HARRIS, Joel Chandler

New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1881

8vo, pp. 231, 8 pp. advertisements bound in at rear. Original green cloth illustrated in black and gold.

First edition, first issue, with no mention of this book in the... [more]

[pseud. ABBOTT, Edwin A.] SQUARE, A.

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.

CARPENTER, Edward

Manchester: The Labour Press Society, 1894

12mo, pp. 24. Original paper wrappers in raw sienna, hand-sewn, lettered in gilt on front panel.

First edition.
In... [please click on the image or book title for more details]

[MANDELA, Nelson] MEER, Fatima

London: Hamish Hamilton, 1988

8vo, pp. 429. Original black boards, lettered in gilt on spine.

First edition, WARMLY INSCRIBED TO PETER HAIN BY DONALD WOODS: 'For Peter, on your 40th birthday, an appropriate gift -- your personal contribution to the goals and the liberation of Mandela will never be forgotten. 17/2/1990 Donald and Wendy Woods.'

Donald Woods began his professional life in South Africa as a cub reporter on the radical newspaper The Daily Despatch, and rose through the ranks to become its editor in 1965. He was close friends with the Black Consciousness Movement leader Steve Biko, murdered by police in 1977. Woods' secretly-taken photographs of his friend's battered exposed the government cover-up of the cause of Biko's death.

Peter Hain's parents were radicals active in the Liberal Party of South Africa. By the age of nineteen Hain was chairman of the Stop The Seventy Tour campaign and, at great personal risk, led protest marches and pitch invasions of South African rugby and cricket tours in order to oppose apartheid. In 1972 he was sent a letter bomb, which failed to explode. Having emigrated to Britain he became a founder member of the Anti-Nazi League in the late 1970s. (He was also a vice-president of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality, forerunner of Stonewall). He migrated from the Liberal Party to Labour, and served in a number of Cabinet positions under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

Nelson Mandela was released from prison on 11 February 1990; six days later Donald Woods presented this book to Peter Hain to mark Hain's 40th birthday, the two men's joint struggle, and, crowningly, one of the most joyous events of the twentieth century.

A wonderful association copy, affectionately inscribed by one hero of the anti-apartheid movement to another.","

London: Hamish Hamilton, 1988

8vo, pp. 429. Original black boards, lettered in gilt on spine. Very light spotti

New York: Knopf, 1938

Small 8vo, pp. 38. Original black boards, lettered in gilt on spine, and with Mann's initials embossed in blind to front panel.

First US... [please click on the image or book title for more details]

WALTON, Isaac

London: Strahan & Co., 1844

8vo, pp. 445. Original boards, vellum tips, lettered in gilt on vellum spine. Tissue guards to engravings. Top edge gilt, others uncut. Bookplate... [please click on the image or book title for more details]

REID, Forrest

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.

Meredith, George

London: Chapman and Hall, 1891

3 vols. 8vos., pp. 302, 320 and 307. Original blue coarse cloth boards, tooling in black to front panels, lettered in gilt on spines, blindstamped publisher's device to rear panels. Edges uncut.... [more]

[intro. SITWELL, Sacheverell] BEAUMONT, Cyril W.

London: C. W. Beaumont, 1926

Large 8vo, pp. 156. Original illustrated boards, vellum spine lettered in gilt. Pages uncut.

First edition, no. 25 of 325 copies published by the author. With a preface by Sacheverell Sitwell to whom, with his brother Osbert, the book is dedicated.,
Cyril Beaumont was one of the pre-em

SITWELL, Osbert

London: Macmillan & Co., 1945-1950

8vos, all in original red boards, lettered in gold on spine.

First editions of Sitwell's autobiography.
A lovely set which has been together since publication.

HENTY, G.A.

London, Glasgow and Dublin: Blackie & Sons, 1898 [1897]

8vo, pp. 352, 32 pp. catalogue bound in at rear. All edges gilt.

First edition, with the date 1898... [please click on the image or book title for more details]

[ed. ZUCKERMAN, Lord]

London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, N.d. [1979]

Large 8vo, pp. 231. Original tan boards, lettered in gilt on spine.

First edition, INSCRIBED BY LORD ZUCKERMAN:... [please click on the image or book title for more details]

KINGDON-WARD, F.

London: Cape, 1952

8vo. pp. 254. Index and foldout map. Original blue boards, lettered in silver to spine.

First edition.

As well as a mastery of his... [please click on the image or book title for more details]

KING, Jessie M.

Edinburgh: T. N. Foulis, 1910

Small 8vo, pp. 51. Original boards with oversized dustwrapper, colour illustrations to front and rear panel, spine lettered in grey. Publisher's ... [please click on the image or book title for more details]

WHITEHOUSE, Mary

London: Wayland, 1977

8vo, pp. 224. Original mauve boards, lettered in gilt on spine.

First edition, INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR TO BOB 'BLOCKBUSTERS' HOLNESS: 'To Bob ... [please click on the image or book title for more details]

[Roxburghe Club] FOGAZZARO, Antonio

San Francisco: The Roxburghe Club, 1930

Large 8vo, pp. 29. Original green stiff paper wrappers, spine label and silk ties. Green slipcase.

No. 76 of 250 numbered... [please click on the image or book title for more details]

GREY, Zane

New York: Grosset & Dunlap, N.d. [1917]

8vo, pp. 335. 4 pp. advertisements at rear. Original illustrated blue-green boards, lettered in purple on front panel and... [please click on the image or book title for more details]

DEPEW, Albert N.

Chicago: The Reilly & Britton Co., 1918

8vo, pp. 312. Original dark blue boards, lettered in gilt on front panel and spine. Two small stamped names to front pastedown and... [please click on the image or book title for more details]