Detective Fiction
London, Michael Joseph, 1944.First edition. 8vo. Original dark grey cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 9/6.A posthumous biographical bequest proves problematic to the appointed biographer, who finds herself at loggerheads with the family of the deceased, leading to suspicions of murder... uncommon.
Detective Fiction
London, Sampson Low, [c.1931].
Early issue. Inscribed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, referencing this title and Knight's 'The Pawn' [1931] on lower panel, with official price-sticker '5/-' on spine and lower panel.
The author's first book, inscribed by the author to 'Miss Digger', thanking her for help and support. The adventures of Jerry Scant, a gipsy, who unwittingly becomes involved with an international gang of smugglers.
![Alternative view of [Croy (Homer)] West of the Water Tower](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/85136_2-300x400.jpg)
American Literature
London, John Long, 1923.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
A rather stunning first UK of this famous account of Missouri life. Although Croy was primarily a humorist, this is a serious, realistic novel in the vein of Theodore Dreiser and Thomas Hardy.
Modern Literature
and other essays
London, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1951.
First edition. 8vo. Original pale cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 12s6d.
A handsome first edition of this collection, in which Greene shares his love affair with reading in this collection of essays, memories, and critical considerations, both affectionate and tart.
Weird & Supernatural
London, T. Fisher Unwin, 1927.
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth blocked in black. Dust-jacket.
A remarkably scarce and obscure weird-mystery thriller by Scottish-Canadian 'Bard of the Yukon'. Unfortunately the jacket would appear to have resided on a bookshelf in the House of Fear for a tad too long due to its traumatised condition, but rare nevertheless!
Modern Literature
London, Secker & Warburg, 1966.
First edition. 8vo. Original black boards. Dust-jacket, priced 21s.
Harrowing portrayal of a year in the life of a writer losing the motivation to continue after a recent miscarriage while her marriage comes apart. It examines the breakup of a marriage and the protagonist's subsequent struggle to rebuild her world. It was published about the time of the author's own divorce from George Figes. No copies currently for sale online.
Modern Literature
London, Ernest Benn, 1930.
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7s6d.
A favourite collection of short stories from the revered V.S. Pritchett.
Modern Literature
London, Piatkus, 1980.
First UK edition, first hardback edition. 8vo. Original burgundy boards. Dust-jacket, without price.
The first hardback printing of Virginia Andrews' darkly psychological, grimly compelling thriller, the first in a series which was eventually, upon the author's death, taken over by a ghost writer. The book was first published in the US in paperback. Copies often turn up without a price as in this case.
Modern Literature
London, Gollancz, 1932.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
A weighty omnibus of literary delights, featuring works by Henry James, Sheridan Le Fanu, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rose Macauley and Jane Austen, to name but a few.
Modern Literature
London, Collins, 1936.
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 8/-.
Considered the author's greatest novel, published posthumously. Centred around a County Council, the novel illustrates how public decisions can mold the individual, at the same time offering a panoramic and unforgettable view of Yorkshire life. Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
American Literature
A cycle of the Southern Hills
London, Methuen, 1930.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
The first UK edition of an important work on the Appalachians, a series of dialect sketches focusing on a single Southern community that was praised for its realism. The author, who co-created the 1920s little magazine The Modern Review, died in a car accident in 1931, after attending a 'bootlegger' near Cherokee. Scarce especially in a jacket.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Grey Walls Press, 1943.
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7s6d.
An attractive first edition of this surreal semi-SciFi title by Scottish author Todd, renowned for his writings on the artist & poet William Blake. Published in England in 1943 by the Grey Walls Press in an edition of 1000 copies because of paper shortages, it received little circulation, although the few critics who saw copies praised it highly. The first edition has subsequently become a known rarity.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Jonathan Cape, 1965.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original plain black boards. Dust-jacket, priced 18s.
A very decent first edition of the last full-length James Bond novel by Ian Fleming, in the plain second state boards. Under the heat of the Caribbean sun, Bond faces a seemingly impossible task: win a duel against Scaramanga, the Man with the Golden Gun, and regain M's trust.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Greening, 1903.
First edition. 8vo. Original pictorial cloth.
A very good example of this uncommon sci-fi title, "which contains two Prehistoric SF novellas plus a similar short tale, each set in a different Asian civilization prior to the founding of China; these stories are made available to the modern world by use of a Time Viewer." (The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction).
Detective Fiction
related by Christopher Jervis, M.D.
London, Chatto & Windus, 1916.
First edition, reissue with tipped-in title 1916. 8vo. Original first edition cloth.
A nice first edition of a Haycraft-Queen cornerstone, relating stories of medical detection. The book uses the first editions sheets and binding, but has an updated title-page.