A selection of recent acquisitions, rediscoveries and old favourites, featuring Detective Fiction, Weird & Supernatural, Horror & Gothic and other 20th century literature.
Detective Fiction
London, Pawling and Ness Ltd., 1934.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. 1p. advertisements. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 3/6.
A rare title in the jacket: "The author served his apprenticeship to fiction in the highly imaginative school of boys' papers, and was for a time associated with the late Edgar Wallace." (jacket blurb)
Detective Fiction
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1934.
First edition, second impression. 8vo. Original blind-tooled red cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 2/6.
An attractive early impression of this 'Yellow Jacket' Dr Thorndyke tale, bringing the good doctor's famous forensic mind to bear once more.
Detective Fiction
A Story of Crime by...Ex-Chief Inspector of Scotland Yard Author of "The Crime Club" [London], Collins Detective Story Club, n.d. [c.1930]. First edition thus. Small 8vo. Original near-black leather over limp boards, blocked in gilt. Originally published in 1913, and the source for the 1917 film of the same name. Froëst was apparently incredibly strong, and could tear a pack of cards in half and snap a sixpence "like a biscuit"...nice.
Travel
London, William Heinemann, 1922.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth lettered in black. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
This tale of diplomatic and social life on the Bosphorus, a certain number of years ago, has the exciting elements of the 'spy' story... (jacket blurb). Seemingly scarce in the jacket.
Detective Fiction
London, Aldus Publications, 1949.
First edition. 8vo. Original red boards. Dust-jacket, priced at 7/6.
A tale of fatal attraction on Fleet Street. An uncommon imprint.
Detective Fiction
A Series of Stories
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1936.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 3/6.
A collection of short stories by the 'Prince of Storytellers', in an attractive Bip Pares dust-jacket.
Detective Fiction
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1939.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 7/6.
- a dead man in the bank strong room, rolls of brown paper and balls of string; empty, coffin-shaped boxes... An attractively jacketed edition of this tale by the 'Prince of Storytellers', with artwork by Bip Pares.
Detective Fiction
A Story of Crime
[London], Collins Detective Story Club, n.d. [c.1930].
First edition thus. Small 8vo. Original near-black leather over limp boards, blocked in gilt.
A disappearing corpse, a supernatural theory, and a genuinely shocking finale... This title was originally published in 1907 as 2835 Mayfair, before being brought back to life for Collins' Detective Story Club, one of the first 12 classic crime books chosen for the series.
Detective Fiction
Chicago, Covici-McGee, 1924.
First edition, first printing, signed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original blue cloth lettered in gilt. Dust-jacket, correctly priced $2.00.
Inscribed on the front free endpaper, "For Mrs Edward F. Jordan Greeting! Vincent Starr".
"In the whimsically sardonic title given by Mr. Starrett to his collection of short stories, one receives a hint of the curious nature of the tales that make up the volume. Grotesque, fantastic, bizarre..." (jacket blurb)
Detective Fiction
London, Collins Crime Club, 1949.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original dark orange cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
Striking jacket artwork on this collection of three Nero Wolfe tales; uncommon.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Ward, Lock, 1901.
First edition, full-page autograph inscription from the author to the blank recto of the frontispiece. 8vo. 4 plates, 12pp. advertisements. Original pictorial cloth.
An appreciative, borderline fawning, gift inscription from the trade unionist and Liberal-Labour politician, T.R. Threlfall, to the Sir George Alexander Cooper, 1st Baronet.
Weird & Supernatural
New York, George H. Doran, 1927.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth stamped in gilt. Dust-jacket, priced $2.50.
A scarce edition, collecting stories mostly derived from the author's own dreams. The title tale, 'Lukundoo', is the author's most anthologised story, recounting the plight of an explorer who falls foul of a local witch doctor's ghastly curse.
Detective Fiction
London & Melbourne, Ward, Lock, 1939.
First edition. 8vo. 6pp. advertisements. Original yellow cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
Jonathan Mansel, one of Dornford Yates' most popular characters, heads a small private organisation dedicated to the detection of serious crime "by methods sadly unavailable to the regular police". Uncommon in the jacket.