Literature

Lovedale, South Africa: Lovedale Press.. [1930].The first novel in English by a black South African. In the rare dust jacket.First edition. 8vo. 185x120mm. pp. [12], 225 [1bl]. Green cloth, lettered in gilt to upper cover and spine. Original illustrated dustjacked, chipped and a little torn along top and bottom edges but overall very good and rare in any condition. Internally there is some foxing.

A Romance of the "Golden" Age.London: H.J.Gibbs.. 1850."Soul exchange"First edition. 199x120mm. pp. xii, 250 [2bl, 5 publisher's adverts, 1bl]. Frontispiece and three etchings by F.H.T.Bellew. Modern brown cloth, slight rubbing to extremities. Frontispiece is a little chipped along fore-edge and all plates are a little foxed and there is offsetting from them.

[London]: Macgibbon & Kee.. 1966.Inscribed by Naughton to the critic John Russell Taylor.First edition of the novel taken from the 1963 stage play, itself adapted from a radio play. 196x127mm. pp. [8], 9-208. Brown cloth, original illustrated dustjacket. Some rubbing to extremities of jacket and a small mark on upper cover but otherwise in excellent condition throughout. Front free endpaper is inscribed "To John Russell Taylor with good wishes from Bill Naughton. 13th Feb 66".

London: Burke Publishing Co. Ltd. 1961. First edition. 183x120mm. pp. 158. Green cloth, lettered in black to the spine. Original illustrated dustjacket. Slight creasing and two closed tears to head of jacket and rubbing to foot of spine of jacket but otherwise a very good copy of the sixth of MacVicar's Lost Planet series.

London: Victor Gollancz Ltd. 1951.Who is Lovecraft? H.P.Lovecraft's first appearance in the UK.First UK edition. 8vo. 183x120mm. pp. [4], 5-303 [1bl]. Orange cloth, original yellow Gollancz jacket. Some fading to edges of boards. Chipping to edges of jacket and at head of spine and some soiling to spine and lower cover of jacket. Internally very good. A nice copy of the first collection of Lovecraft's work published outside America.

Manchester and London: Abel, Heywood and Simpkin Marshall. 1882.A Dour Weird. A rare collection of Victorian supernatural talesFirst edition. 8vo. 183x120mm. pp. [8], 303 [1bl], 20 adverts dated February 1883. Publishers red cloth, block in black. Very light bumping to head and foot of spine. Some foxing but overall a very good copy. Worldcat locates only ten copies and none appear in the auction records.Mrs G.

New York: Harper Row. 1984.Signed by Kundera on the title page. First US edition and the first edition in English translation. 219x138mm. pp. [6], 314. Publishers black paper covered boards, and tan cloth, spine lettered in black. Original dustjacket.

London: Rider & Co.. [1940]."one of the great novels of supernatural horror"First edition. 182x115mm. pp. 288. Blue cloth, lettered in gilt to spine. Original illustrated mauve dustjacket. Rubbing and slight chipping to edges of the jacket, marking and slight soiling to spine and lower cover of jacket. Internally very good but the text block is a little cocked and there is some spotting in places and slight soiling to the edges. Overall a very good copy of what is widely regarded as one of the great novels of supernatural horror and an important successor to the work of H.P.

London: Hutchinson Junior Books. 1968.First edition. 184x120mm. pp. 184. Grey cloth, spine lettered in red. Original illustrated dustjacket. Apart from some light shelfwear and a little foxing to the edges, this is in excellent condition throughout. The Giant under the Snow was John Gordon's first novel and established him as a striking new voice in children's supernatural fiction. It concerns mystery dogs, lost treasure and epic battles between good and evil.

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: 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".

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: 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.

London: Bantam Press. 1999. Inscribed by Jilly Cooper Inscribed copy. First edition. 234x150mm. pp. 593 [1bl]. Original red cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Original illustrated dustjacket. Inscribed "To Maurice mon ami Lots of love Jilly (Cooper). P.S. Lovely to see you again". Near mint, this is a superb copy of the first edition of the sixth of Jilly Cooper's Rutshire Chronicles, set against the backdrop of the making of a film of Verdi's Don Carlos. [ref.

