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..
'Newnes' Sixpenny Copyright Novels' edition. 8vo. Original pictorial wrappers.
An uncommon wrappered edition of Doyle's Adventures 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.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Beynon (John, pseud. John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris, aka John Wyndham) The Secret People
London, Newnes, [1935].
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 2/6.
A science fiction adventure that imagines a hidden civilization beneath the Sahara Desert. The novel, set in the "future" year of 1964 (as projected from 1935), begins with British playboy Mark Sunnet and his companion Margaret Lawn taking a private rocket-powered pleasure craft on a tour over North Africa. Disaster strikes when their rocket plane malfunctions and crash-lands in a newly formed body of water – the "Sahara Sea." (In this speculative future, engineers have flooded a portion of the Sahara to create an inland sea.) Mark and Margaret survive the crash only to be sucked into a cavern through a whirlpool. Regaining consciousness, they find themselves in a vast underground world, captive to a mysterious race of pygmies who dwell in a network of cavern.
The Secret People was published under the name "John Beynon," an early pseudonym used by John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris – better known later simply as John Wyndham. This was Wyndham's first (or potentially second) novel, written in his twenties.
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.XXVIII London, Newnes, July 1904.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'.
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).
Detective Fiction
London, Newnes, 1902.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth blocked in elaborate gilt to upper cover and spine, with inset black silhouette of the Hound to upper cover. With custom made morocco-backed cloth drop back box.
Without doubt one of the most thrilling and atmospheric adventures of everybody's favourite consulting detective, a glorious blend of goth pseudo supernatural and definitive Holmesian deductive scene stealing, The Hound of the Baskervilles exists very much in a realm of its own.
The novel, the third of four featuring Holmes, was the first tale to be published after Doyle threw his most notable creation off a waterfall, and its considerable commercial success was really the catalyst for Holmes' triumphal return to life. With more plots than Varney the Vampire (actually five in all, including red herrings...so we're exaggerating, because everyone knows Varney has about 750), it seems very much a harking back to the Victorian style of creeper, very Le Fanu or Wilkie Collins, with its diary entries, and letters, unearthed manuscript and doom laden portents uttered by gloomy locals staring out of windows overlooking marsh land. It's glorious and deeply enjoyable, and pretty scarce in this bright, sublime condition. Easily the best copy we have ever handled.
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.
Detective Fiction
[pp.210-224 in The Strand Magazine, vol.LXV
London, Newnes, January - June 1923].
First edition. 4to. Publisher's bevelled pale blue pictorial cloth blocked in black & gilt.
An unsettling, cautionary Sherlock Holmes tale about drug-fuelled lust...and a certain amount of monkey business. Included in The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1927). Other authors present in this volume include P.G. Wodehouse (including 'Jeeves Takes Charge'), Aldous Huxley and E. Phillips Oppenheim.