Our second June selection for 2021, including recently acquired volumes of The Strand containing Sherlock Holmes stories, a very good Hound of the Baskervilles, Readers Library editions, an early vampire tale and a rare Hugh Walpole anthology.
Detective Fiction
London, The Readers Library, n.d. [1933].
First edition thus. Small 8vo. 2pp. advertisements. Original cloth, gilt. Dust-jacket, adverts printed to reverse.
An attractive pre-war edition, in good jacket.
Modern Literature
Calvert (E. Roy) Capital Punishment in the Twentieth Century.
With a Preface by The Right Honourable Lord Buckminster
London & New York, G.P. Putnam, 1927.
First edition, signed by the author. 8vo. Original green cloth, lettered in gilt. Dust-jacket, priced 5/-.
A rallying cry by this Quaker writer against capital punishment, outlaying the failures of the death sentence as a deterrent. Suitable jacket artwork by renowned British artist Frank Brangwyn.
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.
Sexuality & Erotica
London, Jarrolds, [1932].
First edition, first printing. 8vo. 39pp. publisher's catalogue dated Spring 1932 at end. Original blue cloth, dust-jacket, correctly priced at 7/6.
A tale of sacred & profane love, by an author best known for his science fiction, adventure stories, and historical fiction books for children. This definitely a more adult venture.
Horror & Gothic
London, The Readers Library, n.d. [c.1935].
First edition thus. Small 8vo. Original cloth, gilt. Dust-jacket, with advertisements printed to reverse.
Originally entitled A Chink in the Armour; a scarce Readers Library edition, in fun jacket.
Horror & Gothic
Marlowe (G.S., pseud. Gabriel Beer-Hofmann) I am your Brother
London, Collins, 1935.
First edition. 8vo. Original brown cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 7/6.
Cult novel about a man who discovers his mother has been hiding his monstrous brother in the attic, the author's only dalliance within the fringes of Sci-Fi. Very scarce in the original Rex Whistler jacket.
Weird & Supernatural
London, Methuen, 1918.
First edition. 8vo. Original pale blue cloth, lettered in black.
An early and uncommon Sax Rohmer first edition, set in Egypt with the inscrutable Abu-Tabah taking on the villain role from Fu Manchu. The book is notable for introducing a more explicitly weird & supernatural element.
Weird & Supernatural
London, The Readers Library, n.d. [1939].
First edition thus. Small 8vo. Original cloth, gilt. Dust-jacket.
Film tie-in edition, written by the author of the original stage-play. Disturbing jacket artwork, especially for ailurophobics...