Children's Books
Teatime Tales for Tiny Tots
London, Gawthorn, [1944].
First edition. Large 8vo. Original cloth. Pictorial dust-jacket.
A very good copy of this popular children's books.
Modern Literature
London, John Murray, 1959.
First edition. 8vo. Original orange boards. Dust-jacket.
Attractive first edition of this the only novel by the renowned Scottish sceenwriter Tory Martin Kennedy, famously creator of Z-Cars, and script writer for such films as The Italian Job and Kelly's Heroes.
London, Geoffrey Bles, 1957.
First edition. 8vo. Original red boards lettered in lime green. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
A near fine first edition of one of the later titles by by the Australian Goyder sisters.
London, Geoffrey Bles, 1951.
First edition. 8vo. Original red boards. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
Ex-library but otherwise very good first edition of this murder mystery by the Australian sisters.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Hutchinson, [1934].
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth lettered in green. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Africa-based novel with lost race elements.
Modern Literature
London, Heinemann, 1922.
First combined edition. 8vo. Original green cloth lettered and with device in gilt. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
The first combined edition of Galsworthy's series of three novels and two interludes published between 1906 and 1921.
Detective Fiction
and other mystery tales
London, Melrose, 1925.
First edition. Inscribed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original red cloth lettered in gilt.
A collection of crime stories by the renowned photographer Peter Henry Emerson (1856-1936). The title story plays on an interest of the author's in Viking descendants in the UK Broadlands.
Modern Literature
London, Houghton Publishing Co., 1932.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth ruled and lettered in white. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
"The Author of this book, inspired by a high purpose, has chosen an allegorical form. It is not a story of goblins and fairies, as one might suppose, and the meaning of the allegory stands out revealed by the incidents." (jacket blurb)
Non-Fiction
...compiled by Charles Eade
London, Casell, 1944.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 12s6d.
The fourth volume of Churchill's war speeches.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Gollancz, [1966].
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, priced 30s.
The first UK edition of Frank Herbert's classic space opera, originally published serially in three parts as 'Dune World' in John W. Campbell's magazine Analog (December 1963).
London, The Scientific Press, 1898.
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth, gilt.
Uncommon. The author's journey took him from Constantinople, to Batumi, Baku, Krasnovodsk, Ashabad, Merv, Bokhara, Samarkand and back home via Odessa, utilising the Transcaspian Military Railway. "Until quite recently the very greatest difficulties were placed in the way of any foreigner who tried to penetrate the region... [and this book] is probably the last of a series that has dealt with Central Asia as a sort of terra incognita" (author's preface).
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Elkin Mathews & Marot, 1934.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
The search for a lost race in the Brazilian jungle.
Detective Fiction
London, Duckworth, [1916].
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth.
What would you do if your doppelgänger were committing crimes and making the police believe you were the perpetrator? In Danby Croker's case, he decides to retaliate! But that is only one of the problems besetting him in this set of interlinked stories...
Detective Fiction
Ford (Leslie, pseud. Zenith Jones Brown) The Town Cried Murder
London, Collins Crime Club, [1939].
First UK edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth.
Lovely Faith Yardley's betrothal to a man from the north is abruptly followed by murder—and more murder.
Detective Fiction
Bellairs (George, pseud. Harold Blundell) A Knife for Harry Dodd
London, John Gifford, [1953].
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original black boards. Dust-jacket, priced 9s6d.
Inspector Littlejohn and Cromwell investigate a fatal stabbing.
Detective Fiction
London, Longmans, Green, 1959.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original blue cloth lettered in gilt to spine. Dust-jacket, priced 13/6.
An attractive first edition of this suspense novel by the author of The Far Pavilions. Republished subsequently as Death in Zanzibar.
Poetry
Selected and edited by W.M. Rossetti
London, Chatto & Windus, 1926.
'Fine Paper Edition'. 8vo. Original buckram-backed pattered boards. Dust-jacket, priced 6s.
Uncommon, finely-printed edition of Whitman's poems, particularly in the jacket. Selected and edited by one of the founding members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
Modern Literature
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1927.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
The first edition of Buchan's Scottish masterpiece, including a significant portion of the dialogue in Scots. Scarce in the dust-jacket.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Robert Hale, 1955.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original red boards lettered in gilt to spine. Dust-jacket, priced 9/6.
The first UK edition of Clement's third, and best-known, novel, originally serialised in Astounding Science Fiction magazine in April–July 1953. "[...]noteworthy not only as an impressive piece of planet-building, but as the first SF novel built on actual observational data involving another possible solar system." ('The Closely Reasoned Technological Story', Gary Westfahl).
London, Herbert Jenkins, 1934.
First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
A great example of this scarce title that blends murder-mystery with weird fiction, revolving around the supernatural influences of a book bound in human skin. The female author preferred male pen-names (in this case Noel, but having also penned the bizarre horror title The New Race of Devils, published in 1921, under the name 'John Bernard'), which given her penchant for wearing men's clothing would have come as little surprise to those who knew her - a group which included fellow Irish writer Samuel Beckett, who became friends with her during his time in Roussillon. Miss Beamish even served as inspiration for the character 'old Mrs McGlome' in his 1958 one-man play Krapp's Last Tape.
Detective Fiction
New York, A.L. Burt, [c.1929].
Early edition, Burts' 75c series. 8vo. Original orange cloth stamped in black. Dust-jacket.
Excellent jacket artwork on this early edition of a crime thriller by Thayer, who went on to provide a publisher's art service in New York, including designing artwork for dust-jackets. First published by Sears in 1928.