the award-winning novelist Iain Pears... More
The Poetry of Sport. With a Chapter on Classical Allusions to Sport by Andrew Lang, and a Special Preface to the Badminton Library by A. E. T. Watson.
London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1896. LIMITED LARGE PAPER EDITION. Quarto, pp.xl, 484. With frequent engravings and lithographic plates by Thorburn,, Davis, Brock et al. Number 60 of just 250 copies printed on large paper. In publisher's navy half morocco with gilt title to spine and orange cloth boards. Top..... More
A Shropshire Garland: Being a Garland of Sonnets.
Lydbury North: Grail Press, no date [circa 2000]. [Poetry] LIMITED INSCRIBED FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 16cm), 36 leaves, unpaginated. Wood engravings by Keay to every page. Number 46 of just 200 copies INSCRIBED by both author and illustrator to title page to 'Jo'. Publisher's black cloth with gilt titles..... More
Marpessa.
London: John Lane, 1901. [Poetry]. EARLY ILLUSTRATED EDITION. Octavo (15 x 12cm), pp.47 [1]. With seven wood engravings by Philip Connard, including a frontispiece and a tailpiece. In publisher's green limp latticed morocco-covered card covers, with gilt titles to spine and upper board. Top edge gilt. Black ink ownership inscription..... More
Mac.
UK: Emanuel Wax for Pendragon Press, 1968. FIRST EDITION, Limited to 2000 numbered copies. With printed signature below final sentence. Slim octavo. Cloth-backed linen boards, pale green endpapers. No jacket as issued. A fine copy. Harold Pinter, CH, CBE, Nobel Laureat, was an English playwright, screenwriter, actor, director, poet, author..... More
The Bells.
Philadelphia: Porter and Coates, 1881. ILLUSTRATED EDITION. Square octavo, 24 thick leaves. An unusual presentation in publisher's linen backed grey paper covered boards with silver, gilt and brown pictorial upper; all edges gilt. Upper inner joint starting. Black and white illustrations and text printed on recto side only. Boards a...... More
The Dewpond.
Elkin Mathews & Marrot, London, 1928. Signed Limited Edition. Printed at the UNIVERSITY PRESS, GLASGOW. 8vo., pps. 30. Publisher's decorative paper-covered boards, uncut. Fine in near fine dust-wrapper, lightly browned to extremities. More
Some British Ballads. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
London: Constable and Co., Ltd., 1909. LIMITED EDITION of 575 copies of which this is No 133, SIGNED by Rackham. Large octavo (29 x 23cm), pp.136. Illustrated with 16 mounted colour plates with captioned tissues plus numerous black and white line-drawings within the text. Bound in recent dark blue full..... More
Mother Goose. The Old Nursery Rhymes. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
New York: The Century Co., 1913. FIRST US EDITION, with larger plates and format than the UK edition. Contains 13 colour plates and numerous black and white illustrations. Publisher's dark blue cloth, colour illustration pasted down to upper, gilt titles to spine. A fine copy, in chipped but bright dustwrapper..... More
Green Fields and Runninng Brooks.
Indianapolis, IN: The Bowen-Merrill Company, 1893. [American Poetry] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.[2] 224 [2]. With a SIGNED presentation slip tipped in to preliminaries, addressed to the notable Irish Nationalist MP Hon. T.P. O'Connor, and dated Christmas 1892. Publisher's brown cloth with a maroon strip to top third..... More
The King and I.
New York, NY: Random House, 1951. [Musical] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.146. Publisher's green cloth, top edge green, in pictorial dust-jacket, priced $2.50. Dust-wrapper is toned to spine, with some loss to head of the front panel, chips and tears to rear top edge, minor rubbing. Binding is..... More
The Beacon of Memory.
Crawley: Rigby and Lewis, 1991. [Modern Fiction] FIRST EDITION WITH TYPESCRIPT POETRY. Octavo (22 x 16cm), pp.[14]; 291; [7]. With a typescript of 'Random Rhymes' inscribed by the author in blue ink, dated 1979. 11 sheets, stapled, and folded in half. Publisher's cream cloth with gilt titles to spine. Cream..... More
Goblin Market. Illustrated by Lawrence Housman.
