Modern Literature
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1926.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket.
A very good first edition of this uncommon Buchan work, the third of five novels featuring his character Leithen, here entangled in a web of deadly superstition and danger on a small Greek island.
Modern Literature
A Book of Confessions
London, Thornton Butterworth, 1924.
First edition. 8vo. Original pale sage cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
Highly attractive example of the first edition of this novel by the author of Limehouse Nights. The work describes growing up in London's East End, and is often believed to be largely autobiographical, although the author would comment in later years, "this has been taken to be my personal story, but it is a mixture. A few passages here and there have some autobiographical basis, but the treatments is at five or six removes from the actual." Scarce in the jacket, let alone in such condition.
Modern Literature
London, Collins, 1957.
First edition. 8vo. Publisher's review slip loosely inserted. Original black boards. Dust-jacket, priced 16s.
Mason's most well-known work, inspired by the time he spent at the Luk Kwok Hotel in 1956 and the prostitution services he observed offered there.
Modern Literature
London, Michael Joseph, 1959. First edition. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, priced 13s6d. The first edition of Waterhouse's famous story of a Yorkshire lad's dreams to become a comedy writer in London, and the fantasy world he has built up around himself. Often aligned with the 'angry young men' literary movement of the sixties.
Modern Literature
An anthology of stories chosen by their own authors
London, Faber & Faber, 1934.
First edition. 8vo. Original purple cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 3/6.
Contributors include Martin Armstrong, A.E. Coppard, Louis Golding, James Laver, H. de V. Stacpoole and Alec Waugh.
Modern Literature
London, Drane's, [1924].
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 6/-.
Compelling jacket artwork graces this compilation of short stories, mostly of an Oriental bent. An uncommon imprint.
Modern Literature
London, John Day, 1967.
First US edition. 8vo. Original purple cloth lettered in gilt. Dust-jacket, priced $5.50.
In this moving story Chinua Achebe catches perfectly the atmosphere of African village life, the beautiful proverb-laden language of the Ibo and their touching, strangely formal customs of worship and hospitality. (jacket)
Modern Literature
New York, Mcdowell-Obolensky, 1959.
First US edition, second issue (with reviews to rear panel). 8vo. Original grey boards. Dust-jacket, priced $3.95.
One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World'. Achebe's first book, and the first part of the author's 'African Trilogy', Things Fall Apart is the compelling story of one man's battle to protect his community against the forces of change. Scarce.
Modern Literature
London, Sampson Low, [1933].
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
A very good first edition of this uncommon title, on which this author's reputation primarily resides.
Modern Literature
The novel of the play by Arnold Ridley and Bernard Merivale
London, Selwyn & Blount, 1928.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
Striking jacket artwork adorns this tale of railway sabotage.
Modern Literature
Lagos, Nigerian Printing & Publising, [1959].
First edition. 8vo. Original blue boards. Dust-jacket, priced 12/6.
A nice example of the true first edition of this depiction of the contradiction of Yoruba culture and the Christian missionaries. It was republished as part of Heinemann's influential 'African Writers Series'.
Modern Literature
London, Peter Davies, 1940.
First edition. 8vo. Frontispiece portrait, plates. Original cloth. Photographic dust-jacket, priced 8s6d.
A scarce find in the dust-jacket. The book chronicles Anahareo's adventures with the faux apache 'Grey Owl' as they travelled along the waterways of Northern Ontario, having met in Canada when she was 19. Not to be confused with the later Devil in Deerskins: My Life with Grey Owl, which is written after she had purportedly become aware that Grey Owl was in fact an Englishman named Archibald Stansfeld Belaney... Anahareo did not achieve the same fame as Grey Owl, but she played an important role in the conservation and animal rights movement, something she had been passionate about throughout her life.
Modern Literature
London, Piatkus, 1980.
First UK edition, first hardback edition. 8vo. Original burgundy boards. Dust-jacket, without price.
The first hardback printing of Virginia Andrews' darkly psychological, grimly compelling thriller, the first in a series which was eventually, upon the author's death, taken over by a ghost writer. The book was first published in the US in paperback. Copies often turn up without a price as in this case.
Modern Literature
Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1970.
First US edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced $5.95.
A very good first edition of Ghanaian author Armah's second novel, recounting the experiences of a Ghanaian man's return to Ghana after an education in the US.
Modern Literature
London, Thornton Butterworth, 1925.
First edition. 8vo. Original pale sage cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Attractive dust-jacket, a love story set against the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1923.
Modern Literature
First edition.
London. Gollancz, 1934
Novel about a doctor in a small town, written by one-time house physician at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Uncommon.
Modern Literature
London, Duckworth, 1938.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
...a critical and sympathetic picture of modern life and its social problems...is it better to escape, or to play one's part? (jacket)
Modern Literature
London, Wright & Brown, [1936].
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
Classic stuff by Jean Barre, here writing under her own name rather than a pseudonym.
Modern Literature
London, Wright & Brown, [1934].
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Another attractive first edition by Wright & Brown, written by one of their more prolific authors.
