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[pseud. ABBOTT, Edwin A.] SQUARE, A.
Flatland: A Romance Of Many Dimensions
London: Seeley & Co., 1884
8vo, pp. 100. Original printed stiff paper wrappers. Leading edge uncut.
First edition.
One of literature's very few geometric Victorian social satires. Set in a two-dimensional world, A. Square visits the one-dimensional community of Lineland, where he is dismissed as a lunatic, and is then visited by a sphere from Spaceland. Convinced of the existence of a third dimension, Square starts to entertain the possibility of a fourth. And a fifth...
All of which made this text something of a sensation when Einstein published his general theory of relativity in 1915, and Flatland was taken up as a text which foreshadowed major scientific findings. Since then, it has been cited by scientists as eminent as Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking, inspired films and books, and - of course - has been name-checked in an episode of The Big Bang Theory.
This, the first edition, is now very scarce.
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HANSBERRY, Lorraine
A Raisin In The Sun
New York: Random House, 1959
8vo, pp. 142. Original brown marbled three-quarter boards, lettered in gilt-on-black and black-on-grey to spine. Publisher's device and production still of Sidney Poitier to front panel. Top edge yellow. Illustrated dustwrapper.
First edition of the author's first play.
The first play by an African-American woman to be produced on Broadway, A Raisin In The Sun opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in March, 1959, with a cast led by Sidney Poiter and Ruby Dee, and has been regularly revived on both sides of the Atlantic ever since. The story of the Youngers, a black family struggling both to improve themselves and to define to themselves what that means, was the first play to set the American black experience before a large and predominantly white audience, and in so doing changed theatre's conversation forever. Recent revivals have been led by Lennie James and Norma Dumezweni in London [2005], and Denzel Washington and Sophie Okinedo on Broadway [2014]. A Raisin In The Sun was named the Best Play of 1959 by the New York Drama Critics' Circle -- and would have won the award most years.
Lorraine Hansberry died of cancer aged thirty-four: The Sign In Sidney Brustein's Window [1965] was her only other play. This copy of her masterpiece is very well preserved, is not price-clipped, and bears the '6/59' designation on the lower front flap, identifying the dustwrapper as the first issue.
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REID, Forrest
Following Darkness
London: Edward Arnold, 1912
8vo, pp. 320. Original brown boards, lettered in black to front panel and spine. Lower edge uncut.
First edition.
A coming-of-age novel from an Ulster novelist at the beginning of the twentieth century is always going to invite comparisons with Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and comparisons are always made, but Reid is more than able to stand on his own two feet, not only because of the calibre of his writing, but because of the homosexual sensibility which permeates his work, never explicit but always there. This book is no exception. Reid was the bridge between the ornate crypticism of the Uranians and the beginning of the genre we now know as Gay Lit. He's both important and scarce -- which is why this less than beautiful copy is offered.
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FANTHORPE, U.A.
Side Effects
Liskeard: Harry Chambers/Peterloo Poets, 1978
8vo, pp. 64. Original illustrated stiff paper wrappers.
First edition of the author's first book.
A fine copy.
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HANSBERRY, Lorraine
The Sign In Sidney Brustein's Window
New York: Random House, 1965
8vo, pp. 143. Original green three-quarter boards, lettered in gilt-on-black to spine. Publisher's device embossed in blind to front panel. Top edge red, leading edge uncut. Photographic dustwrapper.
First edition. Foreword by John Braine, introduction by the author's husband, Robert Nemiroff.
Hansberry's first play, the groundbreaking A Raisin In The Sun, was the first play by an African-American woman to be produced on Broadway. This was Hansberry's second, and last, play: she died of pancreatic cancer at the age of thirty-four.
First produced on Broadway in October 1964, and with Gabriel Dell and Rita Moreno leading the cast, The Sign In Sidney Brustein's Window was not a success with either critics or audiences, and is rarely revived.
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ALVAREZ, Al
The Biggest Game In Town
London: Deutsch, 1983
8vo, pp. 185. Original brown boards, lettered in gilt to spine. Photographic dustwrapper.
First UK edition.
Informed, thrilling and brilliantly written, The Biggest Game In Town became one of the key poker texts the minute it was published, and has been read, loved and learned from by both poker players and literature lovers ever since.
A perfect copy of a perfect book. Every home game should have one.
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GOWRIE, Grey
The Italian Visitor
Manchester: Carcanet, 2013
8vo, pp. 112. Original illustrated stiff paper wrappers.
First edition, SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR.
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[Profumo Scandal] DENNING, Lord
Lord Denning's Report
London: HMSO, 1963
8vo, pp. 114. Original pale blue paper wrappers, lettered in black to front and rear panels.
First edition.
'The Circumstances Leading To The Resignation Of The Former Secretary Of State For War, Mr. J.D. Profumo.' These circumstances, as the most cursory reference to the vast amount of literature the scandal generated will tell you, included topless models, a well-connected osteopath, a Russian naval attaché, lies to Parliament, cottages on country estates, nude bathing, and the Minister of State for War.
Probably the main cause of the Conservative Party's defeat at the 1964 general election, the Profumo affair is here the subject of a government inquiry by Lord Denning, with chapter headings every bit as salacious as those you would expect to find in the pulpiest of pulp novels: The Slashing And Shooting, Christine Tells Her Story, "He's A Liar". One of the most enthralling reads ever published by a government.
