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
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1925
First edition, publisher's file copy. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket correctly priced at 7/6.
Collection of short stories and novelettes including one WW1-themed tale 'Out of Darkness' by an author best known for Mrs Wiggins of the Cabbage Patch.
Alice married Cale Young Rice who was a poet and playwright in 1902. They spent most of their life traveling the world and becoming known in the literary scenes of New York and London.
Winners and Losers appears to be the only book they wrote together.
Rare in jacket.
Modern Literature
London, Herbert Jenkins, 1940.
First edition. Signed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 8/3.
Great jacket artwork on this first edition, a story of love, passion, water rights and handsome cabelleros, set amongst the pampas of northern Argentina. Presented from the author to his wife at the time of publication.
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, 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.
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, HarperCollins/Flamingo, 1997. Uncorrected proof copy. Signed by the author on title-page. 8vo. Original pictorial wrappers. A near fine signed proof edition of this Booker Prize winning novel, the author's first published book.
Modern Literature
London, Thornton Butterworth, 1929.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Attractive first UK edition of this collection of short stories, mostly based around the islands of the Pacific.
![Owen Rutter, Violation, first edition, [1941]](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/85457-300x300.jpg)
Modern Literature
A Variation on an Old Theme
London, Robert Hale, [1941].
First edition. Publisher's File Copy (stamp to front endpaper). 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket.
Great jacket artwork by Golden Cockerel Press regular Dorothea Braby. An updated take on 'The Rape of Lucrece', about the legendary Roman noblewoman Lucretia.
Modern Literature
London, Leonard & Virginia Woolf at The Hogarth Press, 1934.
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7s6d.
The first edition of Sackville-West's experimental novel, examining the life history of a woman on a fictional island.
Modern Literature
Oxford, Blackwell, 1916.
First edition. 8vo. Original wrappers with printed labels.
The very scarce first published book by Dorothy L. Sayers, a collection of poetry, preceding her editorship of, and contributions to, Blackwell's Oxford Poetry. The author would of course go on to garner international acclaim and popularity for her detective fiction. Rare; we could trace no copies at auction since 1979.
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
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
London, Heinemann, 1949.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth, lettered in gilt to spine and with gilt illustration to upper cover; dust-jacket, priced 9s6d.
Dodie Smith's first published novel, a coming-of-age tale set against a backdrop of a decaying English castle and eccentric family life.
Modern Literature
London, Heinemann, 1964.
First edition. 8vo. Original green boards stamped in gilt. Dust-jacket, priced 30s.
The debut novel of Rhodesian writer Wilbur Smith, increasingly scarce in such condition.
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, Hutchinson, 1952.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue boards. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
Satirical farce by prolific journalist, socialite and novelist, Nancy Spain.
Modern Literature
London, Macmillan, 1961.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
The first edition of Mrs Spark's most famous work, introducing one of 20th century literature's most iconic, and complex, characters - at once admirable and sinister, benevolent and conniving.
Modern Literature
London, Macmillan, 1961.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue/green cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
"Safety does not come first. Goodness, Truth, and Beauty come first. Follow me." A very good first edition of Muriel Spark's most famous novel.
Modern Literature
London, Macmillan, 1961.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue/green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 13s6d.
"Safety does not come first. Goodness, Truth, and Beauty come first. Follow me." A first edition of Muriel Spark's most famous novel.
Modern Literature
London, John Bale, Sons & Danielsson, 1935.
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Great jacket artwork and an uncommon imprint. Largely set in South Africa during second half of 19th century, the story revolves around the experiences of the Reverend John Hawksley.
Modern Literature
London, Sampson Low, [1938].
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Attractive jacket artwork on this story of literal kidnapping.
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
A Novel
London, Cassell, 1933.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
An attractive first edition by this author of romantic literature set in South Africa and Rhodesia, a writing career which began in 1903 with Virginia of the Rhodesians.
Bram Stoker Birthday
London, Heinemann, 1908.
First edition, inscribed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original red cloth, stamped in black to upper cover and gilt to spine.
Inscribed on preliminary page to: 'Mrs George Burrell with Bram Stoker's (respectful) love 8/6/09'
Mrs. George Burrell is most likely the wife of the Glasgow shipping magnate, a tremendously important and influential figure in late 19th century shipping, who like many rich Victorians became something of a patron of the arts.
Modern Literature
London, Bodley Head, 1968.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original blue boards. Dust-jacket, priced 28s.
The first UK edition of US author Stone's first novel, winner of both the Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship, and a William Faulkner Foundation Award for best first novel. The film was transferred to the big screen in 1970, as WUSA, starring Paul Newman.
Modern Literature
London, Longmans, 1960.
First edition. 8vo. Original grey boards. Dust-jacket, priced 16/-.
Storey's debut novel, a raw and powerful depiction of working-class life in Northern England which helped to usher in a new wave of realism in British literature, and cinema with Lindsay Anderson's 1963 film.
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.
Modern Literature
London, Dent, 1914.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth lettered in gilt. Dust-jacket.
A very good first edition, in the scarce dust-jacket, by Canadian author Sullivan - not extraterrestrial 'alien' in this case.
Modern Literature
London, Macmillan, 1953.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket.
A penetrating satire on the life of a street in a seaside town, capturing the seedy gentility of the permanent residents of Barcelona Road.
Modern Literature
London, Peter Davies, 1957.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 15s.
Essential reading for anyone with literary authorial leanings.
Modern Literature
London, Faber & Faber, 1937.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, silver, priced 7/6.
Set in India and Burma on the eve of WWII, this novel is less an adventure story and more a character-focused study echoing Conrad's Heart of Darkness. It tackles themes of mortality, cultural clash, and supernatural elements. While featuring moments of action, its real strength lies in its emotional and thematic depth, earning it a place alongside works by Kipling, E.M. Forster and Paul Scott.
Modern Literature
London, Rich & Cowan, Ltd, 1936.
First edition. 8vo. Contemporary library cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
A prequel to Doctor Syn. A Tale of the Romey Marsh, seeing the good doctor terrorising the high seas on a revenge mission, prior to settling back down to administer the Word of the Lord.
Modern Literature
London, Heath Cranton, 1935.
First edition. Signed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
A rare work in the jacket, let alone inscribed, on the subject of drug-taking. The author has inscribed the half-title, 'With all affection to my friend Clarice Sadler from Nellie Tom-Gallon'.
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
London, Heinemann, 1961.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original red boards. Dust-jacket, 12s6d.
The first book by Scottish author Trocchi to be published in the UK, following the banning of his controversial novel Cain's Book (1960).