Fiction from the Edges

London: Victor Gollancz Ltd.. 1932.Inscribed by the author to Dennis Wheatley.Inscribed to Dennis Wheatley and with Wheatley's bookplate. First edition. 195x120mm. pp. 607 [1bl]. Black cloth, lettered in gilt to spine. Original dust jacket, lettered in black and with removable red band indicating "The Book Society's "first" recommendation for January". Some minor chipping to head of spine of dust jacket and some creasing and a closed tear to top edge and spine a little faded. Internally very good with slight foxing to fore-edges. Overall an excellent copy in the rare dust-jacket and the even rarer band.

New York: E.P.Dutton & Company. 1923.First US edition in the scarce dustjacketFirst US edition. 8vo. 185x125mm. pp. [8], 368. Black cloth, lettered in red to upper cover and spine. Original dustjacket. Repaired closed tear to fold of dust jacket at spine and upper cover and small tears at the fold with the flap on the lower cover.

Translated from the French by Stuart Gilbert. Introduction by Cyril Connolly.London: Hamish Hamilton. 1946.First edition in English. 8vo. 185x120mm. pp. [iv], 3-103 [1]. Grey cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Original dustjacket illustrated by Edward Bawden. Bumping to head and foot of spine. Repair to top and bottom edges of dustjacket and two closed tears to top edge and slight chipping to bottom edge of rear of dustjacket but otherwise in very good condition and internally excellent. It is not common in a good jacket. Camus's concise, dense, absurdist novel of alienation first appeared in 1942.

New York: Ballantine Books Inc.. 1953. No false prophet First trade edition. 197x126mm. Pp. [6], 199 [3]. Red cloth, lettered in yellow to upper cover and spine. Original illustrated dustjacket. Some chipping and creasing to the edges of the jacket but otherwise in very good condition and internally excellent. Jacket is Currey's state D (no priority). Front free endpaper has a gift inscription dated October 22, 1953 "To Don – With the hope that we can prove Ray Bradbury as false prophet! Polly".

New York and London: The Olympia Press. [1971].Inscribed and with an introduction by William Burroughs. "I'd rather read Winnie the Pooh".One of only six uncorrected proof copies signed by William Burroughs. 213x175mm. Printed on recto only. ff. xv, 104. Brown wrappers, printed in black. In very good condition throughout. Half title has an inscription "I'd rather read Winnie the Pooh. Bradbury Robinson" which has then been crossed out in the manner of a Masson automatic drawing. Both the inscription and the scrawl are by William Burroughs who has signed the dedication leaf.

London: John Murray.. 1908.Inscribed by the author to her brother.First edition. 8vo. 185x120mm. [4], 295 [1bl, 4 publisher's adverts]. Blue cloth, lettered and decorated in white to upper cover and lettered in gilt on spine. Joints and edges of boards rubbed and head and foot of spine bumped. Some marking to boards. Quite heavily foxed. Front free endpaper is inscribed "Ernest Black from C.B. January 1908". Clementina Black is best known as an activist and propagandist in the socialist, trade union and women's suffrage movements, but she made her living as a writer of political tracts and novels.

A Novel.New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers.. 1895.First American edition published the year after the London first edition. pp. 177, [1bl, 6 publisher's adverts]. Original beige cloth lettered in gilt and decorated in silver and brown. Some soiling and rubbing and internally there is some foxing but overall a nice copy. Front free endpaper is signed Clementina Black so this is either the author's own copy or was signed by her for someone else. Rare in commerce and comparatively uncommon institutionally, OCLC recording sixteen copies. An Agitator is Black's most overtly political work of fiction.

With Illustrations by the Author, A SQUARE (EDWIN A. ABBOTT)Oxford: Basil Blackwell. 1926.Third edition. 8vo. 217x175mm. pp.xvi, 102, [2bl]. Original wrappers, some slight wear to extremities but otherwise in very good condition throughout and internally excellent. Protected by a transparent plastic cover. The first two editions of Flatland appeared in quick succession in 1884 but the book then fell out of print. Blackwell issued this third edition forty two years later. Textually it is has a few revisions from the second edition but its appearance is almost exactly the same as the earlier ones.

