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War, Invasion & Spy
A chronicle, serious and humorous, of the Battalion while serving with the British Expeditionary Force
Gloucester, John Jennings, 1915-1919 [1923].
First edition in book form. Small folio (345 x 220 mm). Original pictorial brown cloth blocked and lettered in black.
The first edition in book form of this important trench newspaper created by the 5th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment, reissuing all twenty-five of the original 'gazettes' printed between 1915 & 1919. The issues, which regularly attained a circulation of over 1500 copies, drew on the wealth of talent which existed amongst the ranks of the Battalion, including the well-known poet F.W. Harvey, who contributed over seventy poems and verses.
South Africa 1929
n.p., International Geological Congress, [1929].
Index, introduction (fold-out black and white colour maps) + 22 booklets (incomplete, lacking 1 issue 'C19'), with additional general programme (32 pages + pull-out map). 8vo. Loose as issued, housed in original grey cloth slip-case with French title and the Congress logo to spine.
An important series of pamphlets published for the International Geological Congress of 1929, including contributions by noted geologists such as du Toit, Rogers, Haughton, Hall & Wagner and others, being guides to accompany delegates on excursions all over South Africa to various geologically noteworthy sites. Places include Chapman's Peak & the peninsula, Kimberley, Pilanesberg, Pretoria salt-pan and iron ore deposits, Vredefort, the Eastern Escarpment, Port Elizabeth, southern & northern Rhodesia, among others. Rare.
War, Invasion & Spy
Admiralty War Staff Intelligence Division. A Handbook of German East Africa
Prepared on behalf of the Admiralty and the War Office
[London], Admiralty War Staff Intelligence Division, 1916.
8vo. Original wallet-style blue cloth with fold-over section, lettered in gilt.
A great copy of this handbook issued during the First World War on behalf of the Admiralty and the War Office for official, intelligence purposes.
Detective Fiction
Bellairs (George, pseud. Harold Blundell) The Body in the Dumb River
London, John Gifford, 1961.
First edition. Signed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, priced 10s6d.
Inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, 'To George, With remembrance of a loyal friendship and unfailing help, George Bellairs'. Attractive jacket artwork on this later Inspector Thomas Littlejohn novel.
Knap U Engels Op (Brush up your English)
London, Dent, 1941.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
From the famous 'Brush Up' series.
American Literature
Paris, The Olympia Press, 1959.
First edition, first issue with original price of "Francs 1.500" on the back wrapper. 8vo. Original publisher's stiff green wrappers.
The first edition of Beat Generation Burroughs' most famous work, banned in the UK and USA at the time.
Detective Fiction
London, Hurst & Blackett, 1925.
First edition. Clipped autograph inscription from the author laid onto title-page. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Note from the author pasted onto title-page, wishing warmest greetings to a friend.
Detective Fiction
London, Hammond, Hammond, 1947.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped with price-sticker for '3/6'.
An attractive example of this uncommon title by a seemingly relatively obscure author...
African literature
Introduction by Oliver Tambo. Edited by Ruth First
London, Heinemann, 1965.
First edition. 8vo. Original black boards lettered in gilt. Dust-jacket.
A very good first edition of Mandela's collected early writings, including his famous speech at the Rivonia Trial (1964). Distinctly uncommon, preceding his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom by almost thirty years.
Modern Literature
London, Herbert Jenkins, 1951.
First edition in book form. 8vo. Original orange cloth blocked in black. Dust-jacket,
Originally serialised in Collier's magazine from 24 June to 22 July 1950, under the title Phipps to the Rescue, this romantic comedy involving butlers, safecracking, movie moguls and film stars is largely set in Hollywood.
War, Invasion & Spy
A Yankee Hobo Soldier of the Queen
New York, Minton, Balch & Company, 1929.
First edition. 8vo. Original brown cloth lettered in red. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
The autobiography of an American 'hobo' who served with the British Mounted Police and cavalry during the Boer War.
