Modern Literature
London, Harrap, [1937].
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 8/6.
A roman-à-clef based on the life and discovery of radium, dramatising the scientific, political and moral implications of radioactivity. Originally published in German (Radium, 1936).
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.
Modern Literature
A Novel
London, Harrap, 1939.
First edition, first impression. Inscribed presentation copy from the author's mother. 8vo. Original cloth.
Patrick White's debut novel, Happy Valley, is set in a small Australian township, blending realism with psychological depth; it introduces themes - alienation, community tensions, moral conflict - that recur throughout his later work and won the Australian Literature Society's Gold Medal. The book is famously scarce because White later suppressed reprints, feeling it derivative, making true firsts very desirable, and a copy inscribed by the author's mother adds significant provenance.
London, Harrap, 1934.
First edition, trade issue. 8vo. Original pictorial wrappers.
An attractively illustrated edition of this classic of children's literature, illustrated by one of the greats from the Golden Age of Illustration.
Detective Fiction
London, Harrap, 1934.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
A mystery and murder thriller set on a South Seas island, involving intrigue and suspense in an exotic locale. Brian Cotterell is a pseudonym of Captain A. E. Dingle (1879–1947), a British seaman and author known for sea stories. He also wrote under the pseudonym "Sinbad."
Detective Fiction
London, Harrap, 1932.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
This novel presents documents related to the murder of Roger Maidment in Ullathwaite, Yorkshire, in October 1899. The narrative unfolds through various perspectives, including the police, the defense, the jury, and the acquitted defendant.
Detective Fiction
London, Harrap, 1940.
First edition, first impression. Publisher's compliments copy. 8vo. Original blue cloth blocked in yellow. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
An architect unearths the secrets of old buildings to reveal the identity of a cunning murderer.
A Romance of the Air
London, Harrap, 1924.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original green cloth lettered in gilt. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
An aviation-themed romance/adventure, capitalising on early 20th-century fascination with flight. Attractive jacket artwork.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Harrap, 1935.
Third Harrap printing. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 2/6.
"rich in detail, ingenious and well plotted, but weak in characterization at times." (Bleiler)
Weird & Supernatural
London, Harrap, 1947.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
A very good UK first edition of this famous tale by Irish author Josephine Leslie, adapted into an American romantic fantasy film starring Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison in 1947, and a 1960s TV series.
London, Harrap, 1935.
Reprint. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 2/6.
Attractive jacket artwork on this early printing by prolific author Graeme, originally published in 1926.
Detective Fiction
London &c., Harrap, 1924.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original dark orange cloth. Dust-jacket.
The second of the American author's 'Pennington Wise' titles, scarce in the jacket.
Detective Fiction
London, Harrap, 1933.
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
The first mystery written under the pseudonym "David Graeme", introducing Raoul de Rohan, an ancestor of the later Blackshirt character that first appeared in 1925.
Lost Race
London, Harrap, 1937.
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
"The adventures in this stirring African jungle story are of the Rider Haggard type, recounted with unhesitating conviction, so that the illusion of reality is perfectly established." (jacket blurb)
Children's Books
Agg (Howard) and Cecile Adair. Meetoo and the Little Creatures.
The Story of an Adventure
London, Harrap, 1941.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 6/-.
Lovely illustrations and jacket artwork complement and enhance this cute book for children, about animals who save themselves from a flooding river by sailing off in a top hat.
Detective Fiction
London, Harrap, 1929.
First edition. 8vo. Original red boards. Dust-jacket.
The first crime fiction work by this prolific author, published as part of Harrap's 'Sealed Mysteries' series. Each member of a small party at a cabaret on the night a murder is committed is suspected and then eliminated through evidence.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Harrap, 1930.
First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth blocked in black. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
Striking jacket artwork on this tale of international intrigue, centring around the fictional Balkan country of Carpathia.
Detective Fiction
Johns (Foster, pseud. Gilbert Vivian Selders) The Victory Murders
London, Harrap, 1927.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 2/6.
'Armistice Night Murders in Paris, London, and New York' (jacket). An uncommon title in the jacket, from the pen of a prolific American author and cultural critic.
London, Harrap, 1938.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 9/-.
Amelia Earhart's absorbing account of her ill-fated last flight around the world, begun in 1937, comprising her diary entries and other notes - a classic of aviation history. Amelia Earhart was twice the first woman to cross the Atlantic by air: initially in 1928 as a passenger just a year after Lindbergh's pioneering flight and then in 1932, flying solo.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Harrap, 1939.First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, price from inside flap removed by clumsy tear.An uncommon dust-jacket by jacket legend Youngman Carter, in better condition than normally found.
War, Invasion & Spy
Translated from the German by Huntley Paterson.
London, Harrap, 1931.
First UK edition, second impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
A superb copy of this gripping first-hand account of the German Zeppelin raids on England during the Second World War.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Harrap, 1937,
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
Brunngraber was a German industrial designer and author. In Radium he speculates about near-contemporary cornering of the radium market causing problems in a hospital using it as a medicine cure cancer.
Rare in jacket. An important sci-fi title.