London: Seeley & Co.. 1884.Second edition. 8vo. 217x185mm. pp.xvi, 102, [2bl]. With illustrations by the author. Original illustrated limp vellum covered card. Vellum worn, particularly at the spine where there is some loss, corners rubbed. Hinge with upper cover is cracked but holding. Otherwise a very good copy of a fragile book. Upper cover has an ownership inscription. This second edition, issued in the same year as the first, included a six page preface in which a fictional interlocutor addressed, on behalf of Abbott/A Square two of the criticisms aimed at this strange book.

London: Herbert Jenkins. 1924. First edition. 185x120mm. pp. 192. Illustrated with amusing line drawings. Green cloth blocked in black to upper cover and spine. In the scarce original illustrated dustjacket. Some rubbing to head and foot of spine and fading to edges of upper cover. Dustjacket is chipped and a little torn in places along the top and bottom edge and upper cover has a price label reading "Offered at 1/-". Internally very good with some slight toning.

New York: The Viking Press. 1961.First edition. 8vo. 202x135mm. pp [6], 152. Quarter cream cloth, blue paper covered boards, spine lettered in blue. Original illustrated dustjacket. Slight creasing to top edge of jacket and chipping to head of spine and three small closed tears to the jacket but otherwise in excellent condition and near fine internally. A very good copy of Matthiessen's third novel which examines the fragility of goodness in the face of all-encompassing evil.

London: George Allen & Unwin. 1924.A rare suffragette novel.First edition. 8vo. 182x120mm. pp. 378. Green cloth, lettered in red. Fading and slight soiling to spine and bumping to head and foot of spine. Edges toned and slight cracking to hinges. Ownership inscription on front free endpaper. Overall a very good copy of a scarce book, Worldcat recording eleven copies and no copies appearing in the auction records. The Call is regarded as on of the most important suffrage and feminist novels.

London: Secker & Warburg. 1972.Wondering what the hell's going on. First UK edition. 197x125mm. pp. 218. Publisher's blue cloth with slight damage to spine. Original illustrated pop art dustjacket designed by Paul May in the manner of Roy Lichtenstein. Some slight rubbing to the extremities of the jacket, marking to the lower cover and creasing to the spine. Internally in excellent condition throughout. A rare book and an even rarer dustjacket. Crews learnt karate in order to write this book - a typically immersive act. But the book is only partly about karate.

A Register of two thousand names. A record written in black and white, but more in white than black. With a European Roll. "It is nothing, if it is not truth".Lovedale: South Africa. Printed at the Mission Press.. 1887.First edition. 210x135mm. pp. xxiii [ibl], [5]- 642. Register 3L is missing 3M has been printed in duplicate - clearly a printer's error. Light brown cloth, lettered in black. Edges and corner worn, spine and boards marked. Head and foot of spine bumped and joints rubbed.

A Journey Undertaken in an insane moment through Central Europe on foot. London: Richard Bentley and Son. 1891.Presentation copy. Psycho-geographyPresentation copy. First edition. 8vo. 202x135mm. pp. [viii], 388. Publisher's red cloth lettered in gilt and blind to upper cover and spine and with some decoration in blind. Rubbing to edges, corners bumped and worn. Bumping and some slight nicks and chips to head and foot of spine which is a little sunned. Slightly foxed and toned with some creasing to the foot of the last ten leaves. Overall a very good copy.

London: Henry Colburn.. 1827.Science fiction, feminism and reanimation. The first appearance of the Mummy. First edition. Three volumes. 12mo. (185x113mm). pp. viii, 300; [ii], 348; [ii], 303 [1, publisher's adverts]. Bound without half-titles in volumes II and III (volume I was issued without a half-title). Tan half calf, marbled paper covered boards. Spine with green morocco label, lettered in gilt. Some repairs and strengthening to joints, head and foot of spines and corners. Slight scuffing to spines and rubbing to boards.