Modern Literature
London, Herbert Jenkins, 1932.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
An attractive first edition of this uncommon title, in the distinctive Jenkins jacket by Abbey. The tale of a somewhat high-minded and presumptuous would-be match-maker, told in a humorous vein.
Modern Literature
Stories of Several Worlds. First edition, Heinemann, 1938.
Modern Literature
First edition, Heinemann, 1900. A pleasing first edition of this early novel by the creator of Mapp and Lucia.
Modern Literature
First UK edition, Collins, 1926. A jazz age title about a novelist, Henry Blackstone ‘who has never attained the wide popularity to which his gifts entitle him’ whose travails make him ‘vulnerable to, and ripe for the crisis which comes when he meets Mrs Thurlow’.
Modern Literature
London, Macmillan, 1941.
First edition. 8vo. Original pink cloth. Dust-jacket.
The story of a young composer who, under the auspices of a mysterious millionaire, looks forward to a sumptuous production of his first symphony. Nice copy.
Modern Literature
Portrait of an Immigrant
London, Cape, 1937.
First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
A marvellously written fictionalised account of the author's wife's family's story of migration from Russia to East London, by the author of Jew Boy.
Modern Literature
London, Chapman & Hall, 1927
First edition, second impression. Large 8vo. Tipped-in slip. Plates. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
Inscribed by the author E.H. Bostock, most famous for the Glasgow Zoo and Circus on New City Road, as well as cinema and variety house interests in Paisley, Hamilton and Wishaw; he opened a cinema in the Zoo and Circus. His animals were internationally famous and appeared in such films as The Rajah's Sacrifice (1916).
The foreword notes: "Mr. Bostock has been called the Barnum of Britain. Judged by the magnitude and multitude of his enterprises, he may well claim the title, for he has been a pioneer of modern entertainment as well as a practitioner of older forms."
Modern Literature
London, Lehmann, 1949.
First edition. 8vo. Original grey cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 10s6d.
First edition of Bowles' famous novel, following an American couple, Port and Kit Moresby, as they traverse the North African desert, confronting existential despair and the void of human existence. Published in 1949, the novel is pivotal for its bleak portrayal of post-war disillusionment and its exploration of alienation, themes that resonated deeply in mid-20th-century literature.
Modern Literature
London, Faber, 1935.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7s6d.
A very good first UK edition of this early novel by one of the 'Lost Generation' writers, a semi-autobiographical künstlerroman set around an artists' commune on the outskirts Paris. Boyle was a prolific writer and poet, and a successful journalist until falling prey to the McCarthy witch hunts.
Modern Literature
London, Rich & Cowan, 1935.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
The first UK edition of journalist & writer Breuer's first novel, the basis for the Cary Grant and Carole Lombard film In Name Only (1939). Uncommon in the jacket.
Modern Literature
Translated... by Felix W. Crosse.
London, Alfred A. Knopf, 1928.
First edition in English. 8vo. Original green cloth with white title label to spine. Dust-jacket.
The first English language edition of Brod's first major novel. The translation of the title has been criticised by many, as the eponymous protagonist does not achieve redemption on his path to God. Uncommon.
Modern Literature
London, Cassell, 1932.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original black cloth lettered in red. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
An attractively jacketed edition of this work by US writer Katharine Brush, one of the most popular authors of her time, as well as one of most well-paid. 'Red headed woman! She went to New York; men looked at her, and say "Boy!"' (jacket). The book was adapted for the silver screen the same year, starring Jean Harlow as a woman who uses sex to advance her social position.
Modern Literature
London, Heinemann, 1958.
First edition. 8vo. Original dark blue boards. Dust-jacket, priced 15s.
The second novel in Burgess's Malayan trilogy, set in Dahaga (Malayan for 'thirsty) and following the rise & fall of British expat Victor Crabbe, a microcosm of the waning influence of the British Empire.
Modern Literature
Burke (Thomas); Nevinson (C.R.W., jacket artist) Limehouse Nights
London, Grant Richards, 1917.
Fourth printing. 8vo. Original brown cloth. Later issue dust-jacket (c.1921), price-clipped.
An early printing of Burke's famous tales of London's then Chinatown at the early part of the 20th century, in a slightly later but scarce dust-jacket. The work garnered both opprobrium and praise upon its publication in 1916, with some feeling it painted a morally damaging picture of Chinese immigrants cohabiting with white women, in part worsened by the developing trend for so-called "Yellow Peril" fiction by mostly US authors. Jacket artwork by the artist C.R.W. Nevinson, who became famous as a war artist.
Modern Literature
A political thriller
London, Constable & Co Ltd, 1937.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
Attractive jacket artwork graces this self-styled 'political thriller' set mainly in a north-country mining town.
Modern Literature
London, Hodder & Stoughton, [1925].
First UK edition, first printing. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7'6.
An excellent first UK edition of this collection of nine stories by American writer Struthers Burt, author of the non-fiction, intriguingly entitled account The Diary of a Dude Wrangler (1924). Burt's papers are housed at Princeton University.
Modern Literature
London, Chatto & Windus, 1964 [1963].
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 21s.
Byatt's first novel, an examination of the relationship between a girl and her father. Uncommon.