London Putnam. 1955.First edition. 183x122mm. pp.115 [ibl]. Publisher's dark blue cloth. Original dustjacket printed in pink, purple, grey, white. Two small closed tears to top edge of dust jacket; some slight fading and light foxing to top edge. Internally very good; overall in very good condition.The Times Literary Supplement praised this picaresque fragment with "...the comedy is of the same order as, but generally superior to, that of Under Milk Wood".

London: The Egoist Ltd. 1917.First edition. pp, [4], 7-40. Lacking half title. Original wrappers, with a new spine. Housed in a new brown buckram covered box. Some slight chipping and wear to extremities and a little soiled and creased and with a black mark on the lower cover. Internally a little toned and with the occasional chip to the edges and corners but overall a very good copy of the collection which started the twentieth-century revolution in English literature.

London: William Heinemann Limited. [1938].Three volumes. 230x152mm. pp. xxxi, [ibl], 1237 [1]. Paginates continuously. The maps that form the endpapers are bound in at the end of volumes two and three. Bound by Bayntun in red half morocco, cloth covered boards. Each volume housed in its own red cloth covered slipcase. In excellent condition throughout.

Zurich: Chez Heidegger & Compagnie. 1766.Edward Gibbon's copy. Two volumes. First edition. 12mo. 165x95mm. pp. x, 338; [4], 330. Contemporary calf, spines with five raised bands, compartments decorated in gilt, second and third compartments with red and green morocco labels lettered in gilt. Marbled endpapers. Corners a little bumped and joints rubbed and the joint with the upper cover of volume one is cracked but still strong. Front pastedowns of both volumes have the armorial bookplate of Edward Gibbon and volume one has his label.

Bombay: Padma Publications Ltd.. 1942.Revised and enlarged third edition, third reprint of September 1942. 183x120mm. pp. [12], 84. Original paper wrappers bound into black cloth boards. The fragile wrappers are a little soiled scuffed and with some surface damage. Leaves are browned but overall a very good copy of one of the twentieth century's most influential works of civil disobedience. August 1942 was a critical month for Gandhi and the movement to free India from the British Empire. On 8th August he delivered his "Quit India speech" in which he called upon Indians to "Do or Die".

Dublin: Luke White. 1791.First edition. Four volumes bound in two. 8vo. 210x125mm. Volume I. The History of my own times. Parts I and II. pp. xxv, [2], 270, [2bl]. And The History of the Seven Years War. Part I. pp. xii, [2], 154. Volume II. The History of the Seven Years War. Part II. [4], 188. Memoirs from the Peace of Hubertsburg, to the Partition of Poland, and of the Bavarian War. pp. xii, [4], 198. Of the four half titles "Posthumous Works of Frederic II. King of Prussia" only two are present.

[Paris]. 1890.A beautiful late nineteenth-century illuminated manuscript with the text of the Ordinary of the Mass. 178x125mm. Title page and thirty-two pages. Signed at foot of final page "Germaine Mimey 1890" with the initials "G.M." at the foot of each page. Bound by Emile Rousselle (signed at foot of front doublure) in tan morocco with a single fillet border framing a wide, gilt tooled border inside which is a smaller gilt tooled border which frames a shield with three fleur de lys surmounted by a crown. Below the shield is a dragon.

London: T. Dolby. 1821.First edition. 225x145mm. pp. viii, 7 [1bl], 8, 271, [3]. Frontispiece portrait and five further etched portrait plates. Uncut in the original boards. Tan morocco spine. Rubbing and wear to spine, edges and corners with some loss to head and foot of spine. Upper joint is split but holding. Leaf 2L has a closed tear without loss. Although a little delicate, it is in very good condition overall and is a rare book institutionally, Library Hub recording only six copies in the UK and comparatively scarce commercially.