London: Macmillan and Co., 1893. [Fantasy]. FIRST EDITION with Housman illustrations. Small octavo (11 x 19cm), pp.[vi]; 63; [1], imprint; [2], blank. Publisher's green cloth, elaborately decorated in nouveau style, full gilt, with gilt titles. Light wear only, engraved bookplate to pastedown, flyleaf not present from an early date as..... More
Christina Rossetti Poems.
London: Blackie and Sons Ltd., 1910. [Illustrated Verse] FIRST HARRISON ILLUSTRATED EDITION, SIGNED LIMITED ISSUE. Quarto (30 x 22cm). Illustrated with tipped-in colour plates, each with captioned tissue guards. Publisher's full parchment over boards pictorially blocked in gilt, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed. Contents very clean, expected marking/browning to..... More
![Playbill for] Il Barbiere di Siviglia [The Barber of Seville]. Gioachino ROSSINI](/pictures/thumb/52510RossiniBarberofSeville.jpg?v=1547505478)
[Playbill for] Il Barbiere di Siviglia [The Barber of Seville].
London: W. Wright, printer to Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Monday August 3, 1835. [Opera Buffa] ORIGINAL PLAYBILL. A single sheet of paper (38 x 22cm), backed and mounted with cream card. An advertisement for the second English performance of Rossini's 'The Barber of Seville' (1816), compressed into one act. Followed..... More
Poetical Works.
London: MacMillan and Co. 1897. Octavo, pp. xliii, 559. Full leather prize binding by Bickers of Leicester for the Sherborne School. Bound in brown tree calf with raised bands, gilt tooling and titles to spine, gilt borders and school crest on back board, gilt Royal crest on front board. Marbled..... More
The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott.
Edinburgh: Printed for Cadell and Co., 1830. Complete in 11 volumes, 8vo. Fine contemporary binding by Root & Son in burgundy straight grain half morocco with gilt tooling and titles to spines, marbled boards and end papers, top edges gilt. Engraved frontispiece and title page to each volume. Boards a...... More
The Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare, With a Biographical Introduction by Henry Glassford Bell.
Glasgow, Edinburgh and London: William Collins, 1864. [Shakespeare's Plays] ONE-VOLUME EDITION. Small quarto (24 x 17cm), pp.li; [1]; 952; [2]. With 15 etched plates including a frontispiece, and a steel-engraved vignette title page. In contemporary black full morocco with raised bands, gilt titles to spine and extensive gilt decoration to..... More
The Tragedies of Shakespeare.
London: Henry Frowde, Oxford University Press, 1912. [Shakespeare's plays] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (19 x 14cm), pp.[viii]; 1315; [1]. Oxford binding of quarter vellum over blue cloth boards, gilt decoration and titles to spine, top-edge gilt, housed in the original card slipcase. Frontispiece from a drawing by Sir George Scharf. Ownership..... More
The Leopold Shakespeare. The Poet's Works in Chronological Order, from the text of Professor Delius, with "The Two Noble Kinsmen" and "Edward III.," and an Introduction by F.J. Furnivall.
London: Cassell, Petter and Galpin, no date [circa 1880]. [Shakespeare's Works] FINELY BOUND, with illustrations. Octavo (21 x 16cm), pp.[2] cxxvi; 1056. With a frontispiece etching of the Bard, and frequent in-text wood engravings. Contemporary red half morocco with raised bands and gilt titles and decoration to spine. Red cloth..... More
The Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare, with notes, critical, historical, and explanatory, selected from the most eminent commentators: to which is prefixed a life of the author.
London: Saunders and Otley, 1825. Eight volumes. Octavo. Bound in contemporary brown calf, with gilt ruling and blind tooling to boards, rebacked to style, with original black labels, raised bands and gilt decoration; all edges marbled, original grey endpapers with bookplate. Bindings show well, boards show some rubbing, with occasional..... More