Modern Literature
London, Hutchinson, 1963.
First edition. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
A very good first edition of this novel by Nigerian author Ekwensi, with possibly the most extensive "synopsis" to ever grace a dust-jacket's inner flaps.
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, The Queensway Press, 1937.
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
An important work in the context of Indian English fiction, recounting the life of three generations in a family of high-caste Brahmins.
Modern Literature
London, Collins, 1935.
First edition. 8vo. Original wine red cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 3/6.
A recounting of the early part of the twentieth century through the filter of childhood memories, by an author more well known for his botanical writings.
Modern Literature
A Modern Allegory
London, A.B. Campbell, 1939.
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
'Every Irishman, whatever his political opinions, will enjoy the unique solution of the age-old Irish Problem which provides a gentle satire on present-day world conditions.' (jacket blurb).
Modern Literature
London, Cassell, 1933.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 3/6.
A yearning for 'volcanic love' sees Veronica Manners travelling to South America, in this pleasingly jacketed first edition.
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
A Traveller's Tale
London, Collins, 1927.
First edition. 8vo. Original brown buckram. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
A "little odyssey" by one of Ireland's most popular authors.
Modern Literature
A Romantic Novel in Honour of the Passing of a Great Race
London, Jonathan Cape, 1933.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original yellow cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 5s.
The first UK edition of Hemingway's first long work, a satirical treatment of pretentious writers; here with an introduction by David Garnett.
Modern Literature
London, Jonathan Cape, 1934.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original yellow cloth. Dust-jacket, price obscured by ink.
Hemingway's third collection of stories, six of which are first appearances.
Modern Literature
A Novel of Cornwall
London, Ward Lock, 1945.
First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 8/6.
The book that started it all... also one of the most attractive dust-jackets from the series. Sales of the novel increased by 205% after the premiere of the 2015 television adaptation.
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
An Amusement
London, Secker, 1927.
First edition. 8vo. Original green boards. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
The first edition of the second book by US journalist & writer John Gunther, seemingly preceding the first US edition.
Modern Literature
New York, Norton, 1975.
First US edition. 8vo. Original black cloth. Dust-jacket, priced $6.95.
The first US edition of this important play by the Nigerian playwright, novelist and Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka. Written whilst Soyinka was in exile in England, the work is notable for its extensive use of Yoruba proverbs, with which the author was very familiar. A Netflix adaptation is due out later this year.
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
London, Heinemann, 1935.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth.
A first edition from master storyteller Graham Greene, the tale of ne'er-do-well Anthony Farrant, who has boasted, lied and cheated his way through jobs all over the world.
Modern Literature
London, Faber & Faber, 1938.
First edition. 8vo. Original brown cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 25s.
The second collection of poetry by Irish poet MacNeice, with the correct blurb to the jacket's front inside panel: 'Mr. MacNeice's position as a poet was incontestably established in 1935 by his first volume of Poems. He is one of the few poets to-day none of whose poems could have been written by anyone else. His second volume has been awaited for some time: now that it has arrived, it needs no advertisement.'
Modern Literature
London, J. & R. Maxwell, [1887].
First edition. 8vo. Original olive cloth with orange lettering and ruled in blind.
An uncommon first edition; the author lost her sight at the age of seven, but went on to become a prolific writer for magazines and author of several novels.
Modern Literature
and other stories
London, Macmillan, 1948.
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 8s6d.
'Short stories reflecting a wide field of human emotion' (jacket), by Irish playwright, novelist and short story writer MacMahon.
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
Ten lectures on social subjects
London, Swarthmore Press, 1919.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth with white spine label. Dust-jacket, priced 6/-.
An excellent first edition of this series of essays by the Victorian author, playwright and illustrator Laurence Housman, author of A Farm in Fairyland (1894) and illustrator of his sister's novella The Were-Wolf (1896). Scarce in jacket.
Modern Literature
London, Robert Hale, [c.1950s].
First UK edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7s6d.
"Margo Haynes is lovely and lovable but her love is dangerous" (jacket blurb).
Modern Literature
London, Quality Press, 1938.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 2/6.
Nautically themed tales of an oft humorous bent, and of some criminous interest too apparently, as listed in Hubin.
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
Shaw-Cowley (E., pseud. Elsie Mary Boulton) Prisoners of State
London & New York, John Lane, 1921.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth blocked in red. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Attractive dust-jacket artwork on this intriguing novel...
Modern Literature
London, Grant Richards, 1925.
First edition. 8vo. Original yellow cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
An intriguingly Hardy-esque novel by John Cowper Powys, preceding his breakthrough work Wolf Solent.
Modern Literature
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1916.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket.
A rare dust-jacket, and uncommon book.
