Modern Literature
Dawe (W. Carlton); [Beardsley (Aubrey, illustrator)] Yellow and White
London & Boston, John Lane; Roberts Bros, 1895.
First edition. 8vo. Original pale green cloth decorated in gilt.
One of the famous Keynotes series published by Lane, featuring designs presumed to be by Aubrey Beardsley. Tales of the pursuit of interracial marriage by white civil servants and the barriers they faced, and similar, by an Australian author. Uncommon.
Modern Literature
First edition, in early reprint wrapper priced at 2/6' (the first issue was priced 7/6').
London. Duckworth, 1925
A novel about the Irish ‘revolution’ in 1916.
Modern Literature
London, Herbert Jenkins, 1937.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
A wonderful first edition of this novel, recounting the adventures, misadventures and epiphanies of a disparate collection of characters cloistered together in a large holiday house.
Modern Literature
London, Neville Spearman, 1956.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original blue boards. Dust-jacket, priced 15s.
The first UK edition of Donleavy's controversial novel set in Dublin, banned both in Ireland and the United States of America for perceived obscenity. The work was first published in Paris by the Olympia Press, as part of their Traveller's Companion series, normally reserved for risque erotica, much to the chagrin of Donleavy. The author ended up in long-running legal wranglings with the publisher, finally actually taking ownership of the publishing house when it came up at auction.
Modern Literature
La Chapelle-Réanville, The Hours Press, 1929.
First edition, one of 300 copies on verge paper, from an overall limitation of 500, this unnumbered and assumed out-of-series for presentation. 8vo. Original brown boards, lettered in gilt to upper cover.
Important association copy of the fifth book issued on the Hours Press. The Hours Press was established in Normandy by Nancy Cunard who had obtained the equipment of the Three Mountains Press at a bargain price. "The success of the Hours Press was never in doubt except at the very beginning, when Cunard had only vague ideas of producing contemporary poetry. In its three years, the Hours Press was typographically insignificant (despite its exciting bindings), but in literary terms it was one of the most important of all the private presses". (Cave, The Private Press, p. 193).
Raymond Mortimer was a prominent British literary critic and editor, known for his influential work with the New Statesman magazine. His insightful analyses and cultured sensibilities established him as a leading figure in the British literary world during the mid-20th century.
Modern Literature
London, Constable and Company Ltd, 1936.
First edition. 8vo. Original red boards. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
An attractive first edition, the story revolves around the compelling attraction of some monolithic stones in the highlands of Scotland and the spell that they weave.
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
A Tragedy of Manners
London, Denis Archer, 1933.
First edition. Inscribed presentation copy from the author to bohemian writer Edith Templeton. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, price on spine ablated.
An attractive, inscribed first edition by the illustrator, writer and costume designer Beresford Egan. The full-page inscription is to the writer and bohemian Edith Templeton:
"For Edith Templeton, Have I exhumed this memory that she may perform a post mortem, & which can have but one verdict - MURDER in all degrees. Beresford Egan. 1951."
There follows a short, seemingly unpublished poem in Egan's hand:
"Time does not fly / Nor does a memory fade / Time is the Father / Who / Incestuous lies / With Memory, unfaded / True / But ever faithless Jade. BA"
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
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.
Modern Literature
London, Secker & Warburg, 1966.
First edition. 8vo. Original black boards. Dust-jacket, priced 21s.
Harrowing portrayal of a year in the life of a writer losing the motivation to continue after a recent miscarriage while her marriage comes apart. It examines the breakup of a marriage and the protagonist's subsequent struggle to rebuild her world. It was published about the time of the author's own divorce from George Figes. No copies currently for sale online.
Modern Literature
A self-portrait in Ideas
London, Jonathan Cape, 1965.
First edition. 8vo. Original black boards. Dust-jacket, priced 30s.
Fowles' "self-portrait in ideas", in which he tries to represent the necessity of the individual not to conform. Published on the heels of his success with The Collector.
Modern Literature
London, Pendulum Publications, 1946.
First edition. 8vo. Original brown cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
The semi-autobiographical first book by Frances, who would go on to great success with hardboiled US-style thrillers written under the pseudonym Hank Janson. These books were phenomenally successful in their time, opening the way for a variety of copycat British authors writing in a similar vein, but they did also court controversy when a murder supposedly inspired by one of the Hank Janson titles led to the publishers being taken to court and successfully prosecuted for obscenity (the author managed to avoid a similar fate on it seems a technicality). The publisher Pendulum was set up by Frances, with a doctor friend of his.
