Contemporary gift inscription to half-title; boards slightly softened at head of spine; jacket price-clipped, a little rubbed, large chip from top edge of upper panel with resultant creasing.
Map endpapers; jacket design by George Adamson.
£395
A Tale of Alderley
London, Collins, 1960.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
Garner’s debut novel, and one of the most important British children’s fantasy novels of the 20th century. It marked a decisive move away from the pastoral, whimsical tradition of children’s fantasy toward something darker, more rooted in specific landscape and local mythology.
In stock
Contemporary gift inscription to half-title; boards slightly softened at head of spine; jacket price-clipped, a little rubbed, large chip from top edge of upper panel with resultant creasing.
Map endpapers; jacket design by George Adamson.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, John Hamilton, 1936.
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
A rare dust-jacket. One of this author's less common and more interesting titles, a Mad Scientist's attempts to block off the sun's rays and cause the end of the world. Produced for Hamilton's Sundial Mystery Library series.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
A Story between Jest and Earnest
London, Methuen, 1935.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped and with wartime price sticker '3/-' to inside front flap.
Stapledon's famous take on the Übermensch idea, in the even more famous "odd" dust-jacket. Rare in such condition.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Translated by Lawrence Hyde.
London, Bles, 1925.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth lettered in red. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
A great first edition in English of Čapek's novel about a secret explosive formulation and the trouble it causes, not least for its inventor, the chemist Prokop: "a rich and wildly imagined work, unusual in its almost orgiastic baroque exploration of power, sexuality, and guilt." (Bleiler). The wonderful art deco jacket artwork sets the mood perfectly! The original Czech edition was published the previous year.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Collins Crime Club, 1931
First edition. 8vo. 2pp. advertisements. Original dark orange cloth blocked in black. Dust-jacket spine priced 3/6, with further 1/- sticker.
'The name "Charles Pearce"...to whisper it after dark is to start a horde of wild imagings...all that makes the flesh creep and the hair stand on end...a repulsive creature to look upon; a colossal braggart; a gifted musician; a murderer - a dwarf in stature and a Samson in strength; the perfect burglar; and a man with an irresistible attraction for women...' (publisher's blurb).
A very good first edition in early issue jacket with the sinister artwork by V. Asta bright and clean to upper panel.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
First edition.
London, Burke, 1962.
Uncommon in jacket.