Modern Literature
London, Jarrolds, [1929].
First edition. 8vo. Original light blue cloth decorated and lettered in black. Dust-jacket.
Issued for Jarrolds' 'Jay Library', uncommon in the original Youngman Carter dust-jacket.
Modern Literature
London, Routledge, 1934.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 4s6d.
Pound's guide to reading and understanding literature, emphasising the importance of clear, concise language and the study of classic texts for learning about poetic techniques and literary greatness.
Modern Literature
Edited by T.S. Eliot
London, Faber & Gwyer, 1928.
First trade edition. 8vo. Original green cloth.
Including all but 16 of the poems contained in Personae, Pound's own collection of his poems published in New York in 1926, and adding five early poems grouped as 'Early Poems Rejected by the Author and Omitted from His Collected Edition.'
Modern Literature
London, Hutchinson, [1930].
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Attractively jacketed novel by the author of Wax Image and other weird tales.
Modern Literature
London, Faber & Faber, 2018.
First edition, first printing. 8vo. Original blue boards. Dust-jacket.
The Irish author's celebrated second novel, adapted for the television by the BBC.
Modern Literature
London, Selwyn & Blount, [1930].
First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket.
Attractive jacket artwork on this tale of a "white girl who married a young half-breed belonging to one of the North American Indian tribes." (jacket blurb)
Modern Literature
London, Methuen, 1935.
First edition. Inscribed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7s6d.
Inscribed with compliments from the author, an important Zionist who advocated peaceful coexistence with the Arabs in Mandatory Palestine.
Modern Literature
London, John Long, 1935.
First edition. Signed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Advertisements dated Summer 1935 at rear. Original dark cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Attractive first edition, inscribed by the author 'To Nelly "Kelly" Boyce from Andrew Soutar 1935'.
Modern Literature
London, Lincoln Williams, [1934].
First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
"The discovery of his wife's unchastity provides the shock which sends him questing backwards, seeking to revive his dead illusions". Nice jacket artwork.
Modern Literature
London, Dent, 1954.
First edition. 8vo. Original brown cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 8s6d.
An attractive first edition of the famous 'play for voices' Under Milk Wood, by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, commissioned by the BBC and later adapted for the stage.
Modern Literature
London, James Barrie, 1957.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 13s6d but with manuscript alteration.
School stories by an author perhaps better known for her ghost stories, and her role as anthologist of same, today.
Modern Literature
London, Nelson, 1937.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
The first edition of this prolific author's second book; she would go on to write across a range of genres, including mystery and supernatural.
Modern Literature
London, Collins, [1927].
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
A modern reworking of the Arabian Nights by popular Irish author Tynan - scarce in the jacket.
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
A Novel in Three Episodes
London, The Labour Publishing Company, 1924.
First edition. 8vo. Original pale green cloth. Dust-jacket,
A romance set against the backdrop of the 18th & 19th century 'Enclosure Acts', and the Peterloo massacre. Wilson was a prolific author who had enjoyed literary success since 1900, as well as some controversy for her 1916 Sci-Fi book, The Last Weapon, A Vision, the anti-war sentiment contained within resulting in the book being banned. Wilson was a founding member of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
Modern Literature
London, The Hogarth Press, 1941.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Virginia Woolf's famous account of a summer's day at a country house in the heart of England, where the villagers are presenting their annual pageant.
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.