London: Ward and Downey. . 1889.From the Libraries of Barry Humphries and Montague Summers. First single volume edition. 8vo. 191x125mm. pp. vii [ibl], 351 [1]. Six engraved plates by Brinsley Sheridan Le Fanu. Publisher's decorated cloth. Slight bumping and rubbing to corners and to head and foot of spine which is a little rubbed and darkened. Hinges weak and some minor marking but otherwise a very good copy of the first single volume edition of the novel initially issued in three volumes in 1869.

or, a History of the Life and Vast Variety of Fortunes of Mademoiselle de Beleau, afterwards call'd the Countess de Wintselsheim, in Germany. Being the Person known by the Name of the Lady Roxana, in the Time of King Charles II.London: printed for T. Warner; W. Meadows; W. Pepper; S. Harding; and T. Edlin . 1724.First edition. 8vo, (viii), pp.407, engraved frontispiece of "The famous Roxana". Early nineteenth-century calf, covers with a blind-tooled border, spine decorated in gilt and blind, chestnut brown endpapers, edges lightly rubbed, short hairline crack at top of one joint.

London: Allan Wingate. 1956."the father of black writing". One of the central works of post-colonial literature First edition. 8vo. 184x120mm. pp. [7], 8-171 [1bl]. Original green cloth with original strikingly illustrated dustjacket. Head and top corners of dustjacket a little chipped and some wear to the jacket. Internally it is a little toned to the edges but overall an excellent copy of this groundbreaking and important book.

Zürich: Fretz & Wasmuth. 1943.Inscribed by HesseInscribed by Hesse: "Ein Gruss für Reinhard Weiss von H. Hesse". Third edition (Drei Auflage), issued the same year as the first. Two volumes. 8vo. 182x108mm. pp. 451, [1]; 441, [1]. Original pale blue cloth with HH monogram in gilt to upper covers and spine decorated in gilt with black label lettered in gilt. Original dust jackets. Spines of dustjackets browned and a little soiled with slight chipping to the foot of the jacket of volume one. Housed in a cardboard slipcase. A very nice copy.

New York: The Macaulay Company. 1933.First edition. 8vo. 189x126mm. pp. [8], 9-283 [1bl]. Yellow cloth illustrated and lettered in red. Original illustrated dustjacket, chipped and creased in places and with the spine a little faded but overall in very good condition. Internally excellent.

New York: Rae D. Henkle. 1934.First edition. 8vo. 200x140mm. pp. 320. Black cloth, decorated and lettered in red. Original illustrated dustjacket with a very striking design. Tear to top edge of the upper cover dustjacket with c25x15mm missing. A repaired tear and one small tear to bottom edge of the dustjacket but otherwise a very good copy and internally excellent. Red Hell is the memoir of the career criminal John Goode (1864-1934). He was encouraged by Rae Henkle, the publisher and a friend, "to put his story into some form of written order".

Edinburgh: Canongate Publishing. 1985.SIGNED LIMITED "DEFINITIVE" EDITIONLimited edition, signed by Alasdair Gray and numbered 603/1000. 233x155mm. pp. [6], 560, [2]. Original black cloth lettered in gilt "Endure You are not alone" on the boards and with the title, author and imprint on the spine. Original illustrated dust jacket. Slight fading to jacket but otherwise in immaculate condition throughout.

Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press. 1982.SIGNED WITH AN ORIGINAL PAINTINGLimited edition number of 67/100, signed by Bukowski and with an original oil painting by Bukowski on a blank preliminary. 228x150mm. pp. 283 [5]. Half blue cloth, illustrated paper covered boards, protected by original acetate wrapper. In very good condition throughout. The painting is of a human head in profile. Owing something to cubism (in its structure), Mondrian (in its colour) and Gaudier-Brzeska (in its monumentality), this is a striking work in thickly applied oils. Ham on Rye is widely regarded as among Bukowski's finest works.