Counter-Culture
University of Manchester Annual Rag Magazine Manchester, Rag Rag Board, The University Union, Manchester; C. Nicholls & Co. Ltd., Philips Park Press [&c.], 1928, 1930, 1931, 1932 & 1933.5 issues. Large 8vo. Original pictorial wrappers.An attractive group of these wonderful University of Manchester Annual "rag mags", issues 5, 7, 8, 9 & 10 respectively. Each features satirical and comedic elements, including humorous articles, advertisements and illustrations, with excellent cover artwork by illustrators including the well-known illustrator and painter, Karl Hagedorn (1889–1969). A fascinating insight into the Mancunian culture of the period, with articles on subjects as diverse as local public transport, the weather, the 'Indian Question', Chinese myths, detective fiction, the Nazis & Mussolini, and an Irish Free State.
Victorian Literature
London, , 1871-93.
A near complete run of the single All The Year Round Christmas issues plus 2 Easter issues. 8vo. Original wrappers, all complete with front & back wrappers present.
Charles Dickens' weekly periodical (1859-95) published serial fiction, journalism and the famous Christmas supplements. The near-complete run of Christmas & Easter numbers offered here includes works by Dickens, Wilkie Collins and others. Such runs are valued for their Victorian literary significance.
Detective Fiction
London, Skeffington, [1932].
First UK edition, early impression (stating '7th thousand' on title and jacket). 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, with price sticker '2/-' to spine.
The murder of "Handsome Harry" Borden, a lecherous and unethical stock promoter leads Detective Sergeant McMann to uncover the true identity of the killer.
Detective Fiction
London, Readers Library, n.d. [c.1933].
Small 8vo. Advertisements. Original gilt-stamped red cloth. Dust-jacket, stating Readers Library No.385.
Two homicide investigations and the detectives who solve them become entwined.
Modern Literature
Dell (Draycot M.) and Walter W. Ellis. A Little Bit of Fluff
...illustrated with scenes from the photo-play
London, Readers Library, n.d. [c.1928].
Small 8vo. Orginal gilt-stamped red cloth. Dust-jacket.
A novelisation of Draycot Dell and Walter W. Ellis's hit farce. Bashful clerk Bertram Tully tries to retrieve a compromising letter, triggering mistaken identities, jealous husbands and door‑slamming chases.
Non-Fiction
A shtudium fun dem ershaynen, leben und thetigkayt fun dem Musulmanishen gezets-geber un die rezultaten fun zayn religyon New York, M. Chinsky, 1898.First edition. Printed in Yiddish. 8vo. Contemporary green cloth.First edition of this Yiddish study of the Prophet Muhammad, written by the prolific journalist, novelist, and translator D. M. Hermalin (1865–1921). Beyond a biography of Muhammad and an outline of the Qur'an and Islam, the work includes chapters written from a distinctly Jewish perspective, such as on the Jewish communities of Mecca and Medina and on the Prophet's conflicts with them. Hermalin, who also produced popular accounts of Jesus of Nazareth and Sabbatai Zevi, was a central figure in the intellectual life of New York's Yiddish-speaking immigrant community, where he strove to place Jewish readers within a broader world culture. His choice of subject reflects both the fin-de-siècle vogue for comparative religious biography and Yiddish modernism's cosmopolitan ambitions, which sought to introduce global figures, from Mohammed to Goethe, to an audience often excluded from such literature by language barriers.
Modern Literature
and other poems
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1919.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Title printed in red & black. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 6/-.
The first published book by Oman, an author best remembered today for her retelling of the Robin Hood story and a biography of Nelson. The collection of poems draws upon her war work as a probationary VAD nurse in Oxford, Dorset, London and France in 1918–1919. Scarce in the jacket.
Detective Fiction
and other stories
London, Crimetec...by Polybooks, 1946.
First edition thus. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 2s6d.
This 1946 collection gathers short mysteries and detective puzzles by the Coles, featuring both amateur and professional sleuths.
Detective Fiction
London, Vallancey Press, 1945.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 2s6d.
1945 Cole mystery, set on holiday in a southern resort, where a murder exposes simmering resentments among British expatriates.
War, Invasion & Spy
The Saga of the Flying Men London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1936.First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 5/-.Aviation writer Harry Harper's 1936 volume combines biography and adventure, recounting exploits of pioneering aviators from the Wright brothers to inter-war record breakers.
London, Hurst & Blackett, [1924].
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Romantic melodrama about two lovers separated by social barriers who endure hardship before finding happiness. A bestseller in its day, it is rarely seen now.
Modern Literature
London, Heinemann, 1955.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 13s6d.
Set in French-occupied Vietnam, this Greene novel centres on jaded British journalist Thomas Fowler and idealistic American aid worker Alden Pyle, who vie for the affections of Phuong.
Illustrated Books
London, Anthony Blond, [1963].
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
Spike Milligan's anarchic 1963 novel lampoons the drawing of the 1924 Irish border.
Detective Fiction
London, Arthur Barker, 1951.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
This Horler thriller pits his recurring secret-service hero Tiger Standish against a master criminal in a tale of abduction and international intrigue.
Historical Fiction
A Tale of the Boxer Revolution
London [&c.], Blackie & Son, n.d. [c.1907?].
8vo. Original pictorial cloth. Dust-jacket.
Captain F.S. Brereton's imperial adventure drops young British heroes into the 1900 Boxer rising in China.
Detective Fiction
London, John Long, 1962.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, priced 13s6d.
This whodunnit is set on the Hebridean island of Kersivay, where a series of murders confounds locals. Amateur sleuth Jeremy investigates amid island gossip and eccentric characters...
Christchurch, Wellington, Dunedin [&c.], Whitcombe & Tombs, 1909.
