Modern Literature
First edition.
London, Putnam, 1936
A very elusive political satire in which a Scottish shirt maker - Andrew McAndrew - corners the market for political shirts. In the novel the author satirises the symbolic power of the shirt with garments whose actual colour imbue the wearer with a political attitude. What’s not to like about a novel that pokes fun at Oswald Mosley’s Fascist Blackshirt movement.
Weird & Supernatural
1st printing contained within Volume 3 of Hogg’s Weekly Instructor (pages 184-189).
London, Hogg's Weekly Instructor, 1846
The volume contains many articles, stories and poems as was the nature of the periodical but primarily it is the inclusion of the important first printing of Catherine Crowe's 'The Story of a Weir-Wolf' that makes this desirable. It is a 'Witch Trial' story of the sufferings of a maiden who is wrongly accused of Lycanthropy.
This story is arguably wrote the first werewolf short story by a female. It was reprinted in The Best Werewolf Short Stories 1800-1849: A Classic Werewolf Anthology but its first appearance was in this volume.
Two years after “A Story of a Weir-Wolf” was published Crowe published a collection she titled “The Night-Side of Nature, or Ghosts and Ghost-seers.”
An attractive addition to any collection of gothic and/or supernatural fiction.
Detective Fiction
First edition.
London, Cassell, 1939
The story centres on the murder of Mr Norwitch found stabbed in an antiques shop. The author worked in an antiques store and clearly draws heavily on this experience. According to authoritative website www.classiccrimefiction.com, UK first editions in original jackets are rare especially this title.
War, Invasion & Spy
First edition.
London, Heinemann, 1939
Basis of the 1945 film starring Lauren Bacall and Peter Lorre.
Modern Literature
First edition.
Edinburgh & London. William Blackwood, 1913
very rare in dust-jacket, correctly priced at 6/- "It would need more than a ten years' change of date and a series of pseudonyms to conceal the fact that Sydney Grier has taken the events which happened in the Jamaica rising of the early 'sixties as her theme and Governor Eyre as her hero. " [Spectator, October 1913]
Weird & Supernatural
First edition.
London. Hutchinson, [1926]
The continuing adventures of Allan Quatermain, set in the middle of the Dark Continent ruled by a huge, pale man with a strange knowledge of future events. One of two works published posthumously.
Weird & Supernatural
First edition thus.
London. Reader's Library, [1934 according to COPAC but could be earlier]
Death by poisoning in a locked bedroom at Staups, an isolated manor house on the Yorkshire Moors. Weird elements, a supposedly cursed jewel and sacrificial knives looted from the temple of Aztec descendants living in Central America, Author’s first crime novel, published in the UK by Bles in 1927.
War, Invasion & Spy
First edition.
London. Hutchinson, [1940]
Part of the ‘First Novel’ series. Hutchinson’s First Novel Library would go on to publish a total of 139 titles in the series before ending in 1951, comprising first novels, often by authors using a pseudonym.
Weird & Supernatural
25th impression.
London, Ernest Benn, 1931
A very rare example. There are no copies of this edition online let alone with a near fine wrapper.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
First edition, first issue binding.
London. Charles Griffin & Co, [1909]
Early Sci-Fi with a fin de siècle perspective on interplanetary voyaging across the solar system. A companion volume to his The Stolen Planet novel. In Bleiler.
Detective Fiction
First edition. London, Methuen 1922 A Hubin listed mystery in the very elusive jacket which has some visual similarity to the jacket design of ‘Mysterious Affair at Styles’, Agatha Christie’s first novel, published two years earlier. John Moroso was a New York based writer who contributed to various publications in the 1910s and 1920s and also wrote a story about life in an east side New York City ghetto titled The Stumbling Herd, which was made into a silent film in 1926
First edition.
London, Blackie & Son, 1934
A rare Golden Age detective title centred on what happened to Simon Ewing at five minutes to five. Various people came and went and met face to face in his flat.
Detective Fiction
First edition.
London. Cecil Palmer, 1931
Listed in Hubin.
Detective Fiction
First edition.
London, 1937
a tale about the seething money markets of the City.