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, Cassell, 1926.First edition. Inscribed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original brown cloth.Tales of Indian life. Uncommon, especially thus inscribed.
Modern Literature
A story of love in the desert
London, Eveleigh Nash & Grayson, 1922.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue. Dust-jacket, priced 2/6.
A very good first edition of this Egyptian tale by travel writer Douglas Sladen.
Modern Literature
Being the second part of 'The Realists'
London, Thornton Butterworth, 1927.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
An attractive Abbey jacket graces this work by prolific author McKenna, following the political career of Ambrose Sheridan.
Modern Literature
London, Wright & Brown, [1934].
First UK edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7s6d.
A great copy of the UK first edition of this classic ocean-liner romcom, by an American screenwriter, actress, and novelist active during the 1920s through the 1950. Famously brought to the big screen in 1932.
Modern Literature
London, Hutchinson, 1951.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original blue boards. Dust-jacket, clipped and with price-sticker of 5/.
A very good first UK edition of this collection of seven tales by William Irish, a.k.a. Cornell Woolrich, in striking stylised jacket reflecting the pugilistic title story. Rare.
![Alternative view of Atkins (A.H[arold].) Sinister Smith](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/84251_2-300x400.jpg)
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, John Lane The Bodley Head, 1916.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth lettered in gilt. Dust-jacket.
A remarkable survivor, the rare jacket protecting the book below admirably.
"What 'Moby Lane' really has to offer you are stories and sketches of the everyday life of ordinary people — that is, of people who seem ordinary until Mr. Lyons picks them up and casually shows you how extraordinary they are." (The Bookman, 1915).
Modern Literature
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1939.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
A great first edition of this uncommon 'thirties title in the jacket. The tale of one man's increasingly desperate attempts to avoid mediocrity.
Modern Literature
London, George Allen & Unwin, 1924.
First English edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
...a most delightful picture of the 'interior' of a well-to-do Amsterdam printer-publisher's house (jacket blurb). A nice example of a 1920s dust-jacket, by the British painter, illustrator and linocut artist Dorothy Burroughes.
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
A romance of the air London, Wright & Brown, [1935].First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.A passionate predecessor to the "Mile High Club"...? An excellent dust-jacket, regardless.
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
London, Wright & Brown, [1934].
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
An attractive jacket on this Wright & Brown title from the early thirties; a woman is exhausted and disillusioned, and sets off on an adventure of self-discovery.
![Alternative view of Hull (E[dith]. M[aud].) The Captive of Sahara](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/84087_2-300x450.jpg)
Modern Literature
London, Methuen,, 1932.
Second edition. 8vo. 8pp. advertisements. Orange cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 3/6.
A handsome early edition of this follow-up to The Sheik (1919). Hull is credited with setting off a major and hugely popular revival of the "desert romance" genre of romantic fiction, helped by the Rudolph Valentino film adaptations.
Modern Literature
London, Faber & Faber, 1959.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth lettered in white to spine. Dust-jacket.
An autobiographical recounting of the author's first-hand experiences of apartheid in South Africa.
Modern Literature
A Novel
London, Sampson Low, [1934].
First edition, "File Copy". 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
The last novel by this insanely prolific Cornish writer, author of the best-selling 'improving story' Her Benny (1879). Wonderful jacket artwork.
Modern Literature
London, Rich & Cowan, 1933.
First edition. 8vo. Title within xylographic border. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
A lovely first edition of a Shakespearean era yarn.
Modern Literature
London, Jonathan Cape, 1930.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth, lettered in gilt at spine. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
A tale of deprivation and adversity set near the mouth of the Thames. Scarce in jacket.
Modern Literature
London, Longmans, Green,, 1923.
First edition. 8vo. 4pp. advertisements. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 6/-.
A very good example of this early jacketed work set in Dartmoor, Devon. The adverts at the back are all related to West Country tales, including My Lady of the Moor by John Oxenham, which features none other than Beatrice Chase as the heroine.
Modern Literature
Calvert (E. Roy) Capital Punishment in the Twentieth Century.
With a Preface by The Right Honourable Lord Buckminster
London & New York, G.P. Putnam, 1927.
First edition, signed by the author. 8vo. Original green cloth, lettered in gilt. Dust-jacket, priced 5/-.
A rallying cry by this Quaker writer against capital punishment, outlaying the failures of the death sentence as a deterrent. Suitable jacket artwork by renowned British artist Frank Brangwyn.
Modern Literature
London, Bodley Head, 1923.First edition. 8vo. 8pp. advertisements. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, without price.Great jacket artwork by Canadian–British illustrator and commercial artist Austin Cooper (not the car).
Modern Literature
London, Macdonald, [1943].
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 8/6.
A light-hearted book. If you not like mean people, you will not be discouraged by the fate which overtakes the characters... (jacket blurb)
![Alternative view of Hull (E[dith]. M[aud].) The Sons of the Sheik](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/82645_2-300x399.jpg)
Modern Literature
London, Eveleigh Nash & Grayson, [1926].
Film tie-in edition. 8vo. 3pp. advertisements. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket.
A handsome early edition of the sequel to The Sheik (1919); the first edition was published in 1925, with this edition issued to coincide with the popular film version starring Rudolph Valentino. Hull is credited with setting off a major and hugely popular revival of the "desert romance" genre of romantic fiction.
Modern Literature
London, Hurst & Blackett, 1918.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 5/ and stating '20th thousand'.
A later title, but a characteristically passionate & emotive novel by the author of the notorious The Quick or the Dead? (1888). Scarce in such an early issue dust-jacket.
![Alternative view of Hill (H. Haverstock) [pseud. J.M. Walsh]. Golden Harvest](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/82569_2-300x399.jpg)
Modern Literature
London, Hodder & Stoughton, [1929].
First edition. 8vo. 8pp. advertisements. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket.
Golden Harvest is a particularly good yarn of gold discovery in Australia's wild, uninhabited Northern Territory...There is a mysterious Chinaman, abduction, rescue, a dramatic chase across the desert to the mine... (jacket blurb)
![Anahareo [aka Gertrude Bernard]. My Life with Grey Owl](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/82514-300x399.jpg)
![Alternative view of Anahareo [aka Gertrude Bernard]. My Life with Grey Owl](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/82514_2-300x399.jpg)
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
and other Tales of the East.
London, Heath Cranton, [1925].
First edition, first impression, signed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Colour plates. Original brown cloth blocked in red.
Oriental tales in the spirit of The Arabian Nights, with five four-colour plates. The author has inscribed the front free endpaper 'to George & Edith Kydd', dated 1927.
Modern Literature
London, Heinemann, 1927.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
A collection of short stories by the Pulitzer Prize winning author Edna Ferber, famously author of So Big, Show Boat and Giant. The jacket with its 'vignette' illustrations is definitely uncommon, and in our opinion more attractive than the first US equivalent.