American Literature
London, Cassell, 1947.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 8s6d.
Mary Jane Ward (1905–1981) was an American novelist whose semi-autobiographical The Snake Pit was made into an Oscar-winning film. The novel was based on Ward's involuntary committal to Rockland State Hospital in upstate New York in 1941, and it generated public support for important political reforms in psychiatric institutions and mental health care.
Detective Fiction
Macdonald (John Ross, pseud. Kenneth Millar) The Barbarous Coast
London, Cassell, 1957.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
Lew Archer's attempt to locate a missing young woman associated with an upscale Malibu country club, an early foreshadowing of Macdonald's later treatment of cross-generational themes.
Detective Fiction
An account of the hitherto unknown circumstances connected with the extraordinary affair of Charles Michael Haworth
London, Cassell, 1928.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth.
First published in the US the year before, this is the only novel by the actor Gillette, famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. "The mystery addict who wants... horrors tempered by novelty and a good style will be entranced both by the originality of the plot and by Mr. Gillette's unfolding of it... a mystery that will puzzle the most seasoned reader of detective thrillers. It is a most amazing and baffling crime." (US jacket blurb)
Victorian Literature
London, Cassell, 1852.
First Cruikshank edition. 8vo. Later half green morocco on marbled boards.
A handsome example of this important early English edition, preceded by the Clark & Co. edition of 1852.
From the papers and diaries of Chief Gouvernante Baroness D'Alteville
London, Cassell, 1916.
First edition, Canadian Export issue. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 50 cents.
Published during the First World War, this sensational work claims to reveal the private life of Bertha Krupp, heiress to Germany's vast armaments empire, through the supposed diaries of her governess, Baroness d'Alteville. Casting Krupp as an agent of the Kaiser in a campaign against Britain, the book presents itself as exposé but is in fact a transparent work of wartime fiction. Contemporary reviewers dismissed it as a dubious "shocker," filled with implausible private conversations and speculative "information" that strained credulity.
Weird & Supernatural
London [&c.], Cassell, 1926.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth.
A collection of short stories by an author & playwright best known for his association with mythic tales such as 'The Wandering Jew' and 'The Flying Dutchman'.
Non-Fiction
The secret history of Rasputin's betrayal of Russia
London, Cassell, 1918.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 2/-.
A sensational account purporting to reveal Rasputin's role in the downfall of Imperial Russia, presented as exposé rather than fiction.
London, Cassell, 1931.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 12/6.
A polemical historical study examining the decline of the Russian imperial family, combining personal recollection with political critique of the Romanov dynasty. Radziwill was a Polish aristocrat with close connections to European royal circles.
Detective Fiction
a mystery London, Cassell, 1945.First UK edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.One of Gerald Heard's key works of fiction under (in the US) his crime-writing pseudonym H.F. Heard, sitting alongside the Mycroft Holmes novels and The Great Fog in blending mystery with philosophical and psychological unease; it was lauded in contemporary reviews, including the New York Times, as a 'psychological horror story…of spine-tingling originality and excellence.'
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.
Detective Fiction
Halliday (Dorothy, pseud. Dorothy Dunnett) Dolly and the Starry Bird
London, Cassell, 1973.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original red boards. Dust-jacket, priced £2.25.
Part of the Johnson Johnson series, the novel follows the adventures of a British intelligence officer and portrait painter aboard his yacht, the Dolly.
Detective Fiction
London, Cassell, 1929.
'Popular Edition'. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 2/6.
Set in an eerie mansion known as the Red House in Barnes, London, the story revolves around Dr. Chan-Fu, a sinister Chinese mandarin who uses hypnotism to manipulate a young woman into revealing the location of hidden bonds. Originally a hit stage play.
Detective Fiction
London, Cassell, 1940.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, 4/6 price sticker to spine.
An attractive first edition of this crime thriller, featuring Mrs. Pym, a formidable and unconventional detective, often described as a "boisterous, ruthless, ambiguously female sleuth."
Detective Fiction
London, Cassell, 1936.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
John Gloag (1896–1981) was a British author and designer, known for his works on industrial design and speculative fiction.
Detective Fiction
London, Cassell, 1952.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original dark grey boards. Dust-jacket, priced 10s6d.
The first UK edition of John Ross Macdonald's second 'Lew Archer' title; subsequently the inspiration for the 1975 Paul Newman film of the same name.
Modern Literature
London, Cassell, 1916.
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth, blind-tooled to upper cover and lettered in gilt to spine. Dust-jacket.
Well's account of the personal and societal changes experienced by a writer and his family in Essex during the First World War; uncommon in the original dust-jacket.
Detective Fiction
London, Cassell, 1946.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Attractive first UK edition of this Blochman crime classic.
Weird & Supernatural
A Tale of Amazing Adventure in the Under-World
London [&c.], Cassell, 1906.
First edition. 8vo. Original pictorial green cloth lettered in gilt.
Published six years before Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, this Verne-inspired lost-world novel concerns a werewolf-like race living in the hollows of the earth.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Cassell, 1923.
First edition. 8vo. Original brown cloth decorated and lettered in black. Dust-jacket.
Further reflections on utopian models, by the author of War of the Worlds and The Invisible Man.