Modern Literature
First edition. Author’s first novel.
London, Constable, 1935
This is an exceptional novel about ordinary people. Each of the central characters lives in the same tenement building in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, an area inhabited by Jewish immigrants. Rare in d/w.
![H.L. Gates, The Red Dancer of Moscow, film tie-in edition, [1928]](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/85378-300x300.jpg)
Modern Literature
London, The Readers Library Publishing Company Ltd., [1928].
Film tie-in edition. Small 8vo. Original boards with elaborate gilt working. Dust-jacket.
Stunning wrap-around artwork graces this Readers Library edition, issued to coincide with the silent film adaptation starring Dolores Del Rio. Possibly the first UK edition too.
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
London, A M. Philpot, 1923.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 7/6 on spine and with later 1/- sticker to upper panel.
An uncommon work, in great jacket, by this prolific Scottish author, who produced a remarkable 120 books, plays and essays from 1877 onwards, many under the pseudonym 'Rita'.
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
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
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
First edition.
London, Heinemann, 1955.
A tale of romance, gambling, revenge and redemption, subject to two film adaptations.
Modern Literature
and other essays
London, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1951.
First edition. 8vo. Original pale cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 12s6d.
A handsome first edition of this collection, in which Greene shares his love affair with reading in this collection of essays, memories, and critical considerations, both affectionate and tart.
Modern Literature
London, John Hamilton, [1935].
First edition. 8vo. Original red boards. Dust-jacket, priced 3/6.
A decent first edition of this adventure story by a British author who spent several years in Rhodesia working as a civil servant.
Modern Literature
First edition.
Edinburgh & London. William Blackwood, 1913
very rare in dust-jacket, correctly priced at 6/- "It would need more than a ten years' change of date and a series of pseudonyms to conceal the fact that Sydney Grier has taken the events which happened in the Jamaica rising of the early 'sixties as her theme and Governor Eyre as her hero. " [Spectator, October 1913]
Modern Literature
Bristol & London, J.W. Arrowsmith; Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, [1892].
First edition, early issue. 8vo. Original orange decorative cloth.
The Grossmiths' only published work, a classic satire on the pretensions of the English middle class.
Modern Literature
London, Quality Press, 1939.
First edition. 8vo. Original pale blue cloth. Dust-jacket,
Pleasing jacket artwork graces this tale of town life in the Basque country on the eve of the Spanish War.
Modern Literature
London, Robert Hale, 1942.
First edition, blind-stamped 'file copy' on front free endpaper. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 8/6.
An industrial tale of the big corporates versus the humble worker, set against a backdrop of the paper-mills of southern England.
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
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1914
Hodder & Stoughton Sevenpenny library, first edition thus. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
First published in U.K. in 1889, this is the first edition where getting a jacketed example is feasible.
A long 'short' story featuring Allan Quatermain in which following his father's death, Allan fights with Zulus aides by Hans, rescues and marrow who becomes the mother of his son Harry, and eventually loses her because of the jealousy of the Baboon woman.
Modern Literature
London, Cassell, 1920
First edition. 8vo. Original light brown cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 8/6 net on spine.
An Allan Quatermain novel, direct sequel to The Ivory Child. An interesting way of resurrecting the character of Allan away from the period and Africa of his day.
Rare in jacket.
Modern Literature
London, Cassell, 1926.
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth.
The first edition of one of Hall's better known works, after The Well of Loneliness, about a waiter who becomes disgusted with his job and goes to live in the forest as a hermit.
Modern Literature
London, Heinemann, 1926.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue boards. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
A collection of short stories by the author of The Well of Loneliness.
Modern Literature
London, Cape, 1932.
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7s6d.
An early work by Well of Loneliness author Radclyffe Hall. The work's deeply religious theme was to prove so affecting to the author that she actually claimed to have suffered from stigmata whilst writing it.
Modern Literature
First edition, first printing. London, William Heinemann Ltd, 1936 'Radclyffe Hall has had the courage to set down the thoughts and conversations of her characters without censorship. Here is English as it is really spoken by the poor in cottage, field and inn' (dust-jacket) Dust-jacket by Edgar Holloway.
Modern Literature
London, John Hamilton, [1938].
First edition. 8vo. Original dark orange cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
Hubin-listed crime fiction with a quasi-nautical element.
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.