Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Beynon (John, pseud. John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris, aka John Wyndham) Planet Plane
London, Newnes, [1936].
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 3/6.
Wyndham's third book and second science fiction novel. Written as John Beynon, it was serialised the same year in The Passing Show as Stowaway to Mars, abridged again in 1937 in Modern Wonder as The Space Machine, cut differently for a 1953 paperback, and finally restored in 1972 as Stowaway to Mars "by John Wyndham".
The plot: it is 1981, a million-pound prize awaits the first interplanetary flight, and a British millionaire launches the rocket Gloria Mundi from Salisbury Plain, bound for Mars. Once clear of the atmosphere the crew discover a stowaway, a woman, Joan Shirning, to their considerable period-typical consternation, carrying a strange tale of a machine of Martian origin. On Mars itself the book turns unexpectedly thoughtful: a dying race, and the machines destined to outlast it, a theme Wyndham was rehearsing fifteen years before anyone was paying attention. He revisited the story in the novella Sleepers of Mars (1938).
Detective Fiction
Beynon (John, pseud. John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris, aka John Wyndham) Foul Play Suspected
London, Newnes, [1935].
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original green cloth. Facsimile dust-jacket.
Before John Wyndham was John Wyndham (and technically he was always John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris, his parents having supplied enough names for six pseudonyms) he was John Beynon, author of this, his only published detective novel. It offers Detective-Inspector Jordon, a stolen formula, and a heroine who briskly rescues herself while everyone else stands about suspecting the titular foul play.
Two further Jordon mysteries went unpublished, which may explain the author's pivot to carnivorous plants. The Day of the Triffids (1951) made Wyndham famous, and retroactively made this book, which almost nobody bought, that being the problem, extremely scarce. Only a handful of copies have surfaced at market in twenty years; the original jacket is so rare that owning one frankly borders on the gratuitous.
London, Newnes, 1938-39.
3 issues (complete). Large 8vo. Original pictorial stapled wrappers.
Published by George Newnes Ltd, which paid respectable rates and obtained good-quality material, these three issues comprise a complete run of the magazine Fantasy, edited by T Stanhope Sprigg. The short-lived periodical included stories by significant authors such as John Wyndham, Eric Frank Russell and John Russell Fearn. John Beynon was one of the pseudonyms used by John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris (1903–1969), the British science fiction writer best known for The Day of the Triffids, The Kraken Wakes and The Midwich Cuckoos.
London, Newnes, 1938-39.
3 issues (complete). Large 8vo. Original pictorial stapled wrappers.
Published by George Newnes Ltd, which paid respectable rates and obtained good-quality material, these three issues comprise a complete run of the magazine Fantasy, edited by T Stanhope Sprigg. The short-lived periodical included stories by significant authors such as John Wyndham, Eric Frank Russell and John Russell Fearn. John Beynon was one of the pseudonyms used by John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris (1903–1969), the British science fiction writer best known for The Day of the Triffids, The Kraken Wakes and The Midwich Cuckoos.
A Christmas Ghost Story
London, Newnes, 1904.
First edition. 8vo. Contemporary cloth.
One of the best-selling authors of her era, Corelli's supernatural and moral tales influenced popular fiction around the turn of the century. This novella is not generally ranked among her most "serious" works, rather one in the popular tradition of the Victorian era Christmas ghost stories, but it exemplifies her popular appeal and her use of moral supernaturalism. Uncommon.
Detective Fiction
London, Newnes, n.d..
'Newnes' Sixpenny Copyright Novels' edition. 8vo. Original pictorial wrappers.
An uncommon wrappered edition of Doyle's Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
Detective Fiction
London, Newnes, n.d. [c.1903].
8vo. Original pictorial wrappers, stapled internally.
Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson investigate a missing treasure, a secret pact from colonial India, a one-legged man, and a mysterious islander. An attractive and uncommon wrappered edition.
London, Newnes, [1935].
First edition thus. 8vo. Original grey cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 2/6.
This is a first thus and the first to use the author's preferred pen name. The very rare first edition was published in 1924, under his less used pseudonym 'David Durham'. The Newnes edition is itself rare, particularly in the jacket. Vickers was known for his Department of Dead Ends stories, which were early examples of inverted detective stories.
Detective Fiction
in The Strand vol.XXVI London, Newnes, 1903.First appearance. Large 8vo. Original blue pictorial cloth with bevelled edges. Gilt edges.First appearance of this Sherlock Holmes story, from 'The Return of Sherlock Holmes'.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Newnes, 1936.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 3/6.
Sci-fi crime thriller aimed at a younger audience.
Detective Fiction
Vickers (Roy, pseud. William Edward Vickers) The Pearl-Headed Pin
London, Newnes, n.d..
Early reprint. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 2/6.
An attractively jacketed edition of this crime thriller, originally published in book form under the pseudonym David Durham in 1925.
Horror & Gothic
London, Newnes, [c.1925].
Newnes' New Size Novels edition. 8vo. Original pictorial wrappers, priced 1/-.
Rare soft cover edition of this classic werewolf title which has been described by Richard Dalby as possibly the definitive werewolf novel. First published by Eveleigh Nash in 1919.
Children's Books
London, Newnes, 1936.
First edition. 8vo. Original brown cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 3/6.
Maritime treasure-hunting thriller for children; listed in Hubin.
Children's Books
London, Newnes, 1946.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 6/-.
A nice first edition of this collection of stories featuring the naughty doll Amelia Jane.
Detective Fiction
London, Newnes, [1937].
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth.
The first edition in book form (preceded by appearance in The Thriller magazine the same year) of this more grown-up tale by the creator of Biggles, featuring former First World War pilot turned crime-fighter Deeley Montfort Delaroy (aka "Steeley").
Weird & Supernatural
London, Newnes, 1935.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Beyond the minor chipping a very nice copy of this collection of twelve tales by Australian author Knowles, "tales of the super-real rather than the supernatural, or, if you will, fairy tales for grown-ups." (jacket).
Children's Books
London, Newnes, 1945.
First edition. 8vo. Original pale green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
The third of the author's 'Lone Pine' series, set in Shropshire.