
[ed. WAYNFLETE, John] BENTLEY, Nicolas; LAMBERT, Constant; SADLEIR, Michael, and others
Clerihews
Cambridge: Rampant Lions Press, 1938
Oblong 12mo, unpaginated. Original black stiff paper wrappers, lettered in pale blue to front panel. Paper stock of different colours.
First edition. CHARLES HANDLEY-READ'S COPY WITH HIS OWNERSHIP SIGNATURE TO FRONT FREE ENDPAPER.
A collection of twenty-six clerihews, with blank pages bound in at the rear for the reader's own additions. On the page headed 'THE AUTHORS' the last line of text is missing, thereby omitting the name of the author of The Emperor Pertinax.
Charles Handley-Read [1916-1971] was a writer on architecture and a collector in the field of Victorian decorative arts. He read architecture at St. Catherine's College, Cambridge, and would have been an undergraduate when he bought this volume (which was published in Cambridge) on 28 October 1938.
A second edition was published in 1946 and surfaces occasionally, but the first, offered here, is extremely scarce -- especially with such a provenance.
HEANEY, Seamus
Door Into The Dark
London: Faber, 1972
8vo, pp. 56. Original stiff paper wrappers.
First paperback edition of Heaney's second commercially published collection, first published in... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
LARKIN, Philip
The Whitsun Weddings
London: Faber, 1964
8vo, pp. 46. Original deep red cloth boards, lettered in gilt to spine. Dustwrapper.
First edition. Published in February 1964 in an edition of ... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
[trans. RIGNAUT, Homer] SAINE, Uc
The Legend Of Ermengarde
Paris: Edward Titus, 1929
8vo, pp. 16. Original plain stiff paper wrappers, housed in a dustwrapper printed in red and black to front panel. Top edge cut, others uncut. Small ... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
SPEAR, Thelma
First Fruits
Paris: Edward Titus, 1927
12mo, pp. 34. Original cream marbled stiff paper wrappers, green title label to front panel, title label to spine. Edges rough cut.... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
SCHULBERG, Budd
The Harder They Fall
New York: Random House, 1947
8vo, pp. 343. Original black boards, lettered in red and lilac on spine. Top edge red.
First edition of the author's second novel.
Schulberg's exposé of the corrupt world of American prizefighting was filmed in 1956 with Rod Steiger and Humphrey Bogart (in his last film).
An extremely nice copy.
MITCHELL, David
Cloud Atlas
London: Sceptre, 2004
8vo, pp. 529. Original red boards, lettered in turquoise on spine.
First edition, first impression. Review copy, with publisher's promotional ... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
MILLER, Arthur
The Misfits
New York: Viking Press, 1961
8vo, pp. 132. Original beige boards, lettered in red on spine.
First edition of Miller's novelisation of his own screenplay. The film... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
[ARAGON, Louis] ANONYMOUS
Irène
Paris: Chez L'Auteur [Jean-Jacques Pauvert], 1952
8vo, pp. 108. Variant binding: blue stiff paper wrappers, white title label on front panel. Fifth (blank) leaf missing, as in all copies. French text.
Second... [more]
SARRAUTE, Nathalie
Tropisms And The Age Of Suspicion
London: John Calder, 1963
8vo, pp. 136. Original grey boards, lettered in gilt on spine.
First UK edition, inscribed by Sarraute on the half-title: 'A David Gothard, en souvenir très amical. Nathalie Sarraute.'... [more]
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.
O'BRIAN, Patrick
The Mauritius Command
London: Collins, 1977
8vo, pp. 268. Original green boards, lettered in gilt to spine.
First edition.
An early entry -- instalment four -- in O'Brian's... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
FITZGERALD, F. Scott
Borrowed Time
London: Grey Walls Press, 1951
8vo, pp. 366. Original red boards, lettered in black to spine.
First edition.
A collection of short stories by... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
AUDEN, W.H. and MacNEICE, Louis
Letters From Iceland
London: Faber, 1937
8vo, pp. 268. Original green boards, lettered in red and black to spine. Illustrated dustwrapper.
First edition.
BETJEMAN, John
First And Last Loves
London: John Murray, 1969
8vo, pp. 244. Original pink and white illustrated stiff paper wrappers.
Later edition, AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED BY BETJEMAN ON... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
WILLINGHAM, Calder
End As A Man
New York: Vanguard Press, 1947
8vo, pp. 350. Original black boards, lettered in silver on spine.
First edition of the author's first book, based on the time he spent as a cadet at the Citadel, a military college in... [more]
COCTEAU, Jean
Le Mystère Laïc
Paris: Editions des Quatres Chemins 1928
Small 8vo, pp. 81. Original stiff paper wrappers and glassine jacket.
First edition. Copy no. 650 of a not especially limited edition of 3000 copies, but a superior example.
Meredith, George
One Of Our Conquerors
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]
[trans. FITZGERALD, Edward]
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
London: George Harrap, N.d. [c.1925]
8vo, unpaginated. Original burgundy leather boards, title in gilt to spine. Ivy leaf design to both panels, illustrated in green and gilt ... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
SOMERVILLE, E. OE, and ROSS, Martin [pseud. MARTIN, Violet]
Sarah's Youth
London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1938
8vo, pp. 311. Original green boards, lettered in gilt to spine.
First edition, SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR TO TITLE PAGE, AND... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
