Modern Literature
London, Hodder & Stoughton, [1926].First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.This historical romance is set during the 1900 siege of the foreign legations in Peking (part of the Boxer Rebellion).
Detective Fiction
London, Church & Foster, [1966].
First edition. Inscribed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original pale boards. Dust-jacket, priced 15s.
A very good, inscribed first edition of this tale of Scotland Yard battling with the Mafia, and the mysterious Dr Khan...
Modern Literature
London, Longmans, Green, 1957.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, price sticker of 8/- to inside front flap.
Kaye's second major historical novel. Although first published in 1957, it was reissued in 1979 after Kaye's success with The Far Pavilions. Set against a backdrop of the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857.
Weird & Supernatural
London, Selwyn & Blount, [1933].
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 2/-.
The ninth instalment in the Not at Night series assembles fifteen dark tales. The anthology opens with Oscar Cook's 'His Beautiful Hands' and includes stories by Henry S. Whitehead, Mary Elizabeth Counselman and Clark Ashton Smith. Its most notable entry is Robert E. Howard's historical horror tale 'Worms of the Earth', which appears here in its first book form.
Detective Fiction
London, Collins Crime Club, 1965.
First edition, first impression. Signed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original cloth-backed boards. Dust-jacket, priced 15s.
Wainwright's debut novel, introducing Superintendent Gilliant.
Non-Fiction
(October 1899 - June 1902)
[London], Wesminster, Archibald Constable, 1902.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
This memoir recounts the Boer general's experiences during the Second Boer War. De Wet explains that he was called up in September 1899 as a private burgher and documents preparations for war, the camaraderie of commando life, battles and the strategies and hardships faced by Boer soldiers.
Containing a concise account of all the countries in that quarter of the globe hitherto visited by Europeans; with the manners and customs of the inhabitants
London, for Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1819.
First edition. 3 vols. 8vo. Publisher's advertisement to vol.III. Contemporary half calf, marbled foredges, gilt-lettered labels to the spine within raised bands.
An uncommon set complete. The author/compiler Hutton was a popular English novelist of the period, who was interested in science and spent some time compiling these books from famous works of exploration and ethnography. Volume I consists of exploration of north-east Africa and has a folding map of that area. Volume II comprises an exploration of southern Africa, as well as central & western Africa, and has a folding map of southern Africa, with inset of South Africa. Volume III covers a very substantial proportion of West Africa, plus the Maghreb and part of the Sahara interior.
London, Cassell, 1941.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 8/-.
The tenth Fu Manchu novel directly continues The Drums of Fu Manchu. Sir Denis Nayland Smith and narrator Bart Kerrigan pursue the arch‑villain through blackout London, New York, the Panama Canal Zone and Haiti.
Weird & Supernatural
London, Henry Walker, 1931.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth.
Muspratt wrote two collections of supernatural fiction under the pseudonym 'Jasper John.' The first, Sinister Stories (1930), was followed by Tales of Terror in 1931.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
direct in 97 hours 2 minutes: and a trip round it
London, Sampson, Low, Martson, Low, Searle, 1874.
Third UK edition. 8vo. Original pictorial pebbled cloth over bevelled boards, blocked in black & gilt.
This early science-fiction novel opens after the American Civil War when the Baltimore Gun Club, led by Impey Barbicane, proposes to fire a projectile to the moon.
Modern Literature
London, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1978.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, priced £5.50.
Written after A Voyage to Arcturus but repeatedly rejected by publishers, the metaphysical novel remained unpublished until 1976. Uncommon.
Detective Fiction
The Unravelling of a Mystery of Twenty Years
London, Grant Richards, 1899.
First edition. 8vo. Original pictorial cloth.
Not in the Jisc catalogues. One of several works written with husband Robert Leighton (their most famous collaboration being Convict 99). Said to be the first story in which the detective turns out to be the murderer.
Detective Fiction
Lees (Hannah, pseud. Elizabeth Head Fetter) and Lawrence Bachmann. Death in the Doll’s House
London, John Murray, 1944.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 8/6.
Psychological elements in a murder mystery involving a six-year-old child... basis for the 1950 film Shadow on the Wall.
Detective Fiction
London, Michael Joseph, 1954.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, priced 10/6.
Levin's debut novel is a noir thriller. A charming, sociopathic college student impregnates and murders Dorothy, daughter of a wealthy copper magnate, failing to anticipate her sisters' suspicion and perseverance.
Detective Fiction
London, Robert Hale, 1956.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 10/6.
Lawrence's historical novel is a fictionalised biography of the Egyptian pharaoh-queen Hatshepsut. The author compares Hatshepsut to Elizabeth I.
including a residence among the Bakhtiyari and other wild tribes before the discovery of Nineveh
London, John Murray, 1887.
First edition. 2 vol. 8vo. Original decorative cloth lettered in gilt to spine.
In 1840-42 the archaeologist and diplomat Henry Layard travelled through Iran and Iraq, learning Arabic and Persian and venturing among tribal peoples such as the Bakhtiyari. In this two-volume memoir he describes visits to ancient sites, encounters with local rulers, a lion hunt and evenings where chiefs recited poetry.
and other poems London, Faber & Faber, 1941.First Faber edition, first impression. 8vo. Original red boards. Blue dust-jacket, priced 2/6.This Faber & Faber anthology collects twenty-eight poems from the last years of Lawrence's life, reflecting the author's preoccupation with mortality: written when he was dying of tuberculosis, it urges readers to prepare a symbolic ship to carry their souls and portrays death as an unexpected voyage.
Detective Fiction
Graeme (Bruce, pseud. Graham Montague Jeffries) A Case for Solomon
(and Theodore I. Terhune!)
London, Hutchinson, 1943.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 8/6.
The third Terhune novel opens when Terhune discovers the body of Frank Smallwood, a seaman believed to have been murdered twenty years earlier. A cold-case investigation and court-room drama ensues.
Detective Fiction
Graeme (Bruce, pseud. Graham Montague Jeffries) A Case of Books
London, Hutchinson, [1946].
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
When Arthur Harrison, a book-collector client, is found stabbed and his library ransacked, Theodore Terhune suspects the killer was searching for a specific volume...
Detective Fiction
Graeme (Bruce, pseud. Graham Montague Jeffries) Work for the Hangman
(and Theodore I. Terhune!)
London, Hutchinson, [1944].
First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 8/6.
Uncommon first edition by the creator of Blackshirt.
A handbook to certain of the rivers and canals of Holland, Friesland, and the north of Belgium
London, Jarrold, n.d. [c.1894].
First edition. 8vo. Original pictorial blue cloth stamped in gilt and black.
Davies was a Victorian travel writer known for guides to waterways. This handbook describes cruising routes along the rivers and canals of Holland, Friesland and northern Belgium, with practical advice for yachtsmen and a fold-out map.
Historical Fiction
Graeme (Bruce, pseud. Graham Montague Jeffries) Ten Trials to Tyburn
London, Hutchinson, n.d. [c.1945].
Early impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 9/-.
This Terhune case begins with the death of "Peter the Hermit," a local vagrant. The police find a foreign newspaper and a jewelled comb on the body.
London, Hutchinson, n.d. [c.1942].
Early impression. With printed compliments slip signed by the author. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, with Hutchinson 4/- Novels price label.
In the first Theodore Terhune bibliomystery, bookseller-detective Terhune interrupts a robbery at the home of Helena Armstrong. He becomes embroiled in a mystery involving a missing key to a family vault and seven enigmatic clues that point to crimes both past and future.
American Literature
London, Heinemann, 1935.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Steinbeck's second novel follows Joseph Wayne, who leaves Vermont for California's Nuestra Señora valley. The novel blends Biblical symbolism with pantheism and foreshadows themes in Steinbeck's later work.
Modern Literature
Translated from the German by Edwin and Willa Muir
London, Routledge, 1938.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original red cloth lettered in gilt to spine.
Kafka's first novel, assembled posthumously, satirises American optimism and bureaucracy.
Detective Fiction
London, Robert Hale, 1959.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, priced 10/6.
An attractive crime fiction title by the authors of the Encyclopedia of Superstitions.
Detective Fiction
Porlock (Martin, pseud. Philip MacDonald) Mystery at Friar’s Pardon
London, Collins Crime Club, n.d. [1932].
Early impression. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 3/6.
The first work by MacDonald under this pseudonym. First published in 1931.
Detective Fiction
Kent (John, ?pseud. Arthur George Balbernie) Give me Liberty
London, Ward, Lock & Co., 1939.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, with statement 'The Daily Mirror £250 Prize Winner'.
An attractive first edition of this uncommon '30s crime thriller.
Detective Fiction
London, Robert Hale, 1958.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original black boards. Dust-jacket, priced 10/6.
Great jacket artwork on this crime fiction title by the authors of the Encyclopedia of Superstitions.
Detective Fiction
Translated by George Sainsbury
London, Hutchinson, 1955.
First UK edition, first impression. Signed presentation copy from the translator. 8vo. Original burgundy boards. Dust-jacket, priced 9/6.
This psychological thriller, by the duo later known for Diabolique and Hitchcock's Vertigo, follows inventor Richard Hermantier, blinded by a wartime explosion, who senses his business slipping away and begins to suspect infidelity and feel an unseen presence watching him; the narrative builds paranoia as he questions what is real.
Non-Fiction
...edited by R.L. Smith-Rose
London, Methuen, 1922.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Published at the start of the public broadcasting boom, this popular handbook explains how broadcasting works and what listeners might hear.
Children's Books
London, Heinemann, 1973.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
In this Carnegie Medal-winning children's novel, a family moves into an old Oxfordshire cottage and their son James is harassed by poltergeist-like mischief; chalk messages, smashed bottles and mysterious voices. The culprit turns out to be the ghost of a 17th century apothecary, Thomas Kempe, who wants to make James his apprentice...
Modern Literature
Berlin, Schocken verlag, 1934.
First edition. 8vo. Original boards with printed title label to spine and upper cover.
This short parable, later embedded in The Trial, depicts a man seeking entry to the Law. A gatekeeper bars him, telling him he can try to enter later; the man waits his entire life until death, never realising that the gate was meant solely for him...