Detective Fiction
London, Robert Hale, 1983.
First edition. 8vo. Original black boards. Dust-jacket.
A fine copy of this later work by the novelist and screenwriter T.E.B. Clarke (1907-89), one of the few Brits to win Best Original Screenplay Oscar, for his script for The Lavender Hill Mob.
Modern Literature
London, Williams & Norgate Ltd, 1936.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth lettered in gilt. Dust-jacket, priced at 7/6.
An autobiographical insight into the public school traditions and ambitions from the author's youth, including a comparison with the less constricting approaches of similar schools at the time of publication.
Weird & Supernatural
London, Robert Hale, 1956.
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth lettered in green with silver stamped logo to spine. Dust-jacket correctly priced 10s 6d.
One of the last novels by Cicely Sibyl Alexandra Dick-Erikson under the pseudonym Alexandra Dick (she also wrote as Frances Hay), a story of murder & satanism. Uncommon.
Modern Literature
London, Heinemann, 1927.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
A collection of short stories by the Pulitzer Prize winning author Edna Ferber, famously author of So Big, Show Boat and Giant. The jacket with its 'vignette' illustrations is definitely uncommon, and in our opinion more attractive than the first US equivalent.
London, T. Fisher Unwin Ltd (Ernest Benn Ltd), 1927 [but 1928?]..
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, second impression (stated, and priced 3s.6d., with Benn imprint to spine).
The second of the author's famous 'Blackshirt' series, nothing to do with Oswald Mosley (or Rodney Spode), rather a 'Raffles'-esque character, author by day, cracksman by night. Early issues of the first and second titles are both known scarcities, especially in the jacket. The book itself has no impression indicated, suggesting it is the first; however, the list of works by the same author facing the title-page includes Passion, Murder and Mystery, which was not published until 1928 (BL). Benn & Fisher Unwin merged in 1926, and this title seems to have been absorbed into Benn's 3/6 Library in 1928 or 1929.
The last time this title surfaced at auction was in 2019, when it made $1875.
Detective Fiction
London, Cassell, [1886].
First edition. 8vo. 16pp. publisher's catalogue at end, dated '3 G. 8.86'.
A creative and productive author, Julian Hawthorne never sadly quite lived up to the literary pedigree inherited from his father, Nathaniel Hawthorne, but his fiction is engaging and often incorporates the sort of weird and sci-fi elements on which later subgenre fiction was predicated. This novel sees the author dallying rather with crime fiction, including mob-like figures, a bank robbery and the curse of opium addiction...
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Chatto & Windus, 1939.
First edition, cut signature of author affixed to front free endpaper. 8vo. Title printed in red & black within ruled border. Original purple cloth, spine lettered in silver. Lacking dust-jacket.
The first edition of the Bristol-born Household's most famous work, a classic of thriller fiction, with (an admittedly unnamed) Hitler firmly in the author's sights.
Children's Books
A "Biggles Squadron" Story of the Second Great War
London, OUP, 1943.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Frontispiece, illustrations. Original cloth with illustration stamped in black to upper cover. Dust-jacket priced at 5/-.
A rare Biggles first edition, with no jacketed copies in commerce that we could find at time of cataloguing. Biggles and his ominously named 666 squadron set up camp in the mountains of Borneo and embark on a campaign of terror strikes on the Japanese forces.
Weird & Supernatural
London, Philip Allan, 1936.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth.
An uncommon first edition, written by 'Geoffrey Aylett' creator Vivian Meik, an Indian-born author. A 'Yellow Peril' classic.
Modern Literature
and other Tales of the East.
London, Heath Cranton, [1925].
First edition, first impression, signed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Colour plates. Original brown cloth blocked in red.
Oriental tales in the spirit of The Arabian Nights, with five four-colour plates. The author has inscribed the front free endpaper 'to George & Edith Kydd', dated 1927.