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, Gollancz, 1936.
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
A collection of six stories showcasing the forensic talents of feature cases of Mr. Reggie Fortune, a surgeon working for Scotland Yard.
Detective Fiction
London, Ward Lock, 1929.
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket.
An uncommon first edition, featuring Bailey's serial character the surgeon Mr Fortune.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Herbert Jenkins, [1942].
First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
The first of fourteen 'Tiger Lester' titles, written under the pseudonym "Don Betteridge", in an attractive dust-jacket.
Detective Fiction
London, Newnes, 1939.
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 2/6.
A seemingly scarce first edition, the jacket suggesting that the author is in fact 'a well-known fiction author'. An ingenious tale, with a dash of humour, plus Abbey artwork!
Children's Books
London, Methuen, 1935.
First edition. 8vo. Original green pictorial cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 5s.
An uncommon early work by Enid Blyton, which focuses on the sorts of real animals you may find on Britain's waysides across a collection of stories. Distinctly uncommon in the jacket.
Children's Books
Edinburgh & London, W. & A.K. Johnston, 1934.
First edition. 8vo. Original sewn pictorial wrappers.
A scarce early Blyton work, featuring alongside the titular teapot a pixie called Dimble Dumble, Mr Tweaky and his Magic Pockets and the Chocolate Cock... the last two mentioned fortunately not connected...
Modern Literature
Burke (Thomas); Nevinson (C.R.W., jacket artist) Limehouse Nights
London, Grant Richards, 1917.
Fourth printing. 8vo. Original brown cloth. Later issue dust-jacket (c.1921), price-clipped.
An early printing of Burke's famous tales of London's then Chinatown at the early part of the 20th century, in a slightly later but scarce dust-jacket. The work garnered both opprobrium and praise upon its publication in 1916, with some feeling it painted a morally damaging picture of Chinese immigrants cohabiting with white women, in part worsened by the developing trend for so-called "Yellow Peril" fiction by mostly US authors. Jacket artwork by the artist C.R.W. Nevinson, who became famous as a war artist.
London, Ward Lock, 1935.
First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, with code '617' to spine.
A surprisingly uncommon crime fiction title, one of only four titles by this author recorded in the British Library.
American Literature
London, Calder, 1964.
First edition. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, priced 42s.
The first UK edition of this famous counter-culture tale of an addict-hustler who travels to Mexico and then Tangier in order to find easy access to drugs, and ends up in the 'Interzone', a bizarre fantasy world.
Modern Literature
London, Secker & Warburg, 1958.
First edition. 8vo. Original brown cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 16s.
The first novel by Guyanese author Jan Carew, a tale of tropical adventure, considered a key work in West Indian literature.
Detective Fiction
London, Hamish Hamilton, [1965].
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
Fourteen stories by US writer Chandler which originally appeared in the American magazine Black Mask, including the first book appearance of The Pencil.
Detective Fiction
London, Collins Crime Club, 1953.
First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 10s6d.
A decent first edition of this Miss Marple title, with the famous scene of the maid found strangled and with a clothes peg on her nose. One of several Christie titles with an allusion to nursery rhymes.
Detective Fiction
London, Odhams, 1937.
First Odhams edition. 8vo. Original blue boards. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
A great example of the Odhams edition Murder in the Mews, comprising four Poirot stories; featuring the same artwork and printed in the same year as the Collins first printing.
Detective Fiction
in The Strand, from August 1901 to April 1902
London, Newnes, 1901-2.
2 vols. First edition (preceding the first book form edition). Large 8vo. Original pictorial cloth.
The Hound of the Baskervilles first appeared thus in serialised format in The Strand magazine between 1901 & 1902, before getting its own rather handsome book edition of its own! One of the best Sherlock Holmes stories, in its original published format and in unusually good condition.