8vo. Original sage cloth lettered and blocked in gilt.
Artist Augustus Earle's illustrated account recounts his stay among Maori communities, describing landscapes, customs, inter-tribal warfare and his own adventures.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, T. Fisher Unwin, 1910.
First edition. 8vo. Title printed in red & black. Original blue cloth lettered in gilt with inset colour illustration to upper cover.
"Helen of All Time (1910) rather remarkably compresses into one volume an advanced Airship and a Reincarnated Helen of Troy." (The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction)
Children's Books
London, University of London Press, 1946.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 6/-.
Elizabeth Goudge's much-loved 1946 children's fantasy sends orphaned Maria Merryweather to Moonacre Manor, where she must reconcile feuding families, befriend magical creatures and fulfil an ancient prophecy.
Detective Fiction
London, Ward, Lock, 1903.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original cloth.
T.W. Hanshew's 1903 detective tale, featuring his gentleman sleuth Hamilton Cleek, revolves around a murder in a country house.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Harrap, 1935.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 5/-s.
Captain A.O. Pollard, a decorated WWI flying ace who later penned thrillers, here uses his passion for all things aeronautic with a younger audience.
Children's Books
and other Chronicles of Rossiter
London, Epworth Press, 1913.
First edition. 8vo. Original pictorial cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 3/6.
School stories following the exploits of the senior prefect and fellow pupils at Rossiter School, celebrating duty, honour and games.
Weird & Supernatural
Edinburgh & London, Moray Press, 1937.
Reprint. 8vo. Original pictorial cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 3/6.
Robert Marshall's 1902 novella centres on pompous Major Jacky Gore, who challenges champion golfer Jim Lindsay in order to impress an American heiress. A ghostly Cardinal lends him enchanted clubs, but the humorous match yields an unexpected outcome, satirising Victorian sports and supernatural tales.
Non-Fiction
for remembrance of bygone scenes and circumstances
London, Hutchinson, 1927.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 12/6.
Sir John W. Simpson, a leading architect, recorded his impressions of Paris and its vanished corners in this 1927 volume.
Victorian Literature
London, T. Fisher Unwin, 1895.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth.
1895 juvenile novel concerning shipwrecked castaways on the wild west coast of Ireland.
Modern Literature
London, Herbert Jenkins, 1932.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6 with later sticker of 3/6.
Cecil Grey's 1932 adventure follows Leo Martin, the handsome, resourceful son of a drunken fish wife. He leaves the slums, distinguishes himself in the Foreign Legion and returns to England to breed horses and marry his childhood sweetheart.
Modern Literature
London, John Lane The Bodley Head, 1923.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
The author, later 1st Baron Brand of Eydon, wrote only a few fiction titles. Surviving first editions in jackets are rare.
Detective Fiction
London, Ward, Lock, 1910.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original decorative cloth.
Meade was prolific in many genres beyond her well-known school stories; this work showcases her range.
London, Stanley Paul, n.d..
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, publisher's price-sticker of 3/6 to spine.
This 1935 compendium gathers Robert Ripley's illustrated oddities and curiosities from his popular newspaper panel series, presenting "wonders, miracles, freaks and almost impossibilities".
Modern Literature
London, Chatto & Windus, 1965.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
Tamara Dragadze's novel is steeped in Moroccan culture, with references to Casablanca, couscous, djellabas and Ramadan.
Detective Fiction
Irish (William, pseud. Cornell Woolrich) Somebody on the Phone
Philadelphia & New York, Lippincott, 1950.
First edition, first printing. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced $2.50.
A collection of six stories by Woolrich under his well-known pseudonym 'William Irish'. The title story was the basis for the 1952 film Don't Ever Open That Door.
Detective Fiction
Irish (William, pseud. Cornell Woolrich) I Married a Dead Man
Philadelphia & New York, Lippincott, 1948.
First edition, first printing. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced $2.75.
This 1948 noir follows Helen Georgesson, an abandoned pregnant woman who assumes the identity of another expectant mother after a train crash.
Detective Fiction
A Paul Pine Mystery
London, W. Foulsham, 1951.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
'Howard Browne is best known for his series of novels about Paul Pry, a private eye. The first, Halo in Blood (1946) has some effective storytelling, with several surprising plot twists... This novel's basic set-up recalls Chandler's The Big Sleep (1939).' (Golden Age of Detection Wiki)
Weird & Supernatural
London, Herbert Jenkins, [1921].
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 3/-.
The author's first book, a colonial adventure, subtitled in some editions 'A Story of Malaya', involves a young woman with an affinity for magic and two contrasting Englishmen on a rubber plantation.
Modern Literature
London, Methuen, 1946.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original purple boards lettered in green to spine. Dust-jacket, priced 5s.
Isherwood's semi-autobiographical novel on the world of film-making in Britain during the atrocities of Nazism.
American Literature
London, Peter Davies, 1953.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 11s6d..
One of a series of provocative mid-century novels exploring sexuality, psychology and bohemian life by Keogh, themes that prefigured and influenced later counter-cultural and queer writing.
Early Life of D.H. Lawrence
Florence, G. Orioli, [1931].
First edition, one of 740 copies (this unnumbered). 8vo. Original boards, stamped in red. Dust-jacket.
Compiled by Ada Lawrence (the author's sister) and G. Stuart Gelder, this 1931 biography draws on unpublished letters, recollections and photographs to chronicle D.H. Lawrence's childhood and youth in the Midlands.
Modern Literature
London, Putnam, 1936.First edition, first impression. Signed presentation copy from the author, inscribed to front free endpaper, dated 1968. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7s6d.Bryan Guinness's comedy follows young Esther, sent to the seaside town of Mudmouth to cure her melancholy and infatuation with a communist.