War, Invasion & Spy
With an introduction by V.I. Lenin
New York, International Publishers, [?1926].
8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, priced $1.50.
An early reprint by the publishing house of the USA Communist Party of Reed's famous firsthand account of the 1917 Russian October Revolution, originally published in 1919. The introduction by Lenin was first added to an edition published in 1922. The NYPL records an edition published by International Publishers and ascribes the date to 1926, but we could not locate a date preceding 1939 for the Eugene Varga title promoted on the rear inside flap, so it may be later.
Modern Literature
London, The Hogarth Press, 1959.
First edition, first issue (with piano factory fire mentioned). 8vo. Original green boards. Dust-jacket.
The first edition of this famously captivating memoir of rural life in a bygone era, as seen through the eyes of a young boy growing up in the idyllic Gloucestershire countryside.
Detective Fiction
A Police Diversion
London, Collins Crime Club, 1950.
First edition. 8vo. Original dark orange cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 8s6d.
A good example of this incredibly versatile writer's detective fiction, featuring his series character Chief Detective Inspector McKay.
Modern Literature
A Novel
London, Jonathan Cape, 1963.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original black boards. Dust-jacket, priced 25s.
A very good first UK edition of Thomas Pynchon's first novel, a macabre twentieth century classic; uncommon in such condition.
Southern Rhodesia, Rhodesian Printers Ltd, 1956.
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket.
A very good first edition of this fascinating work on the modern history and development of Katanga, one of the four large provinces created in the Belgian Congo in 1914, written by someone who was actively involved over various periods of time.
Modern Literature
A self-portrait in Ideas
London, Jonathan Cape, 1965.
First edition. 8vo. Original black boards. Dust-jacket, priced 30s.
Fowles' "self-portrait in ideas", in which he tries to represent the necessity of the individual not to conform. Published on the heels of his success with The Collector.
Modern Literature
London, Constable and Company Ltd, 1936.
First edition. 8vo. Original red boards. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
An attractive first edition, the story revolves around the compelling attraction of some monolithic stones in the highlands of Scotland and the spell that they weave.
Detective Fiction
London, Robert Hale, 1948.
First edition. 8vo. Original black boards. Dust-jacket, priced 8/6.
An attractive first edition of one of the 'Dormouse' titles, by the author of The Ghoul.
Detective Fiction
Dean (Spencer, pseud. Prentice Winchell) Dishonour Among Thieves
London & New York, T. V. Boardman, 1959.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 10s6d.
A good example of the first UK edition of this work, issued as number 242 in the 'American Bloodhound Mystery' series.
Detective Fiction
London, Geoffrey Bles, 1960.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
One of the last Lancelot Priestley novels by this prolific writer.
Modern Literature
London, Hutchinson, 1974.
First edition, second impression. 8vo. Original blue boards. Dust-jacket, price-clipped, with publisher's promotional bellyband.
The second printing of the joint Booker Prize Winner (with The Conservationist, by Nadine Gordimer) in 1974.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
A Tale of Cosmic Adventure
Pennsylvania, Fantasy Press, 1948.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced $3.00.
'No single phrase can adequately describe "Triplanetary". It might be termed a Galactic Romance, or a Cosmological Fantasy, since it is a work of the imagination with the cosmos as its background. But above all else, it is a story, a story of thinking beings, human, super-human, and alien.' (dust-jacket blurb)
![Owen Rutter, Violation, first edition, [1941]](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/85457-300x300.jpg)
Modern Literature
A Variation on an Old Theme
London, Robert Hale, [1941].
First edition. Publisher's File Copy (stamp to front endpaper). 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket.
Great jacket artwork by Golden Cockerel Press regular Dorothea Braby. An updated take on 'The Rape of Lucrece', about the legendary Roman noblewoman Lucretia.
Modern Literature
London, Macmillan, 1953.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket.
A penetrating satire on the life of a street in a seaside town, capturing the seedy gentility of the permanent residents of Barcelona Road.