Modern Literature
London, Herbert Jenkins, 1934. First edition, third printing. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 3/6. Early printing of this adventure story which dates to around 1934 based on the author's other titles listed in the rear catalogue; in excellent jacket.
Modern Literature
London, Gollancz, 1932.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
A weighty omnibus of literary delights, featuring works by Henry James, Sheridan Le Fanu, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rose Macauley and Jane Austen, to name but a few.
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, MacGibbon & Kee, 1959.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth lettered in gilt to spine. Dust-jacket, priced 15s.
Classic coming-of-age novel set in 1950s London, following the journey of a young photographer and the "absolute beginners" generation. Adapted for film in 1986, featuring Bowie's song inspired by the book.
Modern Literature
London, MacGibbon & Kee, 1957.
First edition. 8vo. Original black boards. Dust-jacket, priced 15s.
A picaresque novel set in London and following the experiences of a newly arrived Nigerian youth and his official mentor.
Modern Literature
London, Cassell, 1925.
First edition. 8vo. Original brown cloth. Dust-jacket, no price.
An excellent first edition of this the sequel to Mackenzie's Carnival.
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
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, Jonathan Cape, 1970.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original blue boards. Dust-jacket, priced 35s/£1.75.
A very nice first UK edition of this famous multi-generational story by Colombian writer and Nobel Laureate Gabriel García Márquez, published three years after the South American edition.
Modern Literature
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1934.
First edition. 8vo. Original pale blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
A collection of nine short stories that explore various moral and ethical dilemmas faced by different characters in different settings and situations, from the author of The Four Feathers and Fire Over England.
Modern Literature
London, Heinemann, 1919.
First edition, first issue (4pp. ads including three titles by Israel Zangwill). 8vo. Original sage green cloth lettered and decorated in black, with author's device.
A very nice first issue of Somerset Maugham's famous first-person novel inspired by the life of French painter Paul Gauguin.
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, Hutchinson, 1974.
First edition, second impression. 8vo. Original blue boards. Dust-jacket, price-clipped, with publisher's promotional bellyband.
The second printing of the joint Booker Prize Winner (with The Conservationist, by Nadine Gordimer) in 1974.
Modern Literature
London, Macmillan and Co, 1940. First film tie-in edition.
Modern Literature
London, Hammond & Hammond, 1953.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original burgundy boards. Dust-jacket, priced 10s6d.
The first UK edition, drawing on the author's own experiences on the US Navy. Morris would subsequently work for the CIA in anti-espionage work, before garnering more fame as the author of the first truly modern history of the Anglo-Zulu war.
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
London, Hodder & Stoughton, [1925].
First UK edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth lettered in black. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
An uncommon edition in the original dust-jacket, with incorporates attractive artwork by Ellen Edwards. The book was transferred to the silent screen in the same year, starring Leatrice Joy.
Modern Literature
London, Chatto & Windus, 1956.
First edition. 8vo. Original brown cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
An attractive first edition of the author's second novel, in the wonderful Edward Bawden dust-jacket.
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
First edition.
London. Neville Spearman, 1957
A well regarded collection of short stories mainly set in the American South and most of them among poor people. The short story that gives the book refers to statues popular in the Jim Crow-era Southern United States, depicting grotesque minstrel-like characters.
Modern Literature
London, Jonathan Cape, 1929.
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7s6d.
An attractive first edition of this the second work by Irish writer and prominent Republican activist O'Donnell to be set in Donegal, recounting the misfortunes of a Cork family who all died of starvation in 1927.
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, Hodder & Stoughton, 1936.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket.
Nautical adventure with a South East Asian vibe. Uncommon in the jacket.
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, Cassell, 1926. First edition. Inscribed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original brown cloth. Tales of Indian life. Uncommon, especially thus inscribed.
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
A Surmise
Dublin & Cork, Talbot Press, 1937.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 3/6.
An imaginative reconstruction of Percy Bysshe Shelley's visit to Dublin and the friendships he made there, by Irish writer Pollock.
Modern Literature
London, Heinemann, 1929.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original green cloth lettered in gilt. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
Written as a sequel to the original Freckles (1904), written by the author's mother Gene Stratton-Porter. The book was the basis for the 1942 film of the same name.
Modern Literature
London, Duckworth, 1931.
First edition. 8vo. Original pale green cloth.
A decent first edition, sans jacket, of Anthony Powell's first, highly acclaimed novel, witnessing the decline and fall of a characteristically seedy section of London society.
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, Ernest Benn, 1930.
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7s6d.
A favourite collection of short stories from the revered V.S. Pritchett.
Modern Literature
London, Heinemann, 1969.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original black cloth lettered in gilt. Dust-jacket.
The first UK edition of Puzo's gangster classic, made hugely well-known through the film series by Francis Ford Copolla.
Modern Literature
A Novel
London, Jonathan Cape, 1963.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original black boards. Dust-jacket, priced 25s.
A very good first UK edition of Thomas Pynchon's first novel, a macabre twentieth century classic; uncommon in such condition.
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
First edition.
London, Robert Hale, 1936.
A psychological thriller set in colonial India. Rare.
Modern Literature
London, Wright & Brown, 1934. First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 3/6. Another great example of thirties jacket artwork commissioned by publishers Wright & Brown, this time for their 3/6 series.