"Cobb wrote humorous stories set in Kentucky, and he is considered part of the American literary regionalism school. These stories were first collected in the book Old Judge Priest (1915), whose title character was based on a prominent West Kentucky judge named William Pitman Bishop. Joel Chandler Harris wrote of these tales, 'Cobb created a South peopled with honorable citizens, charming eccentrics, and loyal, subservient blacks, but at their best the Judge Priest stories are dramatic and compelling, using a wealth of precisely rendered detail to evoke a powerful mood.'" (Wikipedia)
Modern Literature
London & New York, Harper, 1900.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth blocked in gilt.
A decent H.G. Wells first edition. Young, impoverished and ambitious, science student Mr Lewisham is locked in a struggle to further himself through academic achievement.
Modern Literature
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1938.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
The first UK edition of one of a series of popular novels based on the life and adventures of 'Calamity Jane' in the wild wild west. Uncommon in the dust-jacket, let alone in such condition.
Modern Literature
A Soldier of Humour and other stories
London, Chatto & Windus, 1927.
First edition, Centaur Library issue. 8vo. Original red cloth lettered in black. Dust-jacket, priced 3/6.
The Centaur Library issue of these stories from the vector of vorticism Wyndham Lewis, printed from the first edition sheets but in different binding, and the series jacket design by the graphic artist Edward Bawden (as opposed to the boring typographic one on the first issue).
Modern Literature
London, Heinemann, 1935.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original black cloth, lettered in gilt. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6. With publisher's review slip loosely inserted.
A poetic novel from the pen of influential US poet, writer and educationalist Van Doren.
Modern Literature
London, Heath Cranton, 1930.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth, blocked in black. Dust-jacket.
Striking jacket artwork and a uncommon first edition, a collection of stories inspired by the sea.
Modern Literature
London, Herbert Jenkins, 1938.
First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth, lettered in black. Dust-jacket, priced 3/6.
Excellent atmospheric jacket artwork and a scarce dust-jacket. A tale of blackmail & murder, from the grandfather of Fay Weldon.
Modern Literature
London, Hutchinson, [1925].
First edition. 8vo. Original light purple cloth blocked in black. Dust-jacket, priced 7s6d.
Some of this Devonshire author's best short stories, distinctly scarce in the original dust-jacket.
Modern Literature
and his dead Palm-Wine Tapster in the Deads' Town
London, Faber & Faber, 1952.
First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 10s6d.
"This astonishing story…was written in English by a West African, and is in part the product of African folk-lore, stimulated by European inventions." (jacket).
A very good copy of this debut novel by Nigerian author Amos Tutuola, the first African novel published in English outside of Africa, praised by Dylan Thomas as "brief, thronged, grisly and bewitching". Tutuola's works, often drawing upon Yoruba traditions & folklore, were well received in the UK & US (far more than they were originally in his home country), drawing international acclaim and helping open up African writing to a wider audience.
Given the recent prices achieved by this and other similar works by African authors at auction it seems probable that we are experiencing something of a, possibly overdue, reappraisal & resurgence of interest in these writers.
The jacket is designed by the well-known artist & illustrator Barnett Freedman.
Modern Literature
London, Hurst & Blackett, [1905].
First edition thus. 8vo. Original green cloth decorated in gilt.
Contains three separate supernatural/fantasy novelettes, "The Seventh Dream," "The Doctor's Secret," and "The Turkish Baths."
Modern Literature
London, Chatto & Windus, 1929.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original green cloth lettered in gilt. Dust-jacket, priced 7s6d, with the original Choice of the Book Society wraparound band.
The distinctive first UK edition of Hughes' High Wind in Jamaica, a genre redefining work set largely on the high seas - with pirates! Uncommon in the original wraparound.
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
London, Faber & Faber, 1954.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 12s.6d
The tale of a small boy who wanders into the heart of a fantastical African forest, the dwelling place of innumerable wild, grotesque and terrifying beings. A key work of modern African literature, a companion-piece to Tutuola's first book The Palm-Wine Drinkard (1952).
Modern Literature
Edinburgh, Polygon, 1986.
First edition, preferred hardback issue. Flat-signed by the author. 8vo. Original red boards. Dust-jacket.
The preferred hardback issue of the book that introduced Ian Rankin to the literary scene, before he would go on to achieve global fame for his Inspector Rebus books.
Modern Literature
London, Philip Allan, 1924.
First edition. 8vo. Device to title. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 3/6.
A strange and occasionally beautiful book...rather a dangerous study in the emotion of sex... (The Referee). Rare, especially in the jacket.
Modern Literature
London, Cassell, 1926.First edition. Inscribed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original brown cloth.Tales of Indian life. Uncommon, especially thus inscribed.