Detective Fiction
London, Cassell, 1906.
First edition. 8vo. Patterned endpapers, publisher's catalogue at end. Original green pictorial cloth.
A very good first edition of this mystery novel by the author of The Mystery of a Hansom Cab.
Detective Fiction
London, Cassell, 1948.
First UK edition. Small 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
A nice example of this Perry Mason title; to aid her sick boyfriend, Sally Madison tries to swindle wealthy Harrington Faulkner with a cure for his sickly exotic fish. However, things take a dark turn when the fish disappear and Faulkner is found dead.
Detective Fiction
London, Cassell, 1949.
First UK edition. First UK edition. Small 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 8/6.
Attractive first UK edition of this Perry Mason title.
being a description of the Great South Desert of Arabia known as Rub' al Khali
London, Cassell, 1933.
First edition. 8vo. Original brown cloth.
Philby embarked on notable journeys, most significantly across the 'empty quarter' in 1932, travelling by camel and car. He meticulously documented geographical and scientific data, secretly recording his findings at night, wary of his distrustful Arab companions.
Detective Fiction
London, Cassell, 1957.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original black boards lettered in silver. Dust-jacket, priced 12/6.
Hardboiled noir fiction by the author of Dead Calm.
Detective Fiction
London, Cassell, 1928.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original green cloth lettered in gilt. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
The first UK edition of this particular compilation of short stories by Limehouse Nights author Thomas Burke. Set in the bustling streets and alleys of London's East End, the book offers a vivid and often dismal portrayal of life in one of the city's most diverse and vibrant neighbourhoods. Distinctly uncommon in the 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.
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, Cassell, 1935.
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth lettered in gilt. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
A very pleasing first edition of this classic Vachell title.
Children's Books
London, Cassell, 1941.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original brown cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 8/6.
The original Lassie novel, which led to numerous films and TV series, first published in Chicago in 1940. Uncommon in such nice condition.
Modern Literature
London, Cassell, 1933.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 3/6.
A yearning for 'volcanic love' sees Veronica Manners travelling to South America, in this pleasingly jacketed first edition.
Modern Literature
London, Cassell, 1932.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original black cloth lettered in red. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
An attractively jacketed edition of this work by US writer Katharine Brush, one of the most popular authors of her time, as well as one of most well-paid. 'Red headed woman! She went to New York; men looked at her, and say "Boy!"' (jacket). The book was adapted for the silver screen the same year, starring Jean Harlow as a woman who uses sex to advance her social position.
Detective Fiction
London, Cassell, 1926.
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth blocked in red.
An uncommonly good example of this highly collectable Father Brown first edition: Father Brown 'unravels the tangled skein of crime with entire success, and does it with convincing common-sense logic' (dust jacket).
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.
![Alternative view of Praed (Mrs [Rosa] Campbell) The Body of His Desire.](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/84327_2-300x400.jpg)
Weird & Supernatural
A Romance of the Soul London &c., Cassell, 1912.First edition. 8vo. Original cloth.A solid first edition copy of this occult tale by Australian author Rosa Praed, underlined eventually by the reformative qualities of Christianity.
Detective Fiction
London &c., Cassell, 1913.
First edition. 8vo. 4pp. advertisements. Original brown cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 6/-.
The first chapter of Mr. Edge's story is enough to indicate the mystery which is to be unravelled, and every succeeding chapter makes the mystery deeper until the final elucidation... (The Bookseller, Vol. 60, 1914).
An early detective fiction title, in a remarkably excellent pre WW1 dust-jacket. Exceptionally scarce, with only six copies recorded by WorldCat, and no copies in trade or at auction that we could trace.
Weird & Supernatural
and Other Weird Tales
London, Cassell, 1947.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped and with publisher's '4/6 Cheap Edition' sticker to upper panel.
A collection of mysterious and weird tales, by an author who numbered among his close friends Aldous Huxley and Christopher Isherwood, and whose work was compared favourably to that of H.G. Wells and Conan Doyle: "He plays as daringly with the test tubes of science as did the early H.G. Wells...Mr. Heard is a new master in this field..." (New York Times).
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.
Weird & Supernatural
London [&c.], Cassell, 1941
First UK edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
A good copy of this title from the popular Fu Manchu series of books by Sax Rohmer.
Detective Fiction
First edition.
London, Cassell, 1917.
A collection of eleven tales, one of which is a locked room mystery and two of which have definite weird content. Not mentioned by Bleiler.“The Mystery of Howard Romaine”
involves the disappearance of a coffin and a body from a locked room (Adey p.300)The Cuckoo Clock" is a tale of delirium involving the transmigration of a soul into a cuckoo clock. "The Fatal Fairy" is about a man who kidnaps a fairy at dawn, whereupon it turns into a monstrous baby vulture -- until he releases it a day later.Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree was an English actor and theatre manager. This collection appeared in the year of his death.Very scarce in jacket.
Detective Fiction
First edition.
London, Cassell, 1935.
The Phantom Gunman is the author’s first crime novel and imagines what would happen if Chicago gangsters were to come over to London. Features serial character Mrs Pym.Exceptionally scarce in a jacket