Illustrated Books
A Novel in Black and White [London], Denis Archer, 1933. First edition. 8vo. Original terracotta cloth lettered in black. Glassine dust-jacket priced fifteen shillings net. An excellent example of this work derived from a lecture given by Egan in 1933 on the subject of drawing, and featuring drawings by the 20th century master of pen & ink himself. What truly sets this copy apart is the presence of the original glassine dust-jacket, extremely uncommon.
with the one-hand gun
Edinburgh & London, Oliver & Boyd, 1942.
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 2/6.
A very rare first printing in an even scarcer original dust-jacket. Drawing on the authors' practical experience, Shooting to Live covers the gamut of handgun-usage, including concepts, applications, maintenance and more. Fairbairn was an Assistant Commissioner of Shanghai Municipal Police, and Sykes was the officer in charge of the Snipers Unit of the same force.
American Literature
London, Heinemann, 1931.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7s6d.
The first UK edition of this tale of Polish immigrant workers in New England which weaves a complex social history of the period, commencing with the stock market crash of 1929. Ferber is best known today perhaps as the author of Show Boat and Giant.
Detective Fiction
New York, Dodd Mead, 1958.
First US edition. 8vo. Original green cloth stamped in black. Dust-jacket, priced $2.
Great jacket artwork on this US compilation of eight Dr Thorndyke stories.
Detective Fiction
New York, Dodd Mead, 1935.
First US edition. 8vo. Original purple cloth lettered in yellow. Dust-jacket priced $2.
A full-length Dr Thorndyke novel, which sees the doctor revealing and unravelling a series of seemingly contradictory clues to disappearance of Angelina Frood.
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)
Detective Fiction
London, Herbert Jenkins, 1941.
First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Excellent jacket artwork on this the last criminous title by Goodwin; a fugitive tale and a rare book in the jacket.
Children's Books
New York, Random House, 1942.
First edition. Large 8vo. Original pictorial red cloth. Dust-jacket.
The Adventures of Superman, illustrated by Joe Shuster, co-creator of the original character with Jerry Siegel. The jacket has some uniform sunning which has most notably desaturated the red.
Modern Literature
London, Jonathan Cape, 1929.
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7s6d.
An attractive first edition of this the second work by Irish writer and prominent Republican activist O'Donnell to be set in Donegal, recounting the misfortunes of a Cork family who all died of starvation in 1927.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1937.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Spy thriller in great Bip Pares jacket; Mark Humberstone and a man called Cheng bequeath a marvellous wireless technology to the shady espionage organisation the Council of Seven.
Detective Fiction
London, Gollancz, 1945.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 8/6.
The first detective fiction title by archaeologist and raconteur Glyn Daniel, introducing Sir Richard Cherrington, an eminent but slightly eccentric archaeologist. Uncommon.
Detective Fiction
London, Collins Crime Club, 1943.
First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 8s6d.
An amalgamation of espionage, murder, and horror folklore, featuring series character Dr Priestley.
Food & Drink
London, Constable, 1934.
First edition. 8vo. Original brown cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 5/-.
A charming work on all drinks effervescent, by the highly renowned wine writer André Simon.
Detective Fiction
New York, Dutton, 1947.
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth. Dust-jacket, priced $2.50.
The first edition of Spillane's I, the Jury, introducing the world to Mike Hammer. The book drew on the hard-boiled 'private investigator' tradition pioneered by Black Mask magazine in the 1930s. By 1980, seven of the top 15 all-time bestselling fiction titles in America were written by Spillane.
Weird & Supernatural
London, Frederick Muller, 1958.
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth lettered in gilt. Dust-jacket, priced 21/-.
A nice copy of this biography of 'The Great Beast', one of several written on this topic by Symonds, who also edited Crowley's autobiography. Unsurprisingly perhaps, Symonds' appreciation of Crowley diminished the more he found out about the occultist, and he soon turned his attention to more literary fantasies.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Collins, 1941.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7s6d.
The continuing adventures of secret service agent Oliver Keene - borderline sci-fi by Australian-born James Morgan Walsh.