![Philip Pullman, [His Dark Materials], 3 vol., first editions, 1995-2000](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/85624-300x300.jpg)
![Alternative view of Pullman (Philip) [His Dark Materials].](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/85624_2-300x400.jpg)
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Comprising: The Northern Lights; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass
London, Point/Scholastic, 1995-2000.
3 vol. First editions, first impressions, vol.I first issue. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jackets, correctly priced, vol.I with Carnegie prize sticker as normal.
The first trilogy by Pullman following the adventures of Lyra Silvertongue, one of most significant works of fantasy fiction since Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. The author has built on the phenomenal success of this trilogy with numerous spin-offs and extensions, and is working on the next trilogy, The Books of Dust.
![Ursula K. Le Guin, [Earthsea Trilogy], first editions, 1971-73](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/85623-300x300.jpg)
![Alternative view of Le Guin (Ursula K.) [The Earthsea Trilogy].](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/85623_2-300x400.jpg)
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Comprising: A Wizard of Earthsea; The Tombs of Atuan; The Farthest Shore
London, Gollancz, 1971-73.
3 vol. First UK editions. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jackets, all correctly priced.
One of the great fantasy fiction series, by the inimitable and prolific Le Guin. The original trilogy, although the author did add to the series with subsequent stories and books, including a work which attempted to bring more focus and heft to female characters. Uncommon in such condition.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Stanley Paul, [1923].First edition. 8vo. Original red boards. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.An important Future War novel in which the UK is attacked by chemical weapons, scarce in the original dust-jacket.
Modern Literature
London, Duckworth, 1913.
First edition, Roberts' second variant with integral title dated. 8vo. Original blue cloth ruled in blind and lettered in gilt.
A lovely first edition of Lawrence's fourth published book. Set in Lawrence's native Nottinghamshire, Sons and Lovers is a highly autobiographical and compelling portrayal of childhood, adolescence and the clash of generations.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, William Heinemann, 1896.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original pictorial cloth, with publisher's monogram in black to lower board.
A shipwrecked man uncovers horrifying scientific experiments turning animals into human-like beings on a remote island...a cautionary tale.
Horror & Gothic
London, John Murray, 1922.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth lettered in gilt.
A scarce golfing murder mystery set on a links in Cornwall during the Miners' Strike, and featuring a shell-shocked war veteran.
Modern Literature
London, Heinemann, 1949.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth, lettered in gilt to spine and with gilt illustration to upper cover; dust-jacket, priced 9s6d.
Dodie Smith's first published novel, a coming-of-age tale set against a backdrop of a decaying English castle and eccentric family life.
War, Invasion & Spy
New York, Dutton, 1967.
First US edition. 8vo. Original cloth-backed boards. Dust-jacket, priced $3.95.
The first US edition of the first of Diment's spy novels featuring Philip McAlpine, whom critic Anthony Boucher described as "an agent who smokes hashish, leads a highly active sex life, kills vividly, uses (or even coins) the latest London slang and still seems a perfectly real (and even oddly likeable) young man rather than a reflected Bond image.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Michael Joseph, 1968.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue boards. Dust-jacket, priced 25s.
The second of Diment's spy novels featuring Philip McAlpine, whom critic Anthony Boucher described as "an agent who smokes hashish, leads a highly active sex life, kills vividly, uses (or even coins) the latest London slang and still seems a perfectly real (and even oddly likeable) young man rather than a reflected Bond image. The jacket artwork seemingly takes inspiration from Richard Chopping's James Bond jackets.
Modern Literature
London, Hutchinson, [1926].
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
An attractively jacketed example of this twenties first edition.
Modern Literature
A Tragedy of Manners
London, Denis Archer, 1933.
First edition. Inscribed presentation copy from the author to bohemian writer Edith Templeton. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, price on spine ablated.
An attractive, inscribed first edition by the illustrator, writer and costume designer Beresford Egan. The full-page inscription is to the writer and bohemian Edith Templeton:
"For Edith Templeton, Have I exhumed this memory that she may perform a post mortem, & which can have but one verdict - MURDER in all degrees. Beresford Egan. 1951."
There follows a short, seemingly unpublished poem in Egan's hand:
"Time does not fly / Nor does a memory fade / Time is the Father / Who / Incestuous lies / With Memory, unfaded / True / But ever faithless Jade. BA"
London, Methuen, 1915.
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth lettered in blind to upper cover and gilt to spine.
Grace Ellison (d. 1935) was a journalist and suffragette with a fascination for Turkish culture. This book, first published in 1915, is a collection of accounts originally written for The Daily Telegraph about her stay in the harem of a Turkish nobleman. Keen to dispel the sensationalist Western view of the harem, Ellison paints an intimate portrait of the luxurious but secluded life of women in their segregated portion of the household. Subjects covered include fashion, social events, polygamy and the bonds between family members.
Modern Literature
London, Harold Shaylor, 1930.
First edition. 8vo. Original brown cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
The Welsh author's second novel, focussed on the monotony of life in a Welsh mining community. Attractive jacket.
![Alternative view of Elliot (Frances [Minto]) The Story of Sophia.](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/85604_2-300x400.jpg)
Victorian Literature
A Novel...Copyright Edition
Leipzig, Tauchnitz, 1891.
First edition. 8vo. Contemporary green cloth.
Uncommon first edition by a prolific female writer, somewhat faded from public consciousness today but hugely popular in her lifetime; friend to Dickens, muse to Wilkie Collins, and apparently a wicked author of "gossipy, sometimes scandalous, sketches" (Wikipedia).
Modern Literature
London, Heinemann, 1961.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original red boards. Dust-jacket, 12s6d.
The first book by Scottish author Trocchi to be published in the UK, following the banning of his controversial novel Cain's Book (1960).
Detective Fiction
London, Harrap, 1933.
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
The first mystery written under the pseudonym "David Graeme", introducing Raoul de Rohan, an ancestor of the later Blackshirt character that first appeared in 1925.
Weird & Supernatural
or, the Wonderful and Strange Relation of the Life and Adventures of Nathan Souldrop
London, Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, 1892.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth lettered in gilt.
A tale of black magic and witchcraft in early 18th-century Northamptonshire, loosely based on the story of Elinor Shaw, the last person burnt in England for the practice of witchcraft. The narrator is the victim of mesmerism and hallucinatory horrors, one of which is the titular blue dragon that materialises in the air. Rare.
Detective Fiction
London, Hamish Hamilton, 1957.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original red boards. Dust-jacket, priced 12s6d.
Maths meets murder in this crime fiction debut by an American author.
Modern Literature
London, Leonard & Virginia Woolf at The Hogarth Press, 1934.
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7s6d.
The first edition of Sackville-West's experimental novel, examining the life history of a woman on a fictional island.
Modern Literature
Bristol & London, J.W. Arrowsmith; Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, [1892].
First edition, early issue. 8vo. Original orange decorative cloth.
The Grossmiths' only published work, a classic satire on the pretensions of the English middle class.
An Anthology
Dublin & London, Browne & Nolan; Harrap, 1935.
First edition. 8vo. Original turquoise cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 5/-.
An anthology of poetry of primarily Irish origin, many inspired by the Easter Rising in 1916. Poets include Roger Casement, Thomas MacDonagh, Padriac Pearse, W.B. Yeats, 'AE